I realised pretty early on that the movie was taking on a structure that wasnt traditional and, instead of seeing that as a negative, I decided to lean into it. The magician asked Thompson if he wanted to see his new Hummer, referring to his then-new all-terrain vehicle. But the once wheelchair bound magician has again begun to walk. However in 2014, Johnathan was diagnosed with a terminal heart. Because Id never experienced the roar of an audience like that before.. and Synns wedding in June 2014. The longtime Strip headliner died at his home in Las Vegas late Tuesday night.. Berman later asked Johnathan if he was playing a practical joke on the public with his grave health assessment. Hulu has acquired the UntitledAmazing JohnathanDocumentary following its premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival last week, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap. At the beginning of this century he landed highly lucrative gigs in Las Vegas, and his wild-eyed, leonine face stared out from billboards across the Vegas strip. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. The Amazing one is back! Szeles appeared on various talk and variety shows from the mid-80s to mid-2000s. John Edward Szeles, AKA the Amazing Johnathan, in a still from Ben Bermans documentary. 6,812. 2,126, This story has been shared 1,700 times. Johnathan, whose legal name was Johnathan Szeles, passed away about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. 2011 marked Szeles' third year of performing at the Harmon Theatre and Szeles' 11th consecutive year as a full-time Las Vegas headliner. The Amazing Johnathan is not the first person in the entertainment industry to mystify his fans with a confusing life or death status. The Amazing Johnathan with his irreverent magic act, rose to popularity landing one of the longest residencies in Las Vegas. Ben Berman set out to make a film about a dying comedian. Editor's note: John Edward Szeles, aka longtime Vegas comic and magician The Amazing Johnathan, died at age 63 on February 22, 2022, according to reports. For Berman, The Amazing Johnathan may continue to exist as the eccentric magician who straddles the line between reality and illusion. John Edward Szeles (September 9, 1958 February 22, 2022), better known by the stage name The Amazing Johnathan, was an American comedian and magician. Documentaries continue to be huge, and this one details the struggles and meteoric rise of young Puerto Rican bartenderAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the Bronx to toppling incumbents in an electric primary race for Congress. More news: On The Buses Star Anna Karen Killed Painfully in FireVan Jones Children Open their Arms for a New Baby Girl, Subscribe to theUS day News newsletter inboxto receive celebrities daily news. It is reminiscent of how his son deconstructs his own documentary as he is creating it, unpicking the morality of documentaries such as the one he is making. In an interview with The Daily Beast, the magician said he believes his addiction to methamphetamine is responsible for his prolonged lifespan. After being invited to the wedding of Theresas (Moore) daughter, Isabel (Williams) discovers a connection to Theresa that takes her on an unexpected journey into her own past. It is fortunate for Berman that he was able to see the bright side because to say the magician caused him many problems is like saying Noah and his ark encountered some bad weather. In fact, its got about four. The heartbreaking news was announced on Wednesday morning by fellow standup comic Penny Wiggins on Facebook. I loved him so very much and will never forget this wonderful, amazing, kind, funny, great person, Wiggins added. Well, Bermans mother died of cancer years ago. The caption for one such Facebook post reads, "Born in 1832, Jonathan the Turtle is expected to turn 190 in 2022, this makes him the oldest known land animal alive today." The picture, however, does not show Jonathan. Jillian Bell leads the cast of this comedy that follows a young New Yorker who discovers she has elevated blood pressure and a high heart rate. Synn and caregiver Stephanie Castellone of the BurlyCares nonprofit medical assistance organization, were with him at the end. A brilliant comedian and an all-around wonderful and inspirational individual. Ben Berman is one of them. This is the deal: I wanted to fake my death. It was released in 2019 via YouTube. Sundance 2019: Film fanatics will brave the cold to see these hot films in Park City, Utah. I know that in the end Jonathan Larson was tragically passed away before the opening of Rent, but I really like the tone of the movie is still hopeful and exciting even he failed to get a Superbia off the ground. He is diagnosed with a terminal heart condition and given one year to live, but three years later, Johnathan is still alive. He had appearances on Foxs Comic Strip Live a had several specials on Comedy Central including Comedy Central Presents, Lounge Lizards, and Wrong on Every Level. These past 3 years have been the ." 3,957, This story has been shared 3,912 times. He died on 22 February 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. He was talented, he was hilarious. Eh. Yeah, welcome to my club, laughs Ben Berman when I tell him about my failure to speak to the man born John Edward Szeles. [18], Szeles died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in Las Vegas on February 22, 2022, at the age of 63. are all authentic and 100% guaranteed. All in all, it is possible that his illness was a trick. One of my best friends, one of the funniest humans Ive ever met. However, his heart condition worsened, and he announced that he would effectively retire. For years, The Amazing Johnathan pulled a fast one on death. Filmmaker Ben Berman sets out to capture The Amazing Johnathan's comeback tour while peeling back the curtain on his unique, meth-fueled life. (PenRich Productions), Chris Kenner and The Amazing Johnathan are shown at the honorary roast of King during the Society of American Magicians Convention at Golden Nugget's Grand Ballroom, Jan. 20, 2020. