Magician Justin Willman Reveals His “Favorite Thing I’ve Ever Done” Was Also The Hardest Day on ‘Magic For Humans’ Season 2

Magic For Humans is unequivocally the best show on Netflix. That might sound like an opinion, but if you’ve seen it, I bet you agree. The half-hour series from magician Justin Willman is filled with magic tricks that will amaze, delight, and shock you in a way that’s sure to have your face sore from smiling. It’s the kind of show you’ll want to savor (which is hard when the season is only six episodes!) and you’ll find yourself recommending it to nearly anyone you encounter.

So when Justin stopped by the Decider offices just days after Season 2 dropped on the streaming platform, we had much to discuss [some spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the whole second season yet!]. Here, he talks about some of his (and my) favorite moments from the show, how he landed THE Susan (Sarandon!) for Magic for Susans, why his one-year-old son was one of the most expensive aspects this season, and why he decided to open up and show such a hugely personal moment — and one that Jason Mraz helped with in a big way.

DECIDER: What were some of the differences between Season 1 and Season 2 for you?

JUSTIN WILLMAN: A lot of ideas were in my head after we finished Season 1. You make the show when there’s not a pilot and you don’t know what it is because no one’s seen an episode of it. You don’t know what it is until people describe it. So a little over a year ago when the season first came out, it was like I was getting instant focus group feedback because you hear what resonates and what doesn’t. What I took away, which was great to know, is that what people love is the stuff that is wholesome. It’s not a kiddie show or a family show but there are jokes and levels for everybody. People really crave an escape, they want a show that really doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going in the world. They want a show that is magic and makes them feel good. And for me, that was why I became a magician. I don’t have to funk it up or be political or be edgy. I want this show to be all-encompassing no matter what you think or believe. I think everyone likes magic.

I also discovered people really like when I keep it real, when I talk about real life stuff. They like that you get to know me. You think a magician is supposed to have a veneer and that never really felt right for me. In approaching the new season I thought about what I was grappling with: I’m gonna be a dad, let’s talk about that. It comes out around Christmas time, I love Christmas. Christmas and magic go hand in hand. Dealing with my mom [and her Alzheimer’s diagnosis] and also whatever stuff I was innately curious about informed the themes that we wanted to explore. Then we dug deep and thought, what’s funny? What’s interesting? What’s amazing? What’s annoying? What do we know nothing about that we want to know more about? Luckily I think we were able to hone in on what people like the most and those are the things I like the most, too.

Was it harder at all because more people know you now?

For the most part, it was actually easier. When people haven’t seen the show, they don’t know if it’s a prank show. But if they’ve seen the show, they know everyone comes out a winner so they’re down to be a part of it. Some bits you want them to know less. Unless they already knew I was a magician, we didn’t tell them I’m a magician, just that I’m this guy and were shooting a documentary. You’re able to get away with a lot when you tell people you’re shooting a documentary. In other bits, it’s good for them to know you’re a magician so they have their guard down and they know they’re not on a Nathan for You show.

Your nipples get their time to shine [in Episode 3, “Daddy Issues”], if those are your real nipples.

They’re real and they’re fabulous. But yeah, the nipples. I come into the writers’ room with the weirdest ideas some days. I came in like, ‘Okay, so Jill’s been breastfeeding; did you know that a baby’s mouth and a mother’s breast have a symbiotic relationship? Bacteria is exchanged where the mother knows what nutrients the baby needs!’ It sounded like I was super high. Breasts are magic!

There was a trick in Season 1 with the Starbucks cup where any drink they wanted, I could pour it. So I was like, ‘Breast milk is like the any drink you want thing! Let’s do a breast pumping thing but not with my wife involved.’ But my wife approved, and I had to run this by every mom I knew to make sure they thought this was funny and not offensive and it passed the test. And people drank it. I tried to see how preposterous I could go with it. One dude asked for beer so I was like, alright bro. I had hops and barely so I chewed those and poured out a lager. 

Did your wife draw the line anywhere when it came to tricks with your son Jackson?

She was always on set whenever he was there. There are child labor laws in California. For part of the season, he was less than six months old so you get 20 minutes of shooting time a day with them. They also have to have a studio teacher and a licensed nurse on set. So he was the most expensive part of a shoot day because he’s got all this overhead. The studio teacher is a child labor advocate, they have a stopwatch for every second of rolling time.

My wife knew that everything was going to be safe and fun but you can’t really rehearse with a baby. It’s like, are you gonna be quiet or are you gonna make noise? Because if you’re crying, it’s not a surprise. I thought it would be silly for me to talk about fatherhood without seeing the baby I’m talking about and we made a good team in a bunch of episodes.

He was really well behaved. When we shot the studio stuff in the white space, there’s so much going on so to focus his attention he was obsessed with the boom mic. We called it Mr. Boomie and would dangle it where his eyes need to go. He’s like me, he’s very drawn to shiny, shaky objects.

In Episode 4, you also did magic with animals!

Magic for non-humans! The lemurs were the best, so cute. They loved the grapes, didn’t care what trick it was, just as long as they got their grapes. I did a thing with sloths that you might see at a later point, not in this season. I love the turtles. Any trick that involves a finale of food, you’re their favorite magician. Though the macaw was very hard to impress.

In Episode 1, when you were standing in the room with all those Santas were you like, this is cool but also weird? 

Yes. At one point, they were all coming back from lunch to film with the class, which is a real thing, all of them are students. But when they weren’t in their costumes, they look like a bunch of hippie old dudes and then instantly when you see them in their outfits, that’s when it got real. They’re all Santas with different little quirks. They were always in character even when they weren’t in the Santa suit and that was the only annoying part because when you’re doing magic for someone you want them to be real. It’s hard if you’re trying to be ho ho ho and I’m trying to amaze you. We had to shoot that in the summertime so it was schweaty. They were really sweet. There’s a lot more Jewish Santas than you think.

Did you cry too when the kids chose to give the presents to their parents instead of keeping them for themselves?

Yes, Demetrius especially when he did that because he just said it in the sweetest way. He summed it up for me perfectly, ‘I’m not able to give my mother anything nice like I want to.’ Then of course seeing their moms cry, I wasn’t able to see that in the moment, but you could tell.

How did you get THE Susan, with Susan Sarandon popping in for Magic For Susans? 

That was some vision board stuff right there. I think it was the first day of coming in to write the new season, I was like, oh one thing guys, it’s on my bucket list, we need to get Susan Sarandon. It’s gonna happen. I made her my desktop wallpaper to see it every day. I did at one point tweet at her and I was like, nah she’s gonna think I’m a crazy person.

Then it turns out one of our location producers was like, ‘Oh I went to high school with Susan’s son and he also loves this show.’ So I reached out to him and he hooked it up and she was so cool. She had never seen the show. She was like, ‘I don’t really watch TV, I’m told you do magic with Susans or something?’ I was like, you are the golden goose, this is the greatest ever. 

Did you hear from a lot of other Susans?

Susans don’t inherently watch the show. Many of them are watching basic cable or PBS, not as many of them are on the Netflix train. I had a lot of people tagging me with their Aunt Susans. I found with Susans, it’s best if they don’t know the show, don’t know what it is, and don’t try to ham it up. So we literally put a Craiglist ad up: Is your name Susan? Want to make 50 bucks? Come on our thing! And that works.

You also do a trick that involves Tom Hanks’ name. Have you heard from him yet?

I haven’t but I enjoyed doing that bit and I love Tom Hanks. We had written a bit for the closing for that episode, which is me ignoring a phone call and I was like, wouldn’t it be great if over the credits we had real Tom Hanks [leaving me a voicemail]?

It’s your son’s first birthday this week: will you have a party and do you have to perform? 

We’re gonna have a little gathering. We did a Drunk History spoof for our wedding of how we met which went viral on the internet and was fun to do. So we shot a new one telling the story of the day he was born and we’ll play it at his first birthday party, and then put it on the internet. And man, this time the alcohol really hit me, which means it’s extra funny.

Do you find TV magic easier to do than stage magic?

I think it’s harder. So much harder. It’s different, but when you’re watching something live you have a naturally longer attention span so most of the bits in my live show are 8-12 min each but they don’t feel long. But on TV, the attention span immediately goes way down. You have to get to the trick and it has to happen quick. And the camera sees everything so it needs to be perfect. But it is very rewarding that people who would never get the chance to experience the kind of thing I do get to see it.

Episode 6 is really special, as you do a really lovely trick with music. How did you decide to share your mom’s experience with Alzheimer’s with the world? 

I think she was diagnosed maybe 15 years ago but it was a slow thing. But in the past few years when she was diagnosed for real, my sister lives in St. Louis so they see each other often and she’s able to really be more present in their life. I only see them every few months and for me it started to be like, wow in two months there was a big difference. It’s a thing that so many people have to grapple with but don’t talk about because it’s sad and weird and it feels so helpless. I don’t know what to say about it except to talk about it. I feel like people feel less alone when you acknowledge there’s something they go through that you’re also going through.

And there is that magical thing about music: my mom loves Jason Mraz and she loves Neil Diamond. I could play a Neil Diamond song and all of a sudden, she’ll be singing. To me, that’s a magical thing.

I didn’t want to bum people out, that was the hard part. I really had to think long and hard because the show is fun and silly but I was like, I think we can do it. In Episode 1, you see the kids and it lets you know, oh wow, I’m crying, so that later when you feel something heavy it doesn’t catch you totally off guard.

It’s my favorite thing I have ever done but it was the hardest day. I had my parents fly out to LA. My dad knew what it was but he was taking pics of the crew and he’s like, wow there’s 20 people in your house, this is crazy! He’s grappling with this disease and being the caretaker and it’s heavy on him and hard for him to talk about. I just showed it to him a week ago and he really liked it. When I’m on camera and we’re making the show, there’s a different Justin on and I had to turn him off and just be son Justin here.

The disease is unpredictable so it was just a matter of having the patience, block a whole day out, let’s just roll and if this happens, when it happens, it happens. It might not be what we expect, but it worked out and I was really pleased. And Jason Mraz was so cool to let me use that song in the show. It’s a record label song so at Atlantic Records, he was able to champion it up through the ranks.

Where to stream Magic For Humans