:minor spoilers(if you can spoil a documentary) below:
If you were not aware, in late 2014, the comedian/magician Amazing Jonathan announced that he was dying of a heart disorder and that he had one year alive.
This movie documents his life and also goes into the fact that:
he is still alive 5 years later
he has allowed multiple camera crews to film simultaneous documentaries on him
may have…been faking his terminal diagnosis in an Andy Kaufman style prank
The movie kind of changes into a movie about the documentary process, which is initially disappointing. I really don’t like when the people making the documentary become part of the story, but I do see that as this movie went on and the process of making it went on, the director had very little other choice.
I love the Amazing Jonathan act and this movie does not really make him look all that bad, though I wish he came off as a nicer guy. Still, I do hope that he continues to recover and hopefully is able to lead a full life.
I haven’t seen it and won’t, after hearing the review done by the Slash Filmcast podcastin episode 530. Their review was pretty scathing, especially Jeff Cannata who was personally offended by the documentary.
You know, I remember The Amazing Jonathon fondly. When my stepdaughter and I were discussing the magicians she’s been checking out, I mentioned him and promised to refer her to you tube videos of his. So I start reviewing videos, and I was underwhelmed. He came across more than I remembered as being just kind of a coked up clown. Sometimes a little funny, but nothing that would have impressed her. I ended up not referring het to any of them. I decided: let The Amazing Jonathon slide, she’ll forget I mentioned him.
I only watched the first few minutes of it. It seemed identical to another AJ doc I saw a few years back (that I can’t find now, maybe it was part of something else).
I was hoping to find a Robert Schimmel doc, but I didn’t see one. The only video I’ve found of him, at least the last time I looked, were decades old clips that were really poor quality.
Steve Byrne did a documentary at the same time as the one on Hulu. He finally opened up about the other doc and it’s not good. The Hulu doc is basically a big lie made by a giant asshole. Watch the other doc on YouTube to get a better feel for who Jonathan is.
I thought about starting a thread on this. I watched it a week or two ago. I too, remembered him fondly from when he was popular back in the 90s. I always thought he was hysterical. I was not aware of his recent health issues before watching the doc. But I thought that this doc was incredibly interesting. Definitely NOT what I expected but the whole thing basically felt as chaotic as TAJ seems to be. From the meth smoking to the maybe he’s not really sick to the multiple documentaries going at once. I felt like I was tripping out through the entire documentary.
Despite what others have said, I would absolutely recommend this doc - it’s really interesting.
Probably won’t see the documentary, but I’m a big fan of his.
And it’s wrong calling him a magician. I saw his act live and he didn’t complete a single magic trick.* He’s a comedian who pretends to be a magician, and mostly ad libs by playing off the volunteer he brings up. He was extremely funny and uses a combination of sight gags and verbal humor that is reminiscent of Airplane!
*Or illusion (obligatory).
Jeff Cannata basically thought the director did a horrible job, allowing the documentary to run off track and become a documentary about the making of the documentary.
ETA: the other two hosts hated the movie also, although not with the fury of Cannata.
Here is the radio show where Steve Byrne talks about his documentary and goes into how fake the Hulu one is. Fast forward to 58 minutes to where he starts to talk about it. As far as I know this is the only place he has talked about the other doc.
