Trick Questions | An Interview with Creator and Star of Magic for Humans, Justin Willman

Justin Willman’s magic and entertainment career began when he was 12 in a very “un-magical” way. He fell off his bike and broke both his arms. His orthopedic surgeon recommended he learn card tricks as an alternative to physical therapy and to get the dexterity back in his hands. Soon he was performing for friends and family, then at the local skating rink, Denny’s, and at his junior high school.

Fast forward to the present and Justin has performed at the White House; on multiple talk shows including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Conan, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show; and on his own Netflix series, Magic for Humans. The show will begin its third season on May 15.

I got a chance to talk to Justin about a variety of topics, including how he started his career, his Netflix show, and his advice for aspiring magicians.


Scott (GNN): So, first and foremost, congratulations on season three of Magic for Humans on Netflix.

Justin (JW): Thank you.

GNN: It starts on May 15th, correct?

JW: Two weeks away. I know, but these days, every day feels like a week.

GNN: Right. That is so true. And I really want to talk about the show, but I always like to do a little bit of a CliffsNotes history about who I’m talking to, so let’s start at the beginning and work toward the present. So, on Wikipedia, and I know Wikipedia can be sketchy at times, but is it true that you started magic at the age of 12, after breaking both of your arms?

JW: That Wikipedia fact is true. I was riding my bike with roller blades on, like a dingus, a bona fide dingus. I fell off, broke both my arms, and was in casts for six months. My doctor just kind of randomly recommended card tricks as maybe a good hobby for physical therapy. So, my parents jumped on it. I was holed up in my house. I couldn’t go to school for two months. So, they got me a bunch of magic books and magic kits, and I just kind of became obsessed. And that’s all I’ve ever done, yeah.

GNN: Was magic ever even on the radar before that?

JW: I mean, I’d been a fan. My parents had taken me to see David Copperfield and Harry Blackstone, Jr. when they came through St. Louis, and I think I did get a magic kit maybe for my fifth birthday or something, but I just didn’t have the attention span for it. It took two casts and nothing else to do.

GNN: So, normally I ask, if performers have advice for aspiring performers, but I have to imagine you’re probably one of those people who wouldn’t recommend the way you went about this…

JW: Well, I mean, listen. I think whatever gets you to your passion, great. For me, I guess in retrospect I wouldn’t change anything. So thank God I was a dingus! But, whatever gets you there, great. I think it’s just a matter of sometimes recognizing your calling when you see it. And for me, I was just lucky that my parents were really supportive and encouraging of this strange obsession. And then it became kind of a profession. By 14 I had business cards, I was doing birthday parties. And you know, I think some parents might discourage it or maybe just kind of write it off as, “not a real job.” But they were very supportive. So I’m grateful for that.

GNN: Your mom gave you your nickname, “Justin Kredible,” right?

JW:  She did. She did. She’s like, “Justin, you need a stage name.” She’s like, “David Copperfield’s not his real name. Harry Blackstone’s not his real name.” You’ve got to have a catchy name. So, behold, we found the perfect pun and it stuck.

GNN: Excellent! However, I think I’m going to take this opportunity to say that GNN does not recommend that people wear rollerblades on their bicycles to break both arms to become a magician.

JW: (Laughs)

GNN: So, all right. So you’re doing the card tricks. You’re learning. You get the cast off. What was your first non-family “big” show? I mean, it doesn’t obviously have to be a crowd of thousands, but what was your first show?

JW: Well, my first regular gig…there was a roller-skating rink in St. Louis near my house. And they would do kids’ birthday parties every weekend. And they were looking for a face painter. And I did not paint faces. I have no artistic ability, but they said if I would do 90 minutes of face painting then I could then do my 20-minute magic show for all the birthday parties that were there. So, I figured, you know what? I need to get some stage time with  people I’m not related to. So I took the gig. I kind of learned how to paint faces very poorly. I mean I was bad. I would end up having to take a wet rag and wipe off the disaster and start over again many times. But that was my first real gig. And it was good training because you’re doing magic for kids who are wearing roller skates. So there’s like kids just falling left and right. I’d get a kid up to help me and they would just face plant mid-trick. So I had to learn to deal with distractions and pivot mid-show. Find a first aid kit here and there. And so that was good. I think you’ve got to learn to deal with the elements.

GNN: So, obviously you’re still doing magic now, so it worked out, which means you must’ve kept it up through high school and college. You kept performing, but you also got a degree in broadcast journalism, correct?

