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

Even successful the daytime, the astir hallowed crushed wrong the Magic Castle successful Hollywood has a mode of casting a spell connected hard-nosed cynics who mightiness usually see themselves immune to the creation of illusions.

Inside the William W. Larsen Memorial Library, a consciousness of wonderment is palpable among the shelves stuffed with books connected magic, mosaic stained solid and photos of the Larsen household founders and galore celebrated magicians who’ve graced its halls.

On a caller afternoon, comedic magician Justin Willman sits successful a plush, burgundy velvet seat acceptable for a wizard, soaking successful the gravitas of a spot known for carrying ineffable magic texts signed by Harry Houdini.

“This is the lone country successful the Magic Castle wherever nonmagicians are not allowed. This is simply a uncommon exception,” helium says. “But you’re not allowed to ace a publication open.”

In the tone of not inviting immoderate other curses this week, we instrumentality him astatine his word.

Though magic is decidedly superior concern for the prima of the deed Netflix amusement “Magic for Humans” and much precocious the streamer’s “Magic Prank Show,” Willman’s caller special, “Magic Lovers,” aims its wand astatine our childlike consciousness of wonderment done smartly executed tricks that pb the audience’s caput done twists and turns with plentifulness of laughs on the way.

Premiering Tuesday, the hour-long peculiar thrives connected Willman’s premix of assemblage work, storytelling and intricate tricks inspired by mundane life. The extremity is to prosecute skeptics and fans alike from the comfortableness of their couch. Willman spoke to The Times astir what inspired this caller special, his astir transcendent moments connected stage, past performances bloopers and his concealed to keeping his illusions weighted successful reality.

This speech was edited for magnitude and clarity.

Your debut Netflix peculiar combines drama and magic with the extremity of appealing to some the magic lovers and skeptics. How does “Magic Lovers” showcase your endowment for radical who privation to bask the acquisition of magic arsenic good arsenic those who conscionable privation to fig retired however you bash what you do?

I deliberation erstwhile radical perceive magic, they travel into the theatre with an thought astir however they consciousness astir the creation signifier arsenic a whole. There’s the radical who emotion magic, who already cognize that they similar magic — I emotion those people. But the radical who they bring with them, they sometimes look astatine magic arsenic a puzzle oregon arsenic a challenge. Or they conscionable get hung up connected the thought “does this feline truly deliberation that we deliberation that he’s a wizard?” I similar the thought of addressing that elephant successful the country close disconnected the bat, due to the fact that I truly privation to bash a amusement for everybody. I’m not trying to crook the skeptics into magic lovers necessarily, but I privation them to cognize that this amusement is besides for them. I similar to bash a instrumentality wherever [the audience] thinks they cognize however I bash it, and past fto them cognize you’re right. And past fto them cognize — actually, you’re wrong. It’s benignant of similar a small spot of a mini-roller-coaster.

How bash you presumption the narration betwixt magic and comedy?

They’re similar kissing cousins. I consciousness similar my unrecorded amusement that I circuit with yet got to a spot wherever it held up for the radical connected the sofa [watching astatine location connected TV]. Because magic is simply a unrecorded creation form. There’s truthful overmuch uncertainty that tin get successful your caput erstwhile you are not determination successful idiosyncratic watching it. Especially these days, you’ve got AI and deepfakes, truthful I deliberation magic, much than ever, is this beauteous happening to beryllium experienced unrecorded and successful person. And I wanted to effort arsenic champion I could to marque the radical who are watching it connected Netflix consciousness similar they were determination successful the theatre that nighttime and marque them a portion of the audience.

“I’m not trying to crook the skeptics into magic lovers necessarily, but I privation them to cognize that this amusement is besides for them,” Willman said of his caller Netflix special, “Magic Lover.”

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

You person this fascination with numbers successful your act — specifically guessing the close metropolis associated with ZIP codes shouted retired by members of the assemblage during the special. How did you go obsessed capable to get truthful bully astatine that?

As a kid, I conscionable loved that mathematics and magic person this connection. I was ever fascinated by that. But past erstwhile I graduated college, I started touring assemblage campuses each implicit the country, doing the NACA [National Assn. for Campus Activities] circuit. And I deed each 50 states beauteous quick. And that was wherever this emotion of conscionable ZIP codes and telling radical wherever they were from came to beingness again and gradually became portion of the act. People similar to beryllium seen for wherever they’re from. They similar to deliberation astir the nostalgia of wherever they came from. And I consciousness similar mixing immoderate things that are existent with immoderate things that are evidently an illusion is benignant of fun. It conscionable throws a small other furniture connected determination and makes radical wonder, “What the heck is up with that guy?”

What’s your thought process erstwhile it comes to processing a magic trick?

There’s ne'er 1 accordant path. Sometimes an thought volition travel afloat formed, and I’m like, “Oh, I got it!” And that usually is due to the fact that it was inspired by thing that happened successful my life. My son, Jack, truly did inquire me, “Dad, what’s inflation?” And I truly was like, “I got a magic instrumentality that volition explicate this due to the fact that I stake radical would subordinate to that.” Anyone who has kids knows, you get these questions from [them] that are often brilliantly hard to answer. Other [trick ideas] beryllium connected the backmost burner for years. Sometimes I person a crush connected a trick, and I cognize I privation to bash thing with that, but I don’t cognize what it is, oregon I don’t cognize what it’s about. I’ve been obsessed with clip question for a agelong time, and I deliberation I yet cracked a instrumentality wherever I tin make the existent feeling of clip question connected signifier that I’m excited to circuit with beauteous soon. But the instrumentality itself is ne'er enough. It besides needs to beryllium the transportation strategy for immoderate benignant of idea, whether it’s thing comic that volition instrumentality with people, oregon thing autobiographical, oregon thing that’s conscionable sincere. It [should connection an] space connected immoderate blistery instrumentality that a instrumentality tin benignant of assistance encapsulate. That’s benignant of the concealed condiment for me, and it’s hard to possibly tick each those boxes astatine once.

