The Amazing Johnathan Dies At 63: Magician-Comic Was Longtime Fixture On TV & In Las Vegas
deadline.comThe Amazing Johnathan, the veteran magician and comic who headlined in Las Vegas for more than a decade and appeared often on television including stand-up specials and David Letterman’s shows, died late Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas.
He was 63 and had been struggling with health problems including cardiomyopathy for several years.His wife, sideshow stunt artist Anastasia Synn, confirmed the news to the Las Vegas Journal-Review today. “I’m losing my beautiful, brilliant husband,” she’d said Tuesday on social media.Born John Edward Szeles on September 9, 1958, in Detroit, he began doing street comedy in San Francisco as in the early 1980s and starting landing guest spots on TV including Thicke of the Night, Up All Night and Late Night with David Letterman.
He would go on to appear many times on Letterman’s show on NBC and later CBS.As stand-up comedy boomed in the late ’80s and early 1990s, the Amazing Johnathan — usually with his trademark headband — continued to work in clubs and TV.
He multiple episodes of A&E’s An Evening at the Improv and ultimately making a record two dozen appearances on Fox’s Comic Strip Live, with audiences lapping up his unique style that combined sometimes-gory imagery with audience interaction and shtick.By 2001, he was headlining in Sin City — a gig that would last 13 years at various venues before he returned to the club circuit.
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