Woman said God told her to set fire

[Ian David]

31. Does anyone remember the dude who was able to fake being a savant?

He was in a mental hospital or something, and he fooled the entire staff into thinking he was a piano virtuoso, but in reality he was just hitting one key over and over again.

Even today, with the right banter and context, large groups of people can be fooled by simple tricks.


Edited to add:

Here it is. I found it:

Andreas Grassl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andreas Grassl (born 25 October 1984) is a German man found in England in April 2005, who remained unidentified for a long time due to his refusal to speak, communicating instead through drawing and playing the piano. During the more than four months that passed until he revealed his identity, the mysterious story spawned media attention and speculation across the world, dubbing him the Piano Man.

When Grassl was picked up by police on 7 April 2005, he was wandering the streets in Sheerness, Kent, in England, wearing a soaking wet suit and tie, and he did not answer any questions. Remaining silent, he was presented a pen and paper by Medway Maritime Hospital staff in the hope he would write his name. Instead, he drew a detailed sketch of a grand piano. When they first brought him to a piano, he reportedly played music from various genres (ranging from classical music by Tchaikovsky to pop music by The Beatles) non-stop for four hours, and then was taken away by the hospital staff.

<snip>

On 22 August, the British tabloid newspaper The Mirror reported that the Piano Man had finally broken his silence after more than four months, and that he had been exposed as a hoax. Additionally, the Mirror's source claimed that he did not play the piano properly, but "just kept tapping one key continuously." Hospital staff have maintained that his abilities were not exaggerated.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Grassl

Also:

Piano Man Was a Hoax
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/piano_man_was_a_hoax