UFO arrives on demand...

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

the accomplice would have to release the balloon far enough away so that it could reach altitude before being identified by the news crew.

It depends on what the guy's doing to keep the attention of the crew on himself (or the wrong bit of sky) until he can find the balloon in the sky (ie, misdirection).

he'd have to have an almost psychic knowledge of meteorology and what the wind was doing at different altitudes over the filming location.

Not really. Obviously, the more he knows about the wind speed and direction that day, the more impressive his show can be, but it's not necessary. He just makes the UFO appear; he doesn't predict what maneuvers it will make.

Maybe he's a prophet, maybe he's a nut, maybe he's a fraud. But isn't it even a little cool to see someone call up a UFO on command?

Sure. I love magic shows, especially Penn and Teller.