Justin Kredible is in the midst of a national tour, bringing his unique combination of magic and comedy to college campuses around the country. He’ll stop by Wednesday at the Comedy Store for a special show called “Cheap Trix,” which he describes as “a little music, a little burlesque, a little sex, a little dance, some juggling, some bullwhips, some comedy.” He spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Alex Goodman about his development as a magician, teaming up with Rachael Ray and performing for drunk people.
Daily Bruin: At what point did you realize you had magic powers?
Justin Kredible: I remember doing my first magic tricks for show-and-tell in second grade and failing miserably. It wasn’t until I was like 13 when I realized that this magic thing might actually work out for me. I realized it’s one of those things you actually have to practice. I managed to convince my sister to be my lovely assistant for free, and I thought that was pretty magical.
DB: Did you actually have formal training? How did you learn to become a magician?
JK: I took lessons when I was a kid at a magic shop in St. Louis ““ it was kind of a magic shop slash adult bookstore, so you had to go in there with your parents. It was very awkward. I’d be in there trying to learn magic, looking at things and toys that I had no clue what they were at the time. I learned way more than magic. I had a couple mentors, but really magic is one of those things that’s very often self-taught.
DB: Now you’re something of a regular on Rachael Ray’s show. How did that happen?
JK: When her show was first starting, they were looking for interesting guests, and my manager got me into a meeting with the producers. I had a great rapport with Rachael, had a lot of fun and they asked me back. I always wanted to be a TV personality, so after a few times on Rachael Ray doing magic, they decided to expand my role and have me do quirky correspondent stuff.
DB: Has your magic always been tied to comedy?
JK: It hasn’t. At first I would imitate a lot of magicians and go through these phases. I had a very intense Lance Burton phase, where I would wear a tuxedo and tails and make birds appear and not even talk. I’d do the whole act to music. That was good, but I really wasn’t being true to myself, and it wasn’t until college doing private parties when I realized that my sense of humor was what set me apart. Being able to crack jokes and not take myself too seriously but still doing some pretty badass stuff, I found that to be where I fit in.
DB: Most of the stops on your current tour are at colleges. Is there something about college students that makes them more susceptible to magic tricks?
JK: College students by nature can be a very skeptical group, which is perfect, because I’m not the kind of the magician who’s going to come out there trying to fool you. My show is really more about entertainment value. I’ve been out of college a couple years, but I still feel like I’ve got the college student sensibility ““ definitely the sense of humor.
DB: It sounds like your college shows are quite different from your Rachael Ray performances.
JK: Yeah, for Rachael Ray I really have to clean it up for the soccer moms, but for the college students I let it loose. It’s nothing dirty, there are no four-letter words, but the show can have plenty of innuendos. It’s kind of like a Pixar movie, it has those different levels. I like to walk that line and get away with things that I really probably shouldn’t get away with.
DB: It seems like magic tricks aren’t the most fashionable form of entertainment right now, and yet you’ve been very successful with it. How did that happen?
JK: We see David Blaine and Criss Angel, and they tend to be fringe characters, very strong personas, very dark and mysterious, and you can’t really identify with them. That works really great for them, but what works for me is I’m a little more relatable, as opposed to being this very serious magician, I’m just an ordinary dude who knows some funny jokes and can do some pretty sweet tricks.
DB: You also seem to like performing for drunk people.
JK: I love performing for everybody, but doing magic for drunk people is a lot of fun. It reminds me of performing magic for kids ““ kids behave a lot like drunk grown-ups behave, with no inhibitions. They say what they feel. If something’s amazing they’ll freak out, and if something sucks, they’ll say it sucks. The politeness is gone, so it’s often a nice, brutal audience to try stuff out on and very rewarding to watch them freak out and vomit.
DB: It seems amazing that after all these years, people still get a kick out of simple magic tricks.
JK: It’s quite enduring. It’s one of the simplest art forms because the best magic is relatable. Even these days, the simplest stuff is still the most impactful. … If you can do a trick with a deck of cards, people know what cards are, they know what they feel like, and if you can do a miracle with those cards in their hands, that’s what they remember forever.
E-mail Goodman at agoodman@media.ucla.edu.