Amazing Johnathan puts his own twist on traditional magic

Kirk Baird

Friday, April 12, 2002 | 9:38 a.m.

Who: The Amazing Johnathan.

When: 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays (dark Monday)

Where: Golden Nugget Theater Ballroom.

Admission: $40.

Information: (702) 386-8100.

The Amazing Johnathan's billing says it all: "Comedy Magician." As it turns out, any attempt the 42-year-old has made at serious magic ended up being a joke although not in an intentional way.

Johnathan, who appears at the Golden Nugget Theatre Ballroom, was 13 when he first worked at being a magician.

A Detroit junior high student wanting to find a niche for himself, Johnathan discovered the ability to dazzle friends and schoolmates with simple tricks went a long way to scoring highly on the popularity chart.

For four years he honed his a magic act, mostly at children's birthday parties, church bazaars and the occasional Boy Scout gathering.

The pinnacle came during a school talent show. Johnathan was 17 and a junior in high school. At that point, as any good magician would, he had adopted a title, "The Amazing Johnathan." (He won't divulge his real name, saying, "I can't remember my full name anymore.")

As proof of how amazing he was, he had put together six carefully arranged illusions and employed the use of a female assistant for many of them. With a packed house that included many family members and friends, it was clearly Johnathan's moment to shine.

Or not.

"I had a girl in the sword cabinet, I put the swords in and hear her inside telling me she's got a leg cramp and has to get out now. I'm telling her, Just stay in the box. You've got about half-a-minute, just stay in the box,' " he begged.

But the cramping was too much for his assistant to take, even for 30 seconds longer. She stood up and the top of the cabinet came off, which also held the sides in place, and the remaining four panels collapsed.

That was just one of the tricks to go wrong, Johnathan recalls.

Another involved a guillotine, where the blade was to come down, penetrate the assistant's neck and fall off the bottom of the contraption without leaving a scratch on the assistant. While that trick actually was successful, it didn't matter.

"(The light technicians) shut the light off before the blade even went through her neck, so they didn't even see the trick on that one," he said. "Every trick was like that."

Johnathan's performance was such a debacle, he faced the worse kind of response from family and friends: silence.

"Nobody said a word about it, that's how bad it was. I didn't even get teased about it, nothing. It was so tragic, that no one brought it up, which is even worse," he said.

That weekend he spent in Toronto finding solace in alcohol.

"I got drunk and promised myself I would never do magic again," Johnathan said. "I don't think I've ever done a serious magic show after that, ever."

He paused for a moment. Relaxing backstage recently in his dressing room at Golden Nugget, a sly smile formed across his face as he delivered the punch line. "I'm basically doing that talent show now, but I'm purposely doing it that way," Johnathan said proudly. "And it works really well. I just switch the titles from magic to comedy and it works fine."

The Amazing Johnathan, as he's now seen onstage, actually began in the late '70s as a street performer in Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

It was then he met Harry Anderson (of "Night Court" fame), himself a street magician, who took Johnathan under his wing.

After watching how Anderson and other street performers worked the crowd, Johnathan began to develop his own routine, including swallowing razor blades and pulling them out of his throat on a string. But when he added the illusion of blood, he really began to be noticed.

"I put a blood capsule in my mouth and as I was chewing the razor blades, blood was pouring out of my mouth, and people walking down the street would see this lunatic eating razor blades," he said. "With the added element of blood, it kind of set me apart from other street acts.

"So all the tricks from that point on were blood-oriented. I did knives through arms, and all these horrendous tricks in front of kids and everyone just to get a shock value. I think when I started (incorporating) the blood and the gory effects to the show, that's kind of what took the show off in the direction it is now."

Johnathan's act proved so popular that on weekends he was repeatedly arrested for obstruction because of the large crowds he drew.

Tired of being hassled by The Man, Johnathan took his act indoors, performing on the San Francisco comedy circuit with, among others, Robin Williams and Dana Carvey.

Johnathan eventually began touring the United States, and later Europe and Australia, throughout the '80s and into the early '90s. But he realized he had gone as far as he could go with comedy clubs, and began focusing on network appearances, such as the two he has made on Comedy Central and his near-annual appearances on "The Late Show with David Letterman."

Through the exposure of television, Johnathan was able to build up enough of a fan base to fill small theaters. In fact, he had a theater tour booked when Golden Nugget called.

The comic-magician was originally brought in as a replacement for comedian David Brenner, who was on a brief tour, in February 2001. Johnathan did so well, he was signed to a two-week run in June, followed by a yearlong contract that runs through July 7.

"(Brenner) didn't do the numbers," Johnathan said about the comedian's departure. "He was there for six months and the numbers declined. It's not easy to bring a crowd downtown -- nobody does it.

"The Golden Nugget is happy with 150 to 200 people a night. We came in and started doing 450 a night. Now Tony Orlando's here (in the theater) in the early spot, and he's going to try and do what Brenner didn't do with his numbers. Who knows?"

Decidedly un-PC

Amazing Johnathan's show is not for everyone. Children under 14 are not allowed to attend; ages 15-18 are permitted only with a parent.

"You'll see kids' arms being pulled out of the sockets the first five minutes of the show, the parents can't get them out of the showroom fast enough," he said. "This is live and this is violent and there's language, and I like for it to be very anti-magic edgy."

"Edgy," in this case, being a euphemism for politically incorrect. Johnathan enjoys pushing people's buttons.

During his set, he berates audience members and his assistant, Psychic Tanya, including stabbing her in the head with a pair of scissors. He is not afraid to throw out potentially offensive jokes at will.

"Everything has gotten to be so sterile and you can't say anything against blacks or women ... there's no rules in this show. I make my own rules. There's a line that you draw and I know when I've gone over it," Johnathan said.

But, he said, that is precisely why Las Vegas needs him: There is no one else in town similar to him, which is a one reason he wants to renew his contract with Golden Nugget.

Another is that Johnathan has a nice gig in Las Vegas and he knows it. Although he lives and owns a home in Los Angeles, Johnathan spends five nights a week in a Golden Nugget suite "the size of my house."

He knows, at the moment, his life is sweet.

"As long as the numbers are good and as long as everybody's happy and everything's going like it is now, we'll be here until it changes," Johnathan said. I make my own rules. There's a line that you draw and I know when I've gone over it."

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