interview conducted September 2025
by Courtney Goodrum
edited for clarity by J. Schleusner
You’ve seen him dazzle audiences on The Today Show, make Jay Leno raise an eyebrow in amazement on The Tonight Show, and even earn the admiration of Penn Jillette, who called his act “the most original I’ve ever seen!” on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Jon Armstrong isn’t just a magician—he’s a storyteller, a craftsman, and a performer who redefines what close-up magic can be.
Jon also stars in the acclaimed documentary Magicians: Life in the Impossible, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the grit, wonder, and passion that fuel the world’s top magicians. I recently had the chance to sit down with Jon to discuss his journey, his creative process, and what it really takes to fool people for a living during his tenth year attending and preforming at Dragon Con.
Well, first of all, thank you for being here at Dragon Con. So, I know that you have performed intimate rooms, large [rooms] and deafening arenas. How does the scale of the audience change the nature of your magic or even your connection to the audience?
“It’s pretty interesting to say that. I wrote a book, actually, about this. See, people talk about close up magic and they’re very fond of it because it feels like an intimate happening, like they’re experiencing something that only happened one time, ever, and it never happened again. And so that, it’s very conversational, right? And then sometimes you have shows where you sit there and you’re at the same show that you’re seeing live – you could have watched on TV on your couch because there is no participation. You’re being presented to, right? And so my goal has always been to take the presentational and make it as conversational as possible so that everybody, even in a largest rooms, feels like they matter. The fact that they showed up that day, they got to participate in something that they would not have been able to any other way. Because we have these insanely amazing machines in our pockets for entertainment and I have to combat against that. That’s really what my biggest foe is, right? And the one advantage that I will always have over those machines is being able to give you the personal experience that machine can’t.”
Speaking of that, you talk about combating the little machines we have in our pockets, in the age of YouTube and in TikTok, they’re doing tutorials and there’s also like kind of a spoiler culture going on. How do you feel magic is becoming harder to protect or do you think that magicians are just getting smarter and moving around that challenge?
“So there’s always been spoiler culture when it involves the art of illusion, forever – it’s just easier and more perforated now because of social media. But it’s always been there. There were literally cigarette ads in the 40s that like, told you how to do basic and also insanely complicated magic tricks. They were in the cigarette packets. Magazine spreads in like Time and Newsweek, you know, seriously, stuff that’s been going on forever. So most of the time, we’re just being more clever. And I honestly believe that through the most part, it ends up being like, if I can do something where you think you know how it works, I’m going to tell you right now, I have 17 other ways for that to work, that I’m going to fool you with it. And the more you know, the better off I am about things I can use against you to make it actually far more impressive.”
Oh, that’s really awesome. And so what is the most realistic portrayal of magic that you’ve ever seen in a TV or a movie? What do you also think is the biggest Hollywood myth about magicians?
“So the most – the closest thing I’ve ever seen of its time period is The Prestige. Okay, uh, the great movie. Great movie. Yeah. And the rivalries, the fact that they’re talking about mechanical magic, obviously, there’s no cloning chambers and things like that, but like all of that stuff, the dedication to it, someone living as a ‘person’ they’re not just to protect a secret, all of that was especially very much common in that time. So that is, I would say, as close as it’s ever been on screen. We’re talking about illusion. Usually what happens in media is when people talk about magic, it starts out being sleight of hand or related to sort of illusion magic, and then it ends up being into the supernatural. There’s usually something that drives it towards the supernatural. And what I loved about that film is other than, of course, the hyper science of the cloning chamber, there was no going towards the supernatural, right? And then another media, there’s been like sort of very funny portrayals because there’s definitely, I mean, I can’t say that my art is completely good. There’s no such thing as an art that is absent of people who are not so great at it, and so things like Arrested Development and Job, that character. So being a buffoon of a magician, I can tell you, sadly, it’s true to some performers that I know. So, it has been out there – that you can have pretty realistic portrayals of what it really is like to be a magician.”
Well, do you think believing in magic, as a feeling, makes people better humans-more curious, open minded or empathetic?
