Justin Willman reveals how he turns magic skeptics into believers: ‘The trick itself is never enough'

Los Angeles Times

7 hours ago

Even in the daytime, the most hallowed ground inside the Magic Castle in Hollywood has a way of casting a spell on hard-nosed cynics who might normally consider themselves immune to the art of illusions.
Inside the William W. Larsen Memorial Library, a sense of wonder is palpable among the shelves stuffed with books on magic, mosaic stained glass and photos of the Larsen family founders and many famous magicians who've graced its halls.
On a recent afternoon, comedic magician Justin Willman sits in a plush, burgundy velvet chair fit for a wizard, soaking in the gravitas of a place known for carrying sacred magic texts signed by Harry Houdini.
'This is the only room in the Magic Castle where nonmagicians are not allowed, this is a rare exception,' he says. 'But you're not allowed to crack a book open.'
In the spirit of not inviting any extra curses this week, we take him at his word.
Though magic is definitely serious business for the star of the hit Netflix show 'Magic for Humans' and more recently the streamer's 'Magic Prank Show,' Willman's new special, 'Magic Lovers,' aims its wand at our childlike sense of wonder through smartly executed tricks that lead the audience's mind through twists and turns with plenty of laughs along the way.
Premiering Tuesday, the hour-long special thrives on Willman's mix of crowd work, storytelling and intricate tricks inspired by everyday life. The goal is to engage skeptics and fans alike from the comfort of their couch. Willman spoke to The Times about what inspired this new special, his most transcendent moments on stage, past performances bloopers and his secret to keeping his illusions weighted in reality.
This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
Your debut Netflix special combines comedy and magic with the goal of appealing to both the magic lovers and skeptics. How does 'Magic Lovers' showcase your talent for people who want to enjoy the experience of magic as well as those who just want to figure out how you do what you do?
I think when people hear magic, they come into the theater with an idea about how they feel about the art form as a whole. There's the people who love magic, who already know that they like magic — I love those people. But the people who they bring with them, they sometimes look at magic as a puzzle or as a challenge. Or they just get hung up on the idea 'does this guy really think that we think that he's a wizard?' I like the idea of addressing that elephant in the room right off the bat, because I really want to do a show for everybody. I'm not trying to turn the skeptics into magic lovers necessarily, but I want them to know that this show is also for them. I like to do a trick where [the audience] thinks they know how I do it, and then let them know you're right. And then let them know—actually, you're wrong. It's kind of like a little bit of a mini-roller-coaster.
How do you view the relationship between magic and comedy?
They're like kissing cousins. I feel like my live show that I tour with finally got to a place where it held up for the people on the couch [watching at home on TV]. Because magic is a live art form. There's so much doubt that can get in your mind when you are not there in-person watching it. Especially these days, you've got AI and deep fakes, so I think magic, more than ever, is this beautiful thing to be experienced live and in-person. And I wanted to try as best I could to make the people who are watching it on Netflix feel like they were there in the theater that night and make them a part of the audience.
You have this fascination with numbers in your act — specifically guessing the correct city associated with ZIP codes shouted out by members of the audience during the special. How did you become obsessed enough to get so good at that?
As a kid, I just loved that math and magic have this connection. I was always fascinated by that. But then when I graduated college, I started touring college campuses all over the country, doing the NACA [National Assn. for Campus Activities] circuit. And I hit all 50 states pretty quick. And that was where this love of just ZIP codes and telling people where they were from came to life again and gradually became part of the act. People like to be seen for where they're from. They like to think about the nostalgia of where they came from. And I feel like mixing some things that are real with some things that are obviously an illusion is kind of fun. It just throws a little extra layer on there and makes people wonder, 'what the heck is up with that guy?'
What's your thought process when it comes to developing a magic trick?
There's never one consistent path. Sometimes an idea will come fully formed, and I'm like, 'Oh, I got it!' And that normally is because it was inspired by something that happened in my life. My son, Jack, really did ask me, 'Dad, what's inflation?' And I really was like, 'I got a magic trick that will explain this because I bet people would relate to that.' Anyone who has kids knows, you get these questions from [them] that are often brilliantly hard to answer. Other [trick ideas] sit on the back burner for years. Sometimes I have a crush on a trick, and I know I want to do something with that, but I don't know what it is, or I don't know what it's about. I've been obsessed with time travel for a long time, and I think I finally cracked a trick where I can create the true feeling of time travel on stage that I'm excited to tour with pretty soon. But the trick itself is never enough. It also needs to be the delivery system for some sort of idea, whether it's something funny that will stick with people, or something autobiographical, or something that's just sincere. It [should offer an] angle on some hot take that a trick can kind of help encapsulate. That's kind of the secret sauce for me, and it's hard to maybe tick all those boxes at once.