JW: Yes, I did. My parents were always…they were supportive of the magic, but they, you know, their job as parents is also to reinforce a responsible, well-rounded education. And you can’t major in magic. So, I picked broadcast journalism just because I figured you know what, if the magic doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll be a funny weatherman. In that case, I need to learn how to not look like an idiot in front of the camera. Read a teleprompter, et cetera. So, all those things actually ended up coming in handy in the end, anyway.

GNN: So, clearly, your parents were correct, since you’ve hosted some other shows and you have your own show now, which we’ll talk about in a bit, it was good that you had those other skills. So, as you’re continuing with your education and performing, what was your first big crowd show?

JW: Man, let me think, my first, big crowd. Well, I think my first crowd of over 100 was probably my junior high school talent show, which went well. It was a couple of hundred kids. That’s a rough crowd of your jaded, junior high school peers.

GNN: Junior high’s the worst.

JW: Junior high’s the worst; they want to hate everything, especially when you’re the only one in your school who does a certain thing. Even if looking back, they’re like, “Oh, that was pretty cool. He was the only one doing that.” But at the time, it’s plenty to make fun of, you know what I mean? So, that was the first big show, I think. Then, when I went off to college, I did a couple college orientation shows. That’s up to maybe a thousand students, college freshman. But I went to Emerson College in Boston, so it’s kind of an artsy-fartsy school. So, it’s kind of like I was with my people. I was with the kids who all kind of wanted to do something a little bit outside of the box. So, it was a loving audience.

GNN: Right, right, right. That helps. Now, another question I like to ask performers is about their biggest moment…but I think I might know this one for you. You performed at the White House in 2011, did you not?

JW: Yeah, that was probably the most surreal, “it’s all downhill after this,” moment, for sure (laughs). I got to do a show at the Obamas’ Halloween party for military families at the White House. And it’s very surreal. Everything in the White House is smaller than you think it is; it feels like you’re on a movie set. Everyone was in a costume, which is also weird, except for Obama. He was dressed as Obama in a fleece. That was his costume (laughs). And it went great. I was more nervous than I think I’d ever been. I think your body only knows how to get a certain amount of nervousness before you’re, you know. I’m not the kind of guy who starts shaking uncontrollably, but once I got through that, I realized, “Oh, man. If I could pull that off, I feel like I could get through anything.”

GNN: Yeah, that had to be amazing. I went to D.C. and got goosebumps when I just toured the White House. I can’t even imagine being there and performing for the president. I’m assuming it went well. Did it?

JW: It went well. Obama was actually kind of like…it was very strange, because he was like…part of me was thinking, “Okay. I’m going to just tune it out and pretend he’s not here and just do a normal show.” But he was kind of like heckling, positive heckling. Kind of like trying to rile up the crowd like, “How’s this guy doing this?” Like, “Hey, buddy? Hey, buddy, what are you, a wizard?” He was shouting. Not mean things, but positive things. So it was really…it was impossible to ignore him. So, I had to kind of like engage him, and you kind of don’t know how much you’re allowed to engage him. The Secret Service is there. But he was such a perfect spoil for me.

So, that was the most surreal, I think, but the biggest crowd I’ve ever performed for was when I opened for Jason Mraz on tours. He played in the Hollywood Bowl once and had me open for him. So that was 18,000 people. Very strange. Very big audience.

interview, justin willman, magic for humans, magician, netflix

GNN: So, it’s funny, because as we were watching the first episode of Magic for Humans, my wife was sitting there and she was like, “Man, I swear I know this guy for somewhere. His voice or something.” And I guess where we had seen you before, is Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. So, how did you end up there? Was the magic petering out or were you just trying to do something different, hosting a show?

JW: Well, I was touring colleges regularly. So every weekend, I was on the road to different colleges all over the country. So, the magic career was going great, but I was trying to at least establish myself as a TV persona. And to do that, you go out on so many auditions, living in LA, and so many rejections and failures. But as a magician, people think of you as a host. So it’s kind of a natural transition to be a “host guy” as well. And this was just a random audition for a show about cupcakes. I think we all thought, “How on earth could this maintain a series?” But the audition went well, the pilot went well. It turns out people love their cupcakes, dammit; they want more (laughs). So, I would do magic every episode. And those little magic snippets, most of the time, would get cut out for time. Because it is a cupcake show not a magic show, in the end. But that was good. That was really good experience. I mean, I guess a lot of people still recognize my face and my voice counting backwards from 10 from that show, so I’ll take it (laughs), but  I’m happy to not be, “the cupcake guy.”

