New Delhi, May 13, 2015: In Discovery Channel’s new series, MAN V EXPERT, hustler Alexis Conran takes on intense challenges against world class experts to find out if he can beat them at their own game – without going through years of hard work and training. In any normal head-to-head contest, Alexis would not stand a chance.
Using the appeal and wow-factor of magic and deception—anchored in real-world situations —host Alexis Conran (presenter of Discovery Channel’s series THE MIND CONTROL FREAKS) teams up with plotting co-conspirators and cohorts to develop ingenious strategies to take on experts—and win. MAN V EXPERT premieres internationally on Discovery Channel across more than 220 countries and territories, and in India on May 18, Monday to Friday at 8 pm.
Alexis is a man with ordinary skills, and a healthy dose of competitiveness and con know-how. He’s turned the world of scamming into an entertaining art form, and is acknowledged both as a uniquely talented performer and someone you do not want to be playing cards with.
Each episode of MAN V EXPERT features Alexis on a mission to take on three individuals who have reached the very top of their professions, in areas where he has little to no expertise. Because he wouldn’t stand a chance in any normal head-to-head competition, Alexis receives specialized training, techniques and insights from eminent specialists in a given field—but occasionally must rely on a bit of con and magic to increase his chances of success. With his challenger none the wiser to Alexis’ tricks—and no guarantee of success when it comes to con and magic—it’s a true toss-up as to who will win—man or expert. Regardless of the outcome, following each challenge Alexis will show his cards and explain his methodology to an often-relieved expert.
Some of the challenges Alexis will take on throughout MAN V EXPERT:
- Alexis Conran takes on experts and champions in grueling head-to-head challenges to see if he can shortcut his way to victory. This time, Alexis combines Mother Nature and an unimaginable science experiment in an attempt to beat a world champion English angler (World Champion Angler – Bob Nudd). He comes up with an ingenious plan to hopefully outsmart a Spelling Bee champion (Katie Kerwin McCrimmon), and finally, travels to Poland to flex his muscles against the World’s Strongest Man (Zydrunas Savickas or Big Z).
- Alexis will do anything it takes to get a leg up on the competition. In this episode, he sees a childhood dream come to fruition and feels the pressure of a soccer shootout against the English Premier League’s greatest-ever penalty taker. Alexis takes to the track in an attempt to out-tool an Australian rally car mechanic, and later, ends up behind bars and hooked up to a polygraph machine in a New York City prison. Can our conman lie his way to a win?
- With a new challenge in his crosshairs, Alexis travels back to America to improve his aim in the shooting range for a showdown with a champion marksman. Looking for a surefire way to ensure a victory, Alexis calls on a co-conspirator in an attempt to outsmart a mathematics whiz—but can he really pull one over on a University of Oxford Professor of Number Theory (Minhyong Kim – University of Oxford Professor of Number Theory). He’ll attempt to row his way to victory in a one-on-one kayak race against a five-time European and 11-time Slovakian Champion (Peter Csonka).
In addition to his own challenges, Alexis will host special guest challengers who use their own unique skillset, experience or physical abilities in a way that Alexis thinks will guarantee victory over an expert in an entirely unrelated field. Can a child be smarter than a professor? Can a ballet dancer beat a Marine in an assault course race?