I don’t cognize if this is similar a cook who goes retired to devour oregon something, but erstwhile you spot magic done by different magician, are you picking worldly isolated similar a skeptic oregon are trying to beryllium the magic lover?

I americium decidedly trying to beryllium the magic lover. I’m definite you consciousness this mode erstwhile you work large journalism and large penning wherever you don’t privation to prime it isolated and beryllium benignant of enactment your editor/writer caput on. When idiosyncratic tin really whisk you away, it feels truly good. So I cognize however a batch of magic works, but erstwhile I tin ticker and beryllium fooled, that’s what made maine privation to beryllium a magician successful the archetypal place. So I effort not to overthink that.

“When you tin spot the wonderment and excitement connected their face, erstwhile you stroke their mind, oregon that they’re portion of thing that blows the audience’s mind, I deliberation everyone relives a small smidge of their puerility successful that,” Willman said. “I’m not doing a kid show. It’s conscionable a it’s a quality show. It’s for it’s for everybody.”

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

You bring kids connected signifier astatine definite points successful the special. Being a dada yourself, wherefore bash you deliberation kids are the perfect assemblage participants and what makes them a unsocial root of inspiration for magic?

I got my commencement doing shows astatine kids’ day parties. So I emotion performing for kids. And past for years, I did the drama nine circuit, wherever there’s nary kids, but there’s drunk adults. Kids and drunk adults are precise similar. They’ll accidental what they’re feeling. Kids are truly bully astatine calling retired your tricks. Sometimes radical think, “Oh, it indispensable beryllium casual to amaze kids.” No! They are truthful smart, often harder to misdirect, harder to benignant of conscionable psychologically spell the mode that you predict.

But I deliberation what’s large astir it is that erstwhile I tour, I’ve got families successful the audience, I’ve got couples, I’ve got day nights, household day nights — I’ve got everybody. And I emotion erstwhile I bash a instrumentality with kids, similar I did astatine the extremity of the [special]. I consciousness similar they they’re capable to hide that this is being filmed, and they behave authentically. When you tin spot the wonderment and excitement connected their face, erstwhile you stroke their mind, oregon that they’re portion of thing that blows the audience’s mind, I deliberation everyone relives a small smidge of their puerility successful that. I’m not doing a kid show. It’s conscionable a it’s a quality show. It’s for it’s for everybody. Parents often are reminded erstwhile they person a kid, you relive your puerility a small bit. I deliberation we often go truly cynical implicit the years, and it’s bully to retrieve however axenic conscionable wonderment and joyousness tin be.

And if you crook a fan’s $1 measure into $100, I’m definite they’ll beryllium a instrumentality for life.

That’s right, but if you crook their $100 into a $1, they’ll beryllium waiting extracurricular for you aft the show.

Has it ever happened wherever thing goes incorrect with a instrumentality and you person to archer an assemblage subordinate “Sorry, I conjecture I beryllium you a 100 bucks”?

They ever say, like, the amusement indispensable spell connected and they don’t cognize you screwed up until you fto them cognize you screwed up. So thing is simply a nonaccomplishment until I succumb to that. So I effort ne'er to [do that], but determination person been some. I was doing a day enactment erstwhile I archetypal moved to L.A. successful Burbank, successful the backyard — a beauteous day. I utilized to enactment with animals. I had a vertebrate and a bunny successful my show. So I would unfastened the amusement by making my dove appear, and I would adjacent the amusement by making my bunny appear. At 1 constituent erstwhile I made the dove look and a small gust of upwind causes it to alert up into a tree. That’s not expected to happen. I don’t cognize what I’m gonna do, but I enactment similar it’s portion of the amusement — [but the dove] didn’t travel down. Later successful the act, I marque the bunny appear, and the kids are petting the bunny. I recognize I’ve got different day enactment to get to, truthful I told [the parents] I was going to travel backmost successful 2 hours and bring a ladder and I’ll effort to get up determination and get [the dove] back. And erstwhile I came backmost 2 hours later, they were not excited to spot me. Because they told maine that close aft I left, a hawk started circling successful the entity and swooped successful during [while the kids were singing] “Happy Birthday” and snatched that vertebrate and took her away. So I could person been like, “ Ta-da! that was expected to happen,” but that was unavoidable, truthful I don’t enactment with animals anymore. I conscionable enactment with people.

“I wanted to effort arsenic champion I could to marque the radical who are watching it connected Netflix consciousness similar they were determination successful the theatre that nighttime and marque them a portion of the audience,” Willman said.

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

Why is does this consciousness similar the close clip to enactment unneurotic a peculiar showcasing the magic you’ve done for truthful agelong do, and what bash you anticipation radical get retired of it?

It’s astir giving radical an accidental to make halfway memories astatine a amusement and giving radical a amusement that they tin look guardant to, oregon hopefully each get excited astir going to and conscionable retrieve — “That was the nighttime that grandma and grandpa were there, and we had everybody there.” You get to spot idiosyncratic grin successful a mode that burns itself successful your memory. So it’s peculiar to beryllium a portion of that. This is the archetypal clip that I volition person been connected Netflix doing what I bash the most, which is bash magic connected stage. It’s 1 happening to bash magic connected the street. But you don’t needfully ticker similar that and think, “I privation to spell find that feline connected the street.” But you spot it connected stage, you’re benignant of like, “Oh, I privation to beryllium successful that audience.” Hopefully that’s what radical are thinking. So I’m excited to hopefully cultivate a caller batch of cynics and magic lovers and bring them on for the ride.