Money Magic with Josh Janousky

You know him from his incredible Instagram presence – we’re super excited to have @JustJoshInMagic on the show this week. Josh became obsessed with magic as a teenager. It was an interest that started as a diversion from his rigorous training as a musician. But soon enough he had traded the saxophone for a deck of cards. As he entered college he could no longer afford buying magic and so began to create his own tricks – all of which were horrible. He would perform for kids at various daycares and preschools but realized he preferred the magic he did for his friends. He went to school at UCF which is the largest university in the United States. That enormous student body provided a great audience for his early efforts. Josh works as a professional animator and has balanced both of his passions in his life. He finds there is a lot of parallels between magic and animation. He has used Instagram to build a big audience. He started recording his tricks as a way to create magic that he had never seen before. The reaction was so strong that he was encouraged to create more and more. “It just started to evolve,” he says. “I’m just grateful that people have liked them.” Josh thinks that having a day job has been a huge benefit to his magic career. He has the luxury of creating magic just for the love of it. It has also allowed him to create authentic relationships in the magic community without worrying about the career aspect of it. Josh has a real obsession with money magic. Because it’s an everyday object that people are familiar with money magic tricks have a huge effect on an audience. The audience also thinks they know what a counterfeit bill would look like. The audience is sure that a real bill can’t be tampered with. That fact makes a money trick all the more amazing to audience. Using “real money” makes the magic all the more real. What do you want to tell the audience? Researching and crediting is so huge. Josh is working on a book about money magic and he has learned the importance of giving credit where credit is due. Learn your magical history What do you want to ask the audience? If you could do your favourite trick with a different medium what medium would you adapt it to? Who should we have on the podcast? Jeff Prace What was your favourite part of the episode? Jonah liked hearing about how Josh was attracted to money as a medium for his magic. Tyler liked hearing about the crossover of magic and animation in Josh’s life. Josh liked the discussion about being true to yourself and doing things that you enjoy. Plugs https://www.instagram.com/justjoshinmagic/ http://www.justjoshinmagic.com/ http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/9420 https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic/close-up-magic/just-joshin-book/