Justin Willman is a famed comedian and magician who has made regular guest appearances on many of the late-night and daytime talk shows. In a new interview with KJ from the Kinda Nerdy Girls, Willman stopped to speak about the Netflix show The Magic Prank Show with Justin Wilman and more! Check out the transcription of pat of the interview below:
KJ: I got to tell you, Justin, last night I had my producer over for dinner and I’d been watching something on Netflix. So, when you pause it, it starts just showing you different shows that are coming up. And your new show, The Magic Prank Show, popped up on screen. And [my producer] she literally interrupted me and said, oh my gosh, I cannot wait for this show. And I said to her, oh my gosh, I’m going to be talking to Justin tomorrow. So here we are. There’s a lot of excitement for The Magic Prank Show. But for those who maybe don’t know how this is different from what we’ve seen before, can you talk about this? Because it’s an entirely new concept, right?
JUSTIN : It is. It is, you know, Magic for Humans. And pretty much all the magic I’ve ever done is, is essentially magic for entertainment purposes, right? To blow your mind, make your day, fill you with wonder. But we did a bit in season one of Magic for Humans where I kind of tried to convince some guys that they were invisible, which was essentially a prank and it worked. And this planted this seed in my head of like, wow, magic is this ability to create kind of a false reality. How else can that be used? So I was noodling with this idea for a couple of years and was like, what if I did a magic show where it’s all by request? Where I’m not doing it for me to be the center of attention, but I’m doing it to send a message or settle a score or create a false reality on behalf of somebody else. It’s basically magic by request. What it devolved into is me helping people get revenge on their loved ones for things in the past. And I literally posted on my Instagram, if you could have a magician help pranking someone in your life, who would it be and why? And I was inundated with like all these great replies about real good, real life stuff. So it was a bit of an experiment just to see if I could help these people do the thing that they couldn’t do on their own, you know, convince their husband to no longer text and drive, get back at their wife for that thing that she did years ago, get back at their brother for that thing that they always do, that kind of thing. And hence the show was born.
KJ: I would imagine, because as soon as I thought about this, I’m like, oh, you know, I have some people I would like Justin to help me get revenge on. But this is all in fun, correct? Everybody’s having a good time at the end?
JUSTIN : Yes, actually, everyone ended happy. Everyone is, you know, all the marriages are stronger, all the brothers and sisters are stronger. I’m on a text basis relationship with everyone we did the prank for and then everyone we did the pranks on, you know, like everyone hugged it out at the end, which was important to me, you know, but also I think as a viewer. You don’t want to watch cringing, like, oh gosh, I feel bad for those people. Everyone we’re doing a thing for is justified. I kind of want it to be a little bit of a magic Robin Hood, if I could, for the greater good. And it’s all in good fun. You can watch it with your grandparents, you can watch it with your teenagers, and hopefully everyone will be rooting for the same side.
KJ: Were you nervous at all that any of these pranks might backfire into something where, you know, the person who’s receiving the prank was not going to take it in fun? Did that cross your mind?
JUSTIN : All the time. All the time. I was riddled with anxious guilt about, oh gosh, what if I do more harm than good? Or what if I overdo it? What if what we’re getting someone back for, what I do to them is so much worse, and now someone has to get revenge for what I did. I didn’t want to create an endless cycle of revenge, although that would be good for multiple seasons. But there were also times where I was wondering if I didn’t go hard enough. There’s a girl who reached out because her boyfriend is always texting while driving, which is a serious problem, and she just wanted me to show him how it felt to be in the car with him. So I pose as an Uber driver and I take this guy on a ride from hell, you know, where I basically let him feel the terror that she says she feels. And there were times where I was wondering, like, man, because it’s a bit of a scared straight kind of thing, you know, like you really want to use magic in a way that they don’t know it’s magic. So they truly believe that they’re in a, like a bizarre kind of just surreal world until you eventually reveal. And there’s always a sense of relief at the end. And that, that tends to be where this message is received. You know, it’s like, here’s why I did this. I did this because you make me feel scared. I want to raise kids with you, but I don’t want them to be in the car with you, you know? And I’m kind of standing on the side, really just hoping that I, uh, that I did more good than harm.
KJ: Have you ever been pranked yourself, Justin? Would it be possible with all of your talents to pull one over on you?
JUSTIN : It certainly would be possible. I will say because a big part of being a magician is deceiving people for the greater good. Essentially when I say deceiving, that’s my fancy word for lying. But I’ve grown to be really good at spotting lies or just spotting when something is up or when it feels off. My job is that when I’m on stage performing, even the slightest little thing. Or you change the way you spoke like people subconsciously pick up on that and they don’t know what’s going on, but they know that something is in that hand, you know. So I am really good at trying to get rid of those things in my own performance I’m really good at spotting it. So I will say I’m hard to prank, but just like I like to be fooled by a good magic trick, I would love to be truly got by somebody for a good reason, for sure.
KJ: I wanted to ask you, Justin, because we’ve got, you know, I mean, this incredible solar eclipse coming up in a week. So, you know, today’s April Fool’s Day, next week is the eclipse and we’re in the totality zone. Are you, you know, as someone who loves illusion, are you excited? Are you planning on doing any solar eclipse viewing parties yourself?
JUSTIN : I’ll tell you, man, I don’t think my schedule lines up to be in a totality zone. I’m jealous of you guys, but I will say resist the urge to look at that sun directly because it will only damage your eyeballs and make it harder to wow you when I head out on tour. So that’s my only hope. Good to your eyes. Be good to your eyes so I can continue to deceive them.
For Justin’s favorite go-to serious show to watch and his upcoming tour dates, you can check out the full interview at the KJ Today Show and Kinda Nerdy Girls’ YouTube channel below:
I don’t get it. Isn’t this show just a shot-for-shot copy of Mark Rober’s Revengineers?