GNN: That’s what I think I really liked about Magic for Humans. It’s not you doing magic tricks for 25 minutes. It’s like there’s a show and there’s a theme and when you’re talking at the beginning, you’re engaging and it’s super relatable. I mean, I’ll tell you what; I’ve lost both my mother and father, and the episode where you had your mom [who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s] on there, that really hit home for me.

JW: Well, thanks, man. Yeah. That was hard. That was hard. Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done that day of filming because in the show, obviously season one, I kind of really wanted to establish the tone and, hopefully, explore things that are a little deeper than just a magic show, because I think magic is such a powerful metaphor and icebreaker and disarming tool to talk about real stuff. So season two, I kind of was like, “Let’s get real. Let’s go deep, and kind of talk about autobiographical things, fatherhood, etc.” And, obviously, the biggest thing going on in my life for many years has been dealing with my mom’s Alzheimer’s, and not that that’s something you think of as comedy gold at all. But I figured, you know what, I feel like a lot of people could relate to this. And I think it’s one of those things that people tend to not talk about a lot because, kind of just a bummer. You don’t want to bum other people out. It’s a sad thing you’re dealing with and you don’t know how to process it. But I think just by talking about it and sharing that I’m going through it too, I found that it just reminds people that they’re not alone. So that was the most, probably, the most gratifying thing is that that really resonated with people and I’m just glad I have that kind of little time capsule tribute to her.

GNN: Yeah, it really was. It was amazing. And I think that’s what sets your show apart from other magic shows like The Carbanaro Effect. I mean, don’t get me wrong. He does amazing things, but you don’t really feel as though you know him.

JW:  Right, right, he’s really great at being that chameleon. But that’s the premise of that show; he’s a chameleon. You don’t really know…he’s a clerk here; he’s a waiter here. You know? So, I figured in magic, you often kind of don’t get to know that person. Magic, historically, has these all-powerful figures who can do everything, and they’re infallible. And I feel like these days, we kind of know that…I mean, my approach has always just been that I’m a guy who happened to devote his life to this magical art form, but I still am just a mess of a human in every other aspect and I feel like people can relate to that (laughs), yeah.

GNN: So, now we’re talking about the show, so let’s talk about how it came about. Was that an idea you had and you pitched or did someone come to you and say, “Hey, we have this idea, and we’d like you to be the host.”?

JW: Well, I’d done a few different pilots. I did two pilots for Comedy Central, one of which didn’t get picked up, but they used it for a special. The second one didn’t get picked up, and it just wasn’t right for the “Comedy Central brand.” But each time there was always the kernel of something good in what we did. I think after I regrouped from those, I sat down and said, “Okay,” and just figured out the things that work and the things that don’t. So I went to Netflix and pitched them this show. And they’d never done a magic show before. So they really dug it and they kind of liked that it was lighthearted and funny and tongue in cheek. And I kind of went to them at the right time for them to hop on it. So, it was a show that I created and pitched and then, we kind of then figured it out from there. You don’t have a pilot, really, of a show with Netflix. You kind of just dive right into a series. So it was really a chance to sculpt this bigger thing as opposed to trying to sum it up in 22 minutes. And yeah, I feel like I was very lucky with the timing.

GNN: It’s also a good show because it’s digestible. My friends keep recommending shows and I’m like, “I can’t get into another hour-long show. I’ve already got 10 shows in my hopper that I’m trying to get to.” And again, these days, anything that’s more lighthearted is a breath of fresh air. I love Saul Goodman, but there are just so many shows that are dark and violent, and I’m like, “Okay, enough, I can’t keep doing this. I just can’t.”

JW: Yeah, that’s the thing. I feel like we all need some escapism these days. So I didn’t want to have anything that’s too heavy or too tedious to consume. And I know I have a very short attention span. I mean, when you turn on your TV, you’re basically competing against every other show or movie that’s ever been made ever. So, I wanted to make a show that’s kind of like candy. Once you start, it just kind of doesn’t give you a chance to…ideally, you don’t get a chance to be bored. So, I kind of got to make the show that I’d want to watch.

GNN: Okay. So for those who haven’t watched the show, can you give a couple sentences about Magic for Humans? What is it about? We’ve kind of talked around it. How would you describe it?

JW: Yeah. I mean, it’s a funny magic show where every episode I try to explore different theme that is unique to the human experience. So it’s kind of a little bit of a loose docu-series in a way, but we explore the themes like love and guilt and self-control, and in the new season, fear and tradition. All these things that we just, hopefully many things that we take for granted a little bit, but that we can all relate to. And I find magic is often just this great foot in the door into whatever community or kind of subculture that I want to explore that I feel like I get people to put their guards down and open up a little bit more than they would if it was just a host kind of going documentary-style somewhere. I think magic is just this thing that humans innately love. And no matter what kind of your political affiliation or background or where you’re from in the world, it’s kind of this universal language a little bit. And it’s fun to watch how different people from different walks of life react to amazing things. And at the same time, you get a chance to hopefully learn a little something about what makes us all tick.

interview, justin willman, magic for humans, magician, netflix

GNN: Do you find it’s harder nowadays? I mean, anyone, two seconds after you do a magic trick, can hop on their phone and access Google. Does that make it harder? Or does it make you try harder? How do the Internet and the fact that information is so readily available affect your ability to affect people with magic?

JW: Yeah. Obviously, we live in an age where anything we want to know, we think we can figure it out. So I think the biggest hurdle was to make a show where the magic, how it’s done, “How did he pull that off?” is hopefully not the only thing that’s on your mind. That’s why I wanted to make it really funny and kind of ridiculous at times and have a thoughtful takeaway. And also, it made us have to work harder with the magic, to do stuff that hopefully either hadn’t been done before, so things that aren’t Google-able. You don’t want to go for any of that hacky low-hanging fruit magic-wise.

And I’ve got an incredible team of magicians that I put together, many of whom I’ve known for 20, 25 years in the magic world. And we work together and come up with just some really amazing magic that I’m super proud of. And we have to work really hard because people are so jaded by thinking things are fake or camera tricks or everyone’s an actor or whatever. So we have to go above and beyond to establish this trusting credibility with the audience because we do everything the hard way. I think your credibility as a magician is gone the moment you kind of have people’s BS detector go off. So it just inspires us to work harder. But in the end, I feel like the intellectual audience…I feel like if you’re respecting an audience’s intellect and you’re not kind of taking cheap shots at them, I think they really kind of respect that.

GNN: So, you just mentioned other people in the magic community. You hear about comedians that don’t like or shun other comedians because they steal jokes. Is there that in the magic community or…?

JW: There definitely is. Magicians certainly have the same jealousy, territorial things that comedians have, and sometimes even more so because it’s a little bit of a smaller community. In comedy, I think we are used to seeing that many, many, many comedians can be successful and household names. But I think in magic, the general public is kind of only used to knowing the names of two or three magicians at any given time. So I feel that makes magicians feel like a little more competitive or a little more jealous or territorial, but for the most part, I think those things sort of self-police themselves out in the magic community kind of just like they do in the comedy community. And the cream rises to the top, I hope. But so far, magicians have been just super supportive of the show. Kind of because I think we try to also have jokes and winks to magic stereotypes and clichés in there that the magicians find funny and that people find funny, kind of making fun of occasionally what the cliché of a magician is and people find it to be a little refreshing. I do at least.

GNN: You’ve done some stuff on the show where you’ve taken people’s rings or their cellphone and done tricks with them that involve you throwing them or having them disappear. Have you ever gotten a reaction that hasn’t aired where someone got belligerent or freaked out?

JW: Well, trust me, if someone freaked or got really angry or hostile, that would definitely make the cut! I feel like I would love that. There’s nothing better than doing something that elicits a real human emotion. And I feel like if anything, sometimes you watch the show and you’re like, “How did that person not punch Justin in the face?” And I think the fact that I’ve got a camera crew with me and it clearly it looks like this is a legit production, I think they think if I threw their phone into the ocean and it didn’t come back, they’re like, “Alright, somebody’s going to pay for this, right?” or, “I’m stealing one of these cameras until someone pays for this.” So that buys me a little bit of protection from people. But it’s funny how much people trust you when you’re a magician. You can get away with crazy stuff. I could say, “Give me a hundred bucks. Cool. And do you have a lighter? Okay. Good. Now I’m just going to light your money on fire.” And instead of freaking out, they’re kind of like, “Oh, this is going to be good. It really looks like it’s burning or is it going to reappear? And luckily, hopefully, those valued possessions have always reappeared. But we’ll see. I mean, sometimes things go wrong. Magic is not a perfect art form. Magic is hard. It’s a lot of trial and error. But luckily I haven’t lost anybody’s family heirloom yet!

GNN: That’s definitely good!  So, you’ve met a lot of interesting groups in the first two seasons of the show. You went to a Santa training class. You went to a Renaissance Fair. You did a Comic Con. You went to that one weird thing where people were like pets. What was the most interesting or enlightening one for you, for folks who haven’t watched?

JW: I’d say in the new season we go to a nudist resort. And for a couple reasons, it’d always been something I wanted to do. One is I’ve always had this fear of being introduced to perform and I walk on stage and I’m naked. And I think we’ve all had those, the whole cliché of a naked dream and like, “Oh my God, people are looking at me.” But when you’re a magician, you got to have places to hide your stuff. You got to have pockets to put things. So there’s an extra layer of anxiety that comes along with that. So in the “fear” episode in the new season, I kind of face various fears of mine. And that was one that I wanted to tackle. And the only place you can perform naked and not get arrested is a nudist resort. But, of course, your audience is naked, too, which is very strange. So I had a lot of trepidation leading up to this, just getting over the fear of first off being naked on camera, which they blur of course in the end. And whoever does the blurring definitely earned their salary on that episode. But what I found to be amazing is that you kind of have this preconceived notion of what the people are, who these people are who would go to a nudist resort, weird or whatever, creepy. And it was not like that at all. Just the sweetest, nicest, most normal people who I think really find that naturism, that they call it, is a judgment-free zone. Our society is full of labels and status and prejudging people before you even talk to them. And this place was really about everyone is an equal. And you actually get to know people. And the fact that people are naked kind of gets forgotten about 10 minutes in. You’re just chilling, having a good time. So that was a big surprise takeaway compared to other little subcultures where I think I know what it’s going to be like, and maybe I was right. This was definitely a surprise for me. And also coming up with magic that I could do naked was a challenge that I don’t know if those tricks will come in handy in any other situation.

GNN: Yeah. I can’t even imagine trying to perform naked…

JW: Well, I went there so you don’t have to! That’s what I’m here for.

GNN: Now, if there are kids watching your show… 10, 11, 12 years old, what advice do you have for them if they’re interested in learning and practicing magic?  And again, as we said earlier, GNN does not recommend breaking both your arms and doing magic for therapy to get your dexterity back!

JW: Yeah, when I was growing up, the Internet wasn’t a big resource, so I would go to the local magic shop in St. Louis, which also was half magic shop, half adult novelty shop, like bachelorette party supplies. So that was very weird. You had to have a parent with you at all times. But I would go to the magic shop and I would just ask a boatload of questions. I would annoy the hell out of the clerk, “What’s that do? What’s this? What’s that?” And then I would scour the books. My library at my school would have a bunch of books. I would kind of scour these books, which I find to be which was a big benefit, the fact that I couldn’t just go on Google and search a trick and see someone do it, because when you go on Google and you see a trick performed, whether you’d like to or not you are now predisposed to thinking how that trick should be performed, what it’s supposed to look like, what you’re supposed to say. But, when you read it in a book, you kind of just paint the picture in your head and you inherently come up with an original way of doing it because you just haven’t seen someone perform it. So that was nice. But I think these days, obviously, the fact that kids can go on YouTube and learn tutorials and that there’s crazy resources, I think that’s all amazing as long as then they can get out and perform for real people and see what works and get stage time. Obviously, right now isn’t really a good time to perform for real people unless you live with them, but it is a great time right now to dive headfirst into the art of magic and kind of come out of this quarantine with a new skill.

I actually put out a social distancing magician starter kit near the beginning of this quarantine to raise money for COVID relief, but also just to kind of create this magic kit that I’d always wanted to put together with 10 of my favorite tricks that I loved doing when I started out. And I’ve just every day on Instagram I see different people who’ve bought the kit doing tricks over Zoom for their grandparents or parents entertaining their kids. So that kind of tickles me a little bit. But my best advice for anyone starting magic is just to perform as much as possible whether you’re getting paid to or not. So for me, it was doing that roller-skating rink gig every weekend, but I also did magic in the Denny’s every Wednesday night. I made balloon animals and did magic when I was a teenager. And just doing those gigs where you get a chance to just have the repetition is priceless.

GNN: I’ve got to imagine anyone who’s practicing shouldn’t be afraid to screw up a time or two. It’s not going to go perfectly.

JW:  Exactly. You got to get over it. There is no worse feeling than a trick bombing or a trick failing and the magic thing doesn’t happen or they see how it works, but you’ve got to get over that fear because once you do and you realize, “Oh, it’s okay. Nobody died.” You kind of become a little more confident and fearless moving forward.

GNN: And the magic kit you mentioned, they can get that at your website?

