The Always Amazing movie was released on YouTube this week. In our group of comedians, Peter Meisel, Christina Van Look and Sean Morahan have all had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Joel Ozborn who plays a significant part in this extraordinary movie about the comedian/magician ‘The Amazing Johnathan‘.
Speaking with other comedians, many of us remember being blown away when we first experienced The Amazing Johnathan on ‘Hey Hey It’s Saturday’ on Australian TV in the 1980s. Others remember laughing at his appearances on Comedy Central. One of the comedians on our roster called The Amazing Johnathan the single greatest influence on his comedy career.
Johnathan developed his comedy skills as a street performer. One of his greatest challenges was to capture and keep the attention of passing strangers. Johnathan invented creatively brilliant ways to demand people’s attention when they unsuspectingly passed near his performance area on the sidewalk. When Johnathan later moved that level of attention-getting hilarity to indoor comedy venues, the audience was overwhelmed with a comedy tsunami.
The producers of this movie ‘Always Amazing’ released the film at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Vancouver. The movie is already rating well on IMDB and the producers decided to share the movie free on YouTube. You can watch it above.
We were ‘amazed’ that this movie was available free on YouTube, as we would have gladly invested 20-25 dollars to watch it in a cinema! Within a couple of days of its release on YouTube, the movie already has more than 180,000 views.
The movie has some impressive credits, too. The director was comedian Steve Byrne. The movie had guest appearances from David Copperfield and Penn Jillette (from Penn & Teller). Bill Burr was one of the executive producers and he discussed the movie recently on his podcast.
The movie artfully relays the story of Johnathan’s early stumbling steps into magic and comedy, his explosive success in comedy, and his poignant setbacks. The movie also shines a spotlight on the extraordinary tale of how Joel met The Amazing Johnathan and subsequently became his road manager and best friend.
It really is a rewarding movie to watch, especially for comedy fans. We hope it gives you the pleasure it gave us!
I remember Johnathan as groundbreaking and brilliant. Such a talented performer.
Such a cool guy and a great story
So many things in this movie made me laugh. Hope Johnathan’s legacy continues…
truly hilarious!!!
“Sometimes magic sounds like tape!” LOL!
I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie as good as this. They’ve done a superb job telling this story. And The Amazing Johnathan still makes me laugh today as much as he did in the 80s.
Can’t believe a movie this good is on youtube for free!
It’ѕ wonderful to watch all this footage of Amazing Johnathan!
David Copperfield’s ‘one word’ made me lose it!
Wow, just awesome! thanks for posting this!
I’ve always loved The Amazing Johnathan!
We saw Joel Ozborn at the Forum in Melbourne and he was hilarious. So good to see this back-story to his career as well as learn more about the amazing Johnathan!
Death. It’s the ultimate career move. 😉
Thanks for sharing this. Such an amazing talent!
Spectacular!
Brilliant!
This is amazing. It’s great watching him again!
Such a great performer and a really good movie!
Such a brilliant, talented performer. Had no idea that he had been through so much. I hope his health improves and he can perform again!
He’s one of my favorite comedians and this is a really great movie. Thanks for posting this!
So good to see him again! Great movie!