Paul Harris

Paul Harris is an inventor, magician, and writer. Described by the magazine Genii Magazine (December 1996) as "the most innovative magic mind of our day" and is listed in MAGIC Magazine (August 1999) as one of "the 100 magicians who shaped the art of magic in America."

He has invented many original tricks including: Linking playing cards, a solid deck, a torn and restored card effect, coins materializing from mirrors, a card that appears to turning ninety degrees when pushed into the pack, and a torn and restored quarter.

MAGIC magazine (August 1999) states that "the feats of astonishments that Paul creates and teaches are in the repertoires of a multitude of working pros."

Harris has performed at the Dunes Hotel and at other locations on the Las Vegas Strip and was a technical advisor for David Blaine's Magic Man and Street Magic TV shows. He also wrote the screenplay for the abysmal 1987 film Nice Girls Don't Explode.

In 2007, his effect "LadyBug" won 3rd place in The Magic Woods Awards for Best Trick 2007.

MAGIC magazine did a Paul Harris cover issue for June 2007, which contained a great cover story "Living in Astonishment" by Eric Mead.

Bibliography

Books by Paul Harris

• Magic of Paul Harris (1976)
• Paul Harris Reveals Some of His Most Intimate Secrets (1976)
• Super Swindle (Manuscript) (1976)
• Inside/Close up (Lecture notes) (1976)
• Cardboard Connection (Manuscript) (1977)
• Supermagic (1977)
• Las Vegas close-up (1978)
• Close-Up Entertainer (1979)
• Close Up Fantasies Book One (1980)
• Close Up Fantasies Book Two (1980)
• The Inner Circle (Manuscript) (1980)
• Close Up Fantasies Finale (1981)
• P.H. Breakthrough (Manuscript) (1981)
• Immaculate Connection (Manuscript) (1983)
• Close-Up Kinda Guy (1983)
• Brainstorm in the Bahamas (with Mike Ammar, Daryl) (1983)
• Close-Up Seductions (1984)
• Secrets of the Astonishing Executive with Bill Herz (1991)
• Art of Astonishment Vol 1-3 (1996)

Effects by Paul Harris

This page should be moved to Paul Harris

Effect	Description	Publication
4 Ace Revelation	Is this a rename of another effect? I need to view tape to verify	Stars of magic #11 Video
Absorption	A card is 'absorbed' into the card case during an amusing 'memorytest'. Paul calls this a 'sort of cardician's whoopee cushion'.	Art of Astonishment Vol 1
Acapulco Thinker	Deck spread, spectator mentally selects card, deck turned around,one card up-jogged, spectator names card, up-jogged card matches.,	Close-Up Entertainer
Ace Trap	Art of Astonishment Vol 1, Supermagic
Air	Art of Astonishment Vol 1
Angel Case	Art of Astonishment Vol 2,Art of Astonishment Video
Anything Deck	You have a card selected and ask for a 'special' word. The special word is used to locate the selection. Finally, the packet of cards is displayed and each has a largeletter on it's back. The letters spell out the special word.	Deep Astonishment,Art of Astonishment Vol 3 ,Deep Astonishment II
Apple	Torn and restored Mackintosh, or Granny Smith or Golden Delicious.	Art of Astonishment Vol 1

Noted illusions

Amongst the magicians who are known to have presented Paul Harris creations are David Copperfield and Doug Henning. In the field of card and close-up magic, Paul Harris more or less re-innovated the genre during the 1970-80s, and is held in very high regard among magicians in the western world.

Doug Henning performed a routine called "Twilight" on his third TV special (December 13, 1977). An effect using a coin and a mirror where the mirror image of the coin becomes real. A surreal piece.

David Copperfield in a 1984 special (the one where he made the Statue of Liberty disappear) performed a linking card effect "The Immaculate Connection." In this routine, the magician tears holes in the center of three playing cards in order to create three "frames." The illusion consists in causing the frames to appear to link and unlink without damaging any of the cards. At the conclusion, the cards are sometimes passed for inspection; to all appearances no extra cards or gimmicks are employed.

Rudy Coby, in his English TV series, used Paul Harris's odd idea of letting the helium in a balloon magically change place with the air in the performer's lungs—-so, as the balloon slowly sunk to the floor, the performer simultaneously went up in the air with an all squeaky voice.

Paul Harris has been a technical advisor/magic consultant for David Blaine's TV Shows.

External links

• The Astonishment Project Website
• Denis Behr's Searchable Magic Book Contents
• The Ultimate Paul Harris fan page
• Wikipedia article
• Paul Harris Reference Guide