‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin now has ownership of rival Joe Exotic’s old zoo in Oklahoma. Netflix
‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin now has ownership of rival Joe Exotic’s old zoo in Oklahoma. Netflix
‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin now has ownership of rival Joe Exotic’s old zoo in Oklahoma. Netflix
‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin now has ownership of rival Joe Exotic’s old zoo in Oklahoma. Netflix

The National

YouTube pranksters fool 'Tiger King' star Carole Baskin into thinking Jimmy Fallon is interviewing her

The fake interview was carried out on Zoom

Farah Andrews
Farah Andrews
Dubai

May 03, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

Tiger King has gripped millions. The hit Netflix docuseries took viewers into the dark world of private zoos and big cat ownership in the US. If there are two standout characters from the real-life series, it's Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin.

The latter has been the subject of a prank by YouTube stars Josh Pieters and Archie Manners. The duo have fooled a number of celebrities into thinking they are appearing on talk show interviews, and managed to trick Baskin by making her believe she was being interviewed by Jimmy Fallon.

Pieters and Manners told Insider that they had tried to get Baskin to answer the "questions you didn't know you had."

A handful of stars have been pranked on Zoom by Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, including TikTok star, Holly H. YouTube
A handful of stars have been pranked on Zoom by Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, including TikTok star, Holly H. YouTube

The interview is not yet live, but seems to have been carried out on Zoom. Going off similar pranks they have pulled off, the duo play extracts via past recordings by the talk show host, prompting the interviewee to answer questions as if they are speaking to them live.

The full prank video will be available to watch on Pieters and Manners YouTube channel at 11pm (UAE) on Sunday, May 3.

Baskin has remained fairly quiet since the Tiger King series dropped, and did not appear in the bonus reunion episode.

"Like all of our ideas, we really didn't expect it to work, and then it did work," Pieters told the publication.

"I guess it's that trying to run an experiment and see if it works with not much hope of it working. And then when it does work, it's always quite fun to watch."

Baskin is not the only subject of the duo's pranks.

They also managed to convince British singer Craig David and social media star Holly H into thinking they were talking to James Corden, as well as Love Island stars, Molly Mae and Tommy Fury.

"Everyone is using Zoom," they explain at the beginning of the video pranking David and Holly H. "During this stay-at-home season, every TV show is interviewing their guests remotely."

"So, I wondered, can the celebrity guests always see who is interviewing them when they're on TV," Pieters muses on the video. "Would it be possible to trick celebrities into thinking James Corden is interviewing them by just playing them old recordings of James Corden's TV show?"

"We really did not expect it to work," he said. "We still can't really believe we managed to interview Carole Baskin."

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Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.

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Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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