“Well, I’m hoping so. Like, I actually, I mean, I come from a skeptic point of view. Here at Dragon Con – I’m mostly hosted by the Skeptic track, and so I’m looking for people to look at what I’m doing and have and want to care about how what I’m doing works – just as much as they want to understand how everything else works around them. So if they’re so interested in what I’m doing, hopefully I’m going to lead them to other sort of critical thinking skills. And I don’t present my magic as a puzzle – I’ll be very clear, nor do I present myself as like a person who can do real magic. I’m very honest and very open about the fact that I’m just better at this weird thing. I’ve spent way more time than anyone should doing this to give the illusion of magic powers, right? I’m very open about that in my show. And so, my goal really is to entertain, give them a sense of wonder, that moment of astonishment, something that gives them a sense of wow: like going down in the morning when you’re a kid and seeing the Christmas presents and being, you know, wowed by that. And they’re hopefully leaving wanting to feel even more about the wonder of the world around them. That’s kind of what I’m going for.”
You’ve had just such an amazing career wowing audiences, you know, from Jay Leno to also Penn and Teller. What has personally been a moment that has meant the most to you?
“Oh, well, that’s funny you ask. One of the proudest things I ever had – two years ago, my daughter was here. I have a five-year-old daughter and at the time she was three and one of my favorite pictures of all time, it is still on my desk, in my office where I work on my magic. It’s this picture of me and her looking up at me and applauding during a show I actually did here at Dragon Con. It was one of those things where I felt like I was giving something back, not just magic to the world, but I had this little person who was appreciating it, so that was really nice.”
Magic does walk the line between wonder and deception. Do you think magicians are considered closer to artist or philosophers?
“Oh, that is a very interesting question. I would go neither, honestly. I think we are craftsmen first. And then hopefully, by mastering craft, we become artists. The issue with that, is that I’m not trying to deceive anybody unwillingly. If you go to a magic show, you know what you’re in for. That is a big difference between getting scammed or someone using the skills that I have for deception, like in a con type of thing. What I’m trying to do is, I’m literally the most honest liar in the world. I am telling you I’m going to lie to you, and then I’m going to lie to you more and then hopefully those lies will produce something that gives you the same feeling that you would get if you were to read a book or watch a movie – where you’re seeing live special effects – where you’re being brought into a magical world. The same tools that create special effects on screen, the same tools that allow you to imagine worlds when you read, virtual reality, video games, so on and so forth. I’m using tools, much like those, to bring you into a world in the now that is unique and magical and weird, cool things happen, and that’s far more impressive than trying to go in and just trying to say, I can do this and you can’t right? That’s the career that I’ve had so far in my life and been doing this professionally in my entire life and everything I’ve been able to do, that’s not what audiences come out of it. The audiences go wow that was really great. I felt this real rush of endorphins, the amazement of it. Again, that sort of Christmas morning feel, and they feel like they’ve made a new friend.”
If you could go back and give yourself any advice, what would you give?
“Oh, I would. I would have gone back. I spent the first part of my career as a basically a close up card magician. When I won close up magician of the year in 2006 from the Magic Castle, that’s all I was really doing – was close up card magic and then about 11, 12 years ago now, I sort of switched all my focus to parlor magic, stand up magic, that I’m now doing currently. I got my second AMA Award and current Parliament of the Year, as we speak right now, I won, and I would have made that that transition a lot sooner. Okay. I would have definitely probably have decided that this is it, because I think what I’m doing now – I’m almost 50 – I would love to have been able to be about 10 years younger, traveling and being gone as much as I am. It definitely kind of sort of grinds down on me. My wife was just saying, like, we were talking about the set of shows, like, for like a festival, and she’s like, you can’t do that, you would die after day three. And I’m like, yeah, you’re right because I’m just not used to performing like five shows a day, six days a week anymore. I just, it just like, I can’t do it. And anyway, yes, I think I would have hopefully put this new creative playground that I’m in, I would have probably got into it a lot sooner. “
