“I have a life outside of [being] a professor,” Jeptha “Jep” Hostetler said.

Jep, 79, has spent 30 years as a professor at Ohio State and is now retired from teaching. But he is a full-time motivational speaker and magician, runs one of the largest magic conventions in the country and is a grandfather of seven.

Joy is a prominent theme in Jep’s life. He has researched it, written a book on it called “The Joy Factor” and gives motivational speeches of the same title. The word “joy” is even displayed on tables and walls in his living rooms.

His speech is on six aspects that play into choosing a life of joy, and he shares stories from his childhood growing up with seven siblings.

“I try to live what I speak,” Jep said after sharing the six factors of joy. The six factors are that life is: a gift, sacred, difficult, short, humorous and a spiritual journey.

“I tell people to take all the electronics off and ‘SDSU’ — ‘sit down and shut up,'” Jep said. “Do what nurtures you. It could be music or quiet or whatever.”

At his speeches he offers advice on being authentic, accepting others, recognizing small steps and respect.

“I really believe in the beauty of humanity, despite all the crap out there,” Jep said.

An element of Jep’s speech is his magic.

Jep has been very active in the magic community both locally and internationally. He has run the Columbus Magi-Fest for the past 30 years, which had 750 people attend last year.

He was also the president of the 14,000 member International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1993 and 1994 and has won the first place award for his close-up magic at their annual convention.

Jep has given his talk on “The Joy Factor” over 1,000 times to audiences of more than 1,200 people. He loves the energy of the audience and the time it affords him to spend with his family.

“I have been married to my wife Joyce for 30 years,” Jep said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. “I have three daughters and seven grandkids. I live!”

“I’m looked down upon by the real academicians,” Jep said.

Jep started his career at OSU in 1970, researching and teaching anatomy. His research was done mainly with electron microscopes, which were state of the art at the time.

After a number of years, he decided to change his career to something that allowed him to do more with people: preventive medicine. There, he did research on how to deal with drug and alcohol problems.

At one point, his research led him to a three-day period posing as a bum living on the street, trying to buy and sell drugs.

“We wore raggedy clothes,” Jep said, “and we slept under park benches. I hardly got any sleep, I was so scared.”

Jep said he enjoyed teaching and connecting with students.

“I wanted students to learn beyond the body, go beyond the anatomy, go beyond structure,” Jep said. “I wanted students to see what they would be as a physician.”

He wanted students to be more than “one ill, one pill, one bill” physicians and learn to actually listen and get to know their patients.

Throughout his time teaching, Jep won teaching awards from students, but he said it didn’t mean much to him. The awards went to whoever was “most popular with students”.

“The best teachers are usually despised when they were teaching. They make you really think,” Jep said. “I think I had a little both.”

Jep never integrated his magic with his teaching, but still performed one trick at the end of the year to let students know “there is a part of life that isn’t science”.

“You can’t integrate them,” Jep said. “Science is seeking facts. Magic is trying to lie, basically.”