JW: Yeah, my website justinwillman.com.

interview, justin willman, magic for humans, magician, netflix

GNN: Alright, lightning round really quick. Ready? Lightning round.

JW: Okay, ready. Let’s do it.

GNN: Favorite magic-based movie or television show?

JW: The Prestige.

GNN: Oh, nice. Alright, I’ll have to look into that. You know, super underrated comedies, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, if you have not seen it…

JW: Great movie. Great movie. So funny.

GNN: Okay, next question…favorite magician other than yourself?

JW: Favorite magician other than myself. I would say, Penn and Teller, so that’s technically two magicians. But growing up, seeing them do magic in a way that nobody else does was very, very inspiring.

GNN: Favorite trick?

JW: Favorite trick? That I do, or that anybody does?

GNN: Of yours.

JW: Favorite trick of mine? Well, I think my favorite thing I’ve ever done would be the music box thing I did with my mom [in season two of Magic for Humans].

GNN: Oh yeah, that was incredible.

JW: My favorite trick, separate from that, was the invisible man experiment we did in season one. It was just a day that, leading up to it, I had no idea if this was going to work or if whoever we pulled off the street would even believe that this was real. And by the end of the day, it was like the best day of my life.

GNN: That was an amazing trick…a must-see trick during season one of Magic for Humans. Okay, next question, and this is really important. How the heck did you get so many Susans [for the Magic for Susan segments on Magic for Humans]?

JW: Oh, man. You know, believe it or not, Susans tend to be on Craigslist. And Susans will…we would place this ad, “Hey, is your name Susan, or do you know someone named Susan? Would they like to be on a TV show?” We didn’t tell them much more than that. And that tended to be so intriguing to them that they just had to figure out why the hell we wanted Susans so bad. And luckily, there was no shortage.

GNN: You got one very special Susan, did she answer the Craigslist ad?

JW: (Laughs) No, so she…you know, after season one, and people found Magic for Susans so funny, I was like, “We’ve got to get the most famous Susan…Susan Sarandon. I made a picture of her, my wallpaper on my laptop, just as like my vision board. And it turned out that someone who works as a production company went to high school with her son who turned out to be a big fan of season one of the show, and was like, “Mom, you got to do this.” So she never seen the show, but she was in LA and showed up on the street corner for us. So that was a very happy day.

GNN: Okay, you find a magic lamp tomorrow a genie pops out and will green-light any project for you. What would you like to have green-lit tomorrow?

JW: I think it be cool to do kind of a tonight show like late-night talk show with kind of magic sprinkled in throughout it. That would be awesome. I’d also love to do an animated show about the trials and tribulations of a teenage magician named Justin Kredible (laughs) of which I have got a lot material for. Either of those would be pretty fun to emerge from a lamp for sure.

GNN:  Okay, last question. Because this is Geek News Network, what is Justin Willman geeking out on right now? Television? Movies? I mean, I know your son’s probably keeping you busy, but are you watching any TV shows, listening to music, reading books? What you geeking out on?

JW: Okay. Let me try to think back on the core quarantine deep dives here. We’ve been watching this Netflix show called Dark. It’s kind of a German sci-fi thriller. It’s really good. Any show that does time travel well…for me as a magician…there’s something about it. Ever since I was a kid, I would read these old magic books and just read about Thurston and Kellar and Houdini and be like, “I wish I had a time machine. I can go back and see one of these shows.” All you get to have is just your imagination, imagining what it was like, so whenever time travel’s done well, I love it. So that’s what I’m geeking out on at the moment.

GNN: Nice. Very cool. So let’s talk about where folks can find you. We talked about your website, justinwillman.com. They can find you there and get one of the social distance magician starter kits. Proceeds are going to…

JW: Yeah. Well, it’s specifically directrelief.org, which is a great organization that is helping healthcare workers on the frontline, and then endalz.org. The Alzheimer’s community has been really hard hit just by all the senior centers and care facilities that have been impacted by this. So those are the beneficiaries of that.

GNN: Excellent. And then there’s the third season of Magic for Humans

JW: And then, yeah, season three comes out May 15th. I’m very excited for that, give people a little escapism binge. And then once all this is over and people are able to go to live shows again safely, my tour will ramp back up. And we get back out to the people.

GNN: And folks can find you on Twitter and Facebook, right?

JW: Twitter is Justin_Willman. Instagram, @JustinWillman. And then easy to find on Facebook as well.

GNN: All right. Thank you, Justin!  I really appreciate you taking the time to chat!

JW: My friend, it was a pleasure.

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