Where is The Amazing Johnathan Now? The Magician with a Year to Live, Five Years Later

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Amazing Johnathan Documentary, a.k.a. spoilers for real life. 

The Amazing Johnathan Documentary, a new documentary now available on Hulu, is not what you think. Ostensibly, the film is a study of John Edward Szeles, aka The Amazing Johnathan, a magician and stand-up comedian who announced on stage in 2014 that he only had a year to live, due to a heart condition. In actuality, the film becomes about director Ben Berman’s struggle to complete his movie. The roadblocks just keep coming, and most are Szeles’s fault. One is that Szeles’s reveals he’s invited another documentary crew to film—a crew that Szeles says has won an Academy Award—thus creating competition for Berman. But a big question that looms in Berman’s and the audience’s mind is Szeles’s death sentence.

In November of 2014, Szeles’s announced in front of a live audience that he had a been given a year to live from his doctors, thanks to a heart condition known as cardiomyopathy. He had been diagnosed in 2007, but was told that the condition worsened dramatically. Berman began filming his documentary in 2016, two years after the announcement, and Szeles is still very much alive. The director starts to question the legitimacy of Szeles’s illness and eventually confronts the magician on camera. Unsurprisingly, Szeles is livid at the accusation, and storms off—but not before asking Berman, “Are you disappointed that I’m not dying in your time frame?”

The confrontation clearly affects Berman, and eventually, the director apologizes to Szeles and tells him that he no longer doubts the validity of his illness. What exactly changes his mind is not clear—according to him, Szeles never allowed him to attend any doctor appointments or view any medical records—but Berman confirmed in an interview with Decider that he no longer had any “misgivings” that Szeles wasn’t telling the truth.

Today, nearly five years after Szeles on-stage bombshell, the magician is alive, though, as Berman told Decider, “certainly not well.”

“Johnathan’s here in LA doing press,” Berman said, “and he’s going to be promoting the movie. He lives, man. He’s alive and he’s kicking. He’s certainly not well, but he’s here and we’re excited to have him.”

Szeles attended a press day in LA just last week. In an interview with The Daily Beast, the magician said he believes his addiction to methamphetamine is responsible for his prolonged lifespan. “I actually believe that in some weird way it’s keeping me going.” He no longer uses his wheelchair, though he can’t walk for very long without getting tired. “I’m holding on,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m going to be going anytime soon.”

Szeles still performs and tours occasionally. His last show, according to his website, was this past May in Royal Oak, MI.

“Although his heart is still severely damaged,” reads Szeles’s website, “most of the impairment caused by the lack of circulation has healed almost completely.”

The Amazing Johnathan Documentary is streaming on Hulu now.

Watch The Amazing Johnathan Documentary on Hulu