I don't know if this is like a chef who goes out to eat or something, but when you see magic done by another magician, are you picking stuff apart like a skeptic or are trying to be the magic lover?
I am definitely trying to be the magic lover. I'm sure you feel this way when you read great journalism and great writing where you don't want to pick it apart and be kind of put your editor/writer mind on. When someone can actually whisk you away, it feels really good. So I know how a lot of magic works, but when I can watch and be fooled, that's what made me want to be a magician in the first place. So I try not to overthink that.
You bring kids on stage at certain points in the special. Being a dad yourself, why do you think kids are the ideal crowd participants and what makes them a unique source of inspiration for magic?
I got my start doing shows at kids' birthday parties. So I love performing for kids. And then for years, I did the comedy club circuit, where there's no kids, but there's drunk adults. Kids and drunk adults are very similar. They'll say what they're feeling. Kids are really good at calling out your tricks. Sometimes people think, 'Oh, it must be easy to amaze kids.' No! They are so smart, often harder to misdirect, harder to kind of just psychologically go the way that you predict.
But I think what's great about it is that when I tour, I've got families in the audience, I've got couples, I've got date nights, family date nights — I've got everybody. And I love when I do a trick with kids, like I did at the end of the [special]. I feel like they they're able to forget that this is being filmed, and they behave authentically. When you can see the wonder and excitement on their face, when you blow their mind, or that they're part of something that blows the audience's mind, I think everyone relives a little smidge of their childhood in that. I'm not doing a kid show. It's just a it's a human show. It's for it's for everybody. Parents often are reminded when they have a kid, you relive your childhood a little bit. I think we often become really cynical over the years, and it's nice to remember how pure just wonder and joy can be.
And if you turn a fan's $1 bill into $100, I'm sure they'll be a fan for life.
That's right, but if you turn their $100 into a $1, they'll be waiting outside for you after the show.
Has it ever happened where something goes wrong with a trick and you have to tell an audience member 'Sorry, I guess I owe you a 100 bucks'?
They always say, like, the show must go on and they don't know you screwed up until you let them know you screwed up. So nothing is a failure until I succumb to that. So I try never to [do that], but there have been some. I was doing a birthday party when I first moved to L.A. in Burbank, in the backyard — a beautiful day. I used to work with animals. I had a bird and a bunny in my show. So I would open the show by making my dove appear, and I would close the show by making my bunny appear. At one point when I made the dove appear and a little gust of wind causes it to fly up into a tree. That's not supposed to happen. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I act like it's part of the show — [but the dove] didn't come down. Later in the act, I make the bunny appear, and the kids are petting the bunny. I realize I've got another birthday party to get to, so I told [the parents] I was going to come back in two hours and bring a ladder and I'll try to get up there and get [the dove] back. And when I came back two hours later, they were not excited to see me. Because they told me that right after I left, a hawk started circling in the sky and swooped in during [while the kids were singing] 'Happy Birthday' and snatched that bird and took her away. So I could have been like ' ta-da! that was supposed to happen,' but that was unavoidable, so I don't work with animals anymore. I just work with people.
Why is does this feel like the right time to put together a special showcasing the magic you've done for so long do, and what do you hope people get out of it?
It's about giving people an opportunity to create core memories at a show and giving people a show that they can look forward to, or hopefully all get excited about going to and just remember — 'That was the night that grandma and grandpa were there, and we had everybody there.' You get to see somebody smile in a way that burns itself in your memory. So it's special to be a part of that. This is the first time that I will have been on Netflix doing what I do the most, which is do magic on stage. It's one thing to do magic on the street. But you don't necessarily watch like that and think, 'I want to go find that guy on the street.' But you see it on stage, you're kind of like, 'Oh, I want to be in that audience.' Hopefully that's what people are thinking. So I'm excited to hopefully cultivate a new batch of cynics and magic lovers and bring them along for the ride.