Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY: “To Tell the Truth”

In this activity, students observe and analyze Frank Abagnale’s persuasive strategies during his 1977 appearance on the television show To Tell the Truth. They then experiment with persuasive strategies themselves.

Part A

Watch the first 11 minutes of this 1977 episode of To Tell The Truth in which Frank Abagnale was able to convince a panel that he was not, in fact, Frank Abagnale.

Then, as a class, discuss the following questions:

• How did the real Frank act in comparison to the other two panelists?
• Why might the panelists have voted for numbers 1 and 2 over the real Frank?

Then, on a note card, write two truths and a lie. Take five minutes to do this.

Each person should take turns reading theirs aloud. You should stand in front of the class and state your two truths and a lie. Everyone else should vote on which one they think is the lie. Then, you should reveal which one it is. 

Keep in mind that your goal is to subtly misdirect the group, causing them to misidentify one of your true statements as a lie.