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On my #WrinkleInTimeEvent press trip, we all got a chance to go to the ABC Building to screen several new shows on the ABC Network. One of the shows was for the new crime series, Deception, where it mixes FBI investigations with a blend of magic tricks. We got an opportunity to have a private Q&A session with Deception’s Creator/Executive Producer Chris Fedak ( Legends of Tomorrow, Forever, & Chuck ) and Co-Producer David Kwong (Blindspot, Now You See Me) about the upcoming show.

Deception photos courtesy of ABC

Deception Synopsis: When his career is ruined by scandal, superstar magician Cameron Black has only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, influence and illusion – the FBI. Using every trick in the book and inventing new ones, he will help the government catch the world’s most elusive criminals while staging the biggest illusions of his career. The series is from writer/executive producer Chris Fedak (“Chuck”) and executive producers Greg Berlanti, Martin Gero and Sarah Schechter. Illusionist David Kwong (“Now You See Me”) will co-produce.

“Deception” stars Jack Cutmore-Scott as Cameron Black, Ilfenesh Hadera as Kay Daniels, Lenora Crichlow as Dina Clark, Amaury Nolasco as Mike Alvarez, Justin Chon as Jordan Kwon, Laila Robins as FBI Agent Deakins and Vinnie Jones as Gunter Gustafsen.

Q&A Session with Deception’s Chris Fedak and David Kwong

Photo Credit: Louise Manning Bishop/MomStart.com

Chris Fedak decribes how Deception will be different from other action crime shows on television

I really wanted to make a fun network show, I wanted to make a show that was like you’re going to sit down, and I’m going to entertain you, and this is going to be the most fun you could possibly have.  And that’s where this show comes from, it was designed to be a network TV show and that’s why ABC was the perfect home for it. I love when shows take other shows and- you sort of mush them together and you get something special out of that, so there’s definitely elements of this show that have a bit Castle elements or Sherlock.

Deception photos courtesy of ABC

I’d love for those comparisons and essentially that’s a big part of Deception because that’s what I watch.  But the other thing too is I also like romance and I like comedy.  And since this is ABC, it’s like I want those elements to be a part of the show too. And so yeah so it’s definitely a mashup.  But the other thing too is that it’s an action show, I grew up on action shows, I grew up on A-Team I grew up on essentially shows where we blow stuff up.

So it won’t always be like catching the murderer of the week, we’ll do different types of episodes, we’re going to do hostage situations, bomb threats, all these different types of things and we’re always going to try to solve them in our own unique way.

Deception photos courtesy of ABC

David Kwong explains the input and receptiveness that the magician community has of this show

We were very careful and my partner in crime Francis and I, we would show our friends and call people up and run things by them.  And these are people build their careers on these trade secrets, so we had to be very-very careful to stay away from anything that would ruin anyone’s magic show.  So there’s a couple of rules.  If something is a hundred years old, and no one is doing that anymore, you can usually put that on screen.

But that’s an important caveat.  If someone has resurrected something from a hundred years ago and they’re now doing it and they’re making a career out of it, like leave it alone.  The other fun thing is if we just come up with it on the spot and we invent our own new method, new trick, we can put that on screen, because it’s our own thing.

ABC’s “Deception” stars Jack Cutmore-Scott as Cameron/Jonathan Black. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)

How both David Kwong and Chris Fedak felt the leading star of the show,Jack Cutmore-Scott, authentically learned the magic tricks and stunts for this role

David: Well we got very lucky that Jack Cutmore-Scott is very dexterous and loves magic. And he didn’t have the skills already but he worked very-very hard and continues to work with me and our New York magician Francis Menotti, and he’s always got a deck of cards on him, he’s always got a pocketful of coins. And it becomes an obsession, it’s like a practice hobby, you just keep at it and keep at it.

Chris: It was crazy, it was like when we cast the show, we always assumed, we’ll have David’s hands doing all the magic.  But then as we got closer and we cast Jack and we were lucky to get him, it’s like we had charming we had handsome.  And the thing is is that he’s also an obsessive.  So as we were walking around the production offices in New York getting ready for the shoot, I’d see Jack working on a trick, and I just thought, I’ll just tell him we’ll just do the viz effects.  And it’s like that’s not okay for him, he is a perfectionist.

And he would be out there, again there’s a scene from the hangar.  And it was twenty degrees that day and so like everybody is wearing their regular outfits, but like off camera we’re all in giant space suits because it’s so cold.  And so Jack was doing a trick and he does it on screen, but I asked Francis our New York Magician, I said, how hard is this trick right now and he’s  just like, it’s impossible, that’s a brick, it’s like that’s how cold it is.  But Jack is that passionate.  So it was wonderful.  We had a person who could learn the magic and every once in a while, it’s like I’ll hear the magicians going, how does he learn this so fast.  It’s supposed to take ten thousand hours.

Deception photos courtesy of ABC

David Kwong shares how this will debut how there are female magicians in the world

I’d say one thing that when we sat down first we got the show, we came up with a mystery woman character. One thing we were excited about was having a female magician because there had been some in the past, but always in very few numbers. And I do think that there is some fourteen-year-old girl right now who’s going to be an international superstar in ten years.

Photo Credit: Louise Manning Bishop/MomStart.com

Chris Fedak expresses how this show wont ruin or expose too much of the art of magic 

What’s fascinating for us is that there’s people that don’t want to know, there’s people who want to figure it out, there’s people who get upset.  We’ll have writers in the room going, how do you do it?  And then also for the magicians too it’s like sometimes it’s like how far ahead are they than you.  And so for David being a magician will watch stuff and want to know how it’s done.  But there’s always that kind of like that’s the cool thing about the show too is that the mystery woman, and we do call her the mystery woman, for most of the season or M W.

She really is an illusionist in her own right.  And so it’s fun to kind of watch them dual.  Because Cameron wants to figure it out and the fact that she’s one step ahead, always a little bit smarter, that drives him nuts.  So it’s a fun dual and it’s about smarts, it’s about how quick you are in a way, now I’m slow, so I’m always like one step behind.  And since I’m writing I know and wish I wasn’t, if I was out in the audience, I would be the one that wouldn’t figure it out but still I kind of like that.

Photo Credit: Louise Manning Bishop/MomStart.com

This show is definitely a show concept you haven’t seen on television before. The art of magical deception to help FBI agents get notorious criminals is actually pretty brilliant. When criminals think they can trick and scam, who can out trick and scam them? Magicians of course, the greats scam artists of all time! This will bring so fun and magic to you Sundays, and excited that magic is making a come back!

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Deception premieres on this Sunday, March 11th after the premiere of American Idol on ABC!