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Unsurprisingly, Szeles is livid at the accusation, and storms offbut not before asking Berman, Are you disappointed that Im not dying in your time frame?. We became friends immediately and remained brothers until the end., I remember when I was broke and he was headlining his own Vegas show, he would take me out to eat hibachi and pick up the tab he made me feel like someone There will NEVER be another May you rest in peace and dont play too many pranks up there.. 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I did my best to keep his medicine in his system, clean his foot wounds, do everything a nurse would do and Im not a nurse. I want him to have the biggest celebration, with everyone who loved him tell the stories of the pranks he played on people, Synn said. But when the first twist came, I applauded. Lukas Matsson's Tweet Explained. It follows a suburban mom, played by Wendi McLendon-Covey, who makes mistake after mistake and her psyche crumbles in the aftermath. The movie Bermans made is about his attraction to a ripe occasion. Because, as well as the difficulty of trying to film the Amazing Johnathan who is either awol or smoking crystal meth in his bedroom it turns out there are two, or maybe three, other documentarians also making a movie about the Amazing Johnathan. He wasnt prepared for the plot twists. Such as shows in Tampa, Dallas, Orlando, Tulsa, Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Denver, Wheatland, or Raleigh may be different in price compared to other tour shows in other cities. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. The best place to get Amazing Johnathan tour tickets for the San Jose, St Louis, Virginia Beach, Washington DC, West Palm Beach, Sioux Falls, Grand Prairie, Grand Rapids, Atlantic City shows is from premiumseating.com. Berman says his influences in the film range from Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens) to Andrew Jareckis All Good Things, with its twist of a final act. was a frequent guest at Kings holiday party. It's also clear quite soon that Szeles, who performs as the Amazing Johnathan, is up to something cruel and self-serving but, for the purposes of our absorption, clever, too. 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Until Ozborn left to try a solo career in stand-up comedy. As for plans for his memorial, Synn said she was hoping to secure a major Las Vegas theater for a public celebration of life. . Your BS detector may go off early while watching The Amazing Johnathan Documentary, but it's still a funny and fascinating portrait of a guy who used to be on top and is . I met with my management and a team of lawyers, back when I lived in L.A., said Johnathan, who arrived in Las Vegas in February 2001 to headline at the Golden Nugget. Simply take a look above to find the Amazing Johnathan tour schedule as its quite possible that Amazing Johnathan will be stopping in your city while on their next tour. This documentary follows the career highs and current health struggles of The Amazing Jonathan, the innovative magician-comedian also known as John Edward Szeles. [3][4] In the 1970s, he relocated to California, where he began his career performing on the streets of San Francisco. He was an actor and writer, known for The Amazing Johnathan Live (2007), The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (2019) and Up All Night (1989). was the focus of two documentaries in recent years: Ben Bermans The Amazing Johnathan Documentary, which premiered on Hulu, and Always Amazing, which went to YouTube. The Amazing Johnathan's Tweets. He is not, he says, going to die any time soon, which makes me look like a big liar, but Im not.. Sundance 2019: Ben Berman-directed film premiered last Friday. Like with Anvil!, which Sasha Gervasi made, and you can see that hes not a documentarian but a feature-film writer looking for a third act, says Theroux. I think from those aspect, this movie nailed that. (Hulu), Amazing Johnathan speaks Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, near the end of a two-hour entertainment event called Entspeaks. The entertainer somberly clarified that his condition was in fact real. . Very sad. Renowned African-American history and culture visual artist Rashid Johnson and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks craft a contemporary reworking of Richard Wrights 1940 novel, bringing its interrogation of fear, violence, race and circumstance into a critical modern context. The film, directed by Scott Z. Burns, follows CIA agents and their interrogation tactics in the quest to find those behind the 9/11 attacks. Your IP: Las Vegas Weekly pays respects with a. Park City, Utah, is about to be flush with cash -- and we're not talking about buying apres ski gear. Like, in a Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation sort of way. [10] The performer's website identified the condition as cardiomyopathy and went on to assert that, due to a combination of weight loss and blood thinners, he was doing well. He moved on to the Sahara, Koval Theater at Miracle Mile Shops, Ballys and Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort. He was one hardcore guy, he was so fuckin cool. Also Read: 'Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary' Film Review: Portrait of Comic Goes Off the Rails, Then Changes Direction. But he obviously wasnt a normal magician.. has been prescribed up to 18 pills to stay alive, a startling achievement given that he was given one year to live in 2014. [6], Szeles also authored a how-to book on practical jokes titled Every Trick in the Book, a compilation of both classic practical jokes and plain magic tricks, along with his own original material in both categories. But he also started taking drugs when he was sixteen years old, and by all accounts has been doing them ever since. That night, Johnathan stunned the audience by saying, The greatest time of my life was spent here. When Ben pointed the camera at me, I was thinking why would anyone be interested in me, and that the project could be ill-fated. My heart is failing. (PenRich Productions), The Amazing Johnathan is shown in the developing documentary "The Night the Lights Went Out in Vegas." 'Citadel' Episode Guide: When Do New Episodes Premiere on Prime Video?