You’re taking the Piff!
A Ukranian magician has stolen Piff The Magic Dragon’s act wholesale and passed it off as his own.
Andrew Chekanyuk, a 22-year-old from Kyiv, appeared on a Russian TV show called Surprise Me! with an exact copy of the act Piff performed on Penn And Teller’s Fool Us on ITV.
Like Piff – the creation of British magician John Van Der Put – Chekanyuk performs in a home-made dragon outfit, with a cute animal sidekick. While Van Der Put has a chihuahua. called Mr Piffles, Chekanyuk has a guinea pig – called Mr Piff.
Otherwise the props, trick and jokes are the same as Van Der Put performed on the ITV show last year, and which subsequently appeared on YouTube – amassing 1.7million views.
Chekanyuk, who comes from a circus family, normally performs in the traditional dinner jacket, but appropriated the Piff shtick for the latest episode of the Russian talent show, which has a 1million rouble prize.
The plagiarism has not gone unnoticed, with one viewer posting on the website of Russian broadcaster TV3: ‘All the jokes, the growls when linking and the intonation, are word for word the same. Lazy!’
And Chekanyuk’s video posted on You has attracted dozens of negative comments from British users who have spotted the rip-off, branding him a ‘crook and a ‘disgrace’ who deserves to be sued.
It is not the first time a foreign contestant on a talent show has tried to rip off a UK act. Last year. comedian Jordan Paris stole a routine from Lee Mack for Australia’s Got Talent – but was rumbled.
Neither TV3 nor Van Der Put, who is currently in Las Vegas for the International Magic Experience convention. were immediately available for comment.
Here is the clip from Surprise Me!
And here is Piff: