Simpson University Homecoming 2023 Presents: John Michael Hinton

As seen on the CW’s hit show “Penn & Teller: Fool Us" and with millions of views on YouTube, John Michael Hinton performs close-up magic for audiences of 10 to 10,000.

His unique style of close-up magic involves doing extraordinary things with ordinary objects, making people doubt their senses, question their reality, and search for answers. This creates a excellent platform to then share love, hope and truth.

John Michael Hinton graduated from Simpson University in 2006 with a bachelor of arts in communication.

“I wanted to figure out how to communicate the Gospel in a way that would impact people,” he said.

John became a world traveler at age 7 when his parents took a job with an oil company in Saudi Arabia. As a blueeyed, red-headed white boy in an Arab land, he stood out from the crowd and often found himself on the outside.

Learning magic tricks from his father was one of the few ways he found he could gain approval from his friends, but he knew it was temporal. John found the only acceptance and love that was lasting: the love of a Heavenly Father.

From then on, it became his life’s purpose to share the Gospel using any creative means possible.

"My tagline is: I fake the supernatural to cause people to be interested in the real supernatural," he said.

John has been “fabricating the supernatural” for 30 years. He has extensively studied the tricks and techniques used by psychics, mediums and faith healers. In his performances, he first defrauds their methods, revealing their false forms of spirituality. John speaks on real miracles and spirituality and how people should approach discovering the
Real Supernatural.

“My goal is simply to be a tool that God can use to spread His incredible gospel,” he said. “If my illusions earn me the right to be heard, awesome, but it’s the heart of God that I want people to truly walk away remembering.”

A member of the exclusive, world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, John has traveled to numerous countries over the past 15 years to fulfill that purpose, including Papua New Guinea, Russia, Taiwan, El Salvador, Mexico, and France.

In addition to his magic career, John spent five years serving as a youth pastor in Central California and recently moved back to the States after spending a year and a half doing missionary work in Paris, France, with his family.

Most of his free time is spent sharing large cups of black tea with his wife, Maribeth, a 2006 Simpson general ministries graduate, and their two children.

“Because of the experiences I’ve had at Simpson, every time I step on the campus, I get a feeling of home,” John said. “This is where I got to dream about what God might have for me. This is where God gave me my calling.”