Talk:Paul Harris (magician)

Matt Graves

It's not all that biased. This is factual information. I don't know of any established magicians who would disagree with the content. I've yet to meet a magician who doesn't perform material invented by Paul Harris. It's just a well-known fact in the magic community. Most of the statements that were found questionable were taken from articles in Paul's Italic text Art of AstonishmentItalic text series. These articles were not written by Paul, but by other well-known magicians. If nobody else does, sometime when I have some extra time on my hands, I'll look up each of these "questionable" statements and attribute them to the proper source. Maybe this article wasn't written expertly, but the content is valid, I assure you. I'm very familiar with Paul's work. He is indeed a professional magician and has been for more than 30 years! He is one of the best. If you doubt that, ask any magician. An example of a meeting-place for magicians on the net is www.themagiccafe.com. Ask some of those administrators what they think of Paul Harris. He is one of the most respected magicians of our time. In fact, David Blaine's "street magic" persona was modeled after Paul Harris. Paul Harris helped Blaine put his first two specials together and is currently working with him on another one. Don't diss the PH man. Nov. 3, 2005 7:26 A.M. CST

Hi Eclipsed.

Here we go again. I don't think it is a point of view if you have actually worked and been taught by Paul in a closed session and one on one. You learn to know what he is like. Seems like I just can't win. Big deal! User talk:Kazuba 29 Jul 2005

the content you added had no reference to anyone who actually worked with him, it only provided a Point of View with no justification. If you are the actual person who worked with him, why not rewrite it along the lines of "According to one of his past students..." or if you know a specific person who has expressed these ideas, maybe something like "Jane Doe said that..." That help? Eclipsed 19:38, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Hi Eclipsed: Whatever you say tickles me to death. Mmm, but I don't see a reference source here for each and every sentence. Thanks for caring enough to share. I will weigh your advice carefully. Adios. Got fun things to do. User talk: Kazuba29 Jul 2005

POV

this looks like a highly compromised and biased page.

• 'It has been said that almost all professional close-up magicians perform at least one of Paul Harris' effects'

this sounds ridiculous. who said this? have we testimony from close up magicians in peru, greece and bangladesh? unsustainable assertion.

• 'Paul has stated that he draws inspiration from works of art. Escher..'

said to whom? sounds like a pile of pseudo intellectualism.

• 'It has been said that Paul doesn't view a pack of cards as just a pack of cards, but as a pile of fifty-two blank pieces of cardboard'

who is the source for this? shoud we care?

• 'Not much has been written about Paul's personal life'

Are we surprised at the 'oversight' or in need of this knowledge? what then follows is pure trivia:

• 'hooked up with ... magic shop was bought out, and eventually folded .. but his creative efforts appear to have been based in Las Vegas. ..hung around with the likes of ... Later, Daryl and Michael Ammar became part of the creative circle' ..

utter trivia and attempt at making this guy sound important by asosiation

• 'Paul has performed at ..other locations'

why bother with this level of inexactness?

• 'Paul collaborated on a movie i..with friend .. it's a silly comedy (with a memorable title) ..

are we missing somehting? maybe where he buys his fries?

I am suggesting all this needs immediate deletion and the clean up needs to happen in general. Tiksustoo 23:41, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

1 - It is a safe bet to say that most skilled magicians around the world perform at least one of Mr. Harris creations, unless they have been isolated from the western magic scene since 1970.

2&3 - Though this perhaps sound strange, it has relevance. Mr. Harris is responsible for a paradigm shift within close-up magic. Before, most card magic were based on using the deck of cards as a deck of cards, i.e. the plots were based on gambling or shuffling. Mr. Harris changed that world through a series of books between 1973 and 1984, in which he detailed strange topological ideas where the decor on the cards gets animated (a king stabs himself with his sword), a card transform even though it has been stapled to another card, a flat folded card case is inflated and a full deck is removed, reflections in a mirror turns real... ideas that were totally unprecedented, and almost every magician (with an interest in sleight of hand) who came across those books were transformed. I do not find it strange that magicians talk about Mr. Harris in almost religious terms, because that's the kind of influence he has had. What most magicians wondered about was; where did he get his ideas from? I believe that the only place that question was answered was around 1982-83 in an interview in "Magic Manuscript" (I might remember wrong), where he mention that he get a lot of inspiration from the works of Escher. That is perhaps a fact which is useless in the wikipedia - but for me who also create new effects, it is an extremely interesting study to try to track the connections between a painting by Escher and a magic effect by Mr. Harris. I've learnt a lot from it. The statement about viewing a deck of cards as 52 separate objects is from the same interview (unless I remember wrong). Unfortunately, I've lost that issue, so I can't check.

4, 5, 6 - It's true, Mr. Harris has never given much personal details, and it appears as if he is embarrased by the attention he has got, and the rest is probably best called "trivia". Though "making this guy sound important by asosiation" is the other way around. Daryl and Ammar are the ones who gain from being associated with Mr. Harris.

7 - Apparantly, the movie was rather bad.

--TStone 08:32, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

changes made. remove POV alert?

okay - you can als see i made changes as indicated. i will remove the POV hand if no further objections. Tiksustoo 16:47, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

no. POV alert stays

looks like only me editing. i shoud be surprised but im not. looked like a load of free commercial for Harris' new material available for magicians - so I removed the mention. POV hand stands until someone else comes utp witht the goods. dont realy get a asence that this guy is a magician - he just inventsn effects. is that a liveing? and why no third party validation? Tiksustoo 23:12, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

NPOV

Just wanted to let everyone know that the npov tag was incorrect. Someone went through far more work than they needed to in order to place it. Paul 07:29, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

oh yeah? we should believe you. seems i am doing all the editing here and i STILL can't believe i am bothering. more info needed about effects, dates, shows. or someone less simpatico than me is gonna afd. Tiksustoo 11:57, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

Funny day today. I guess it kills me to admit but my edits have made this page survivable. But no more anonymous edits please as in addition to discussion at top - which was itself of suspect POV! Let's keep this page encyclopaedic and wiki-fit. I will shortly remove NPOV unless others object. Tiksustoo

Strange as it seems, the exaggerated comments about Paul Harris are actually valid. Among magicians around the world, he has a status equal to Einstein or Picasso. I work as a professional magician in Sweden, and I use at least 6-7 of Mr. Harris' creations on a regular basis. Most of my collegues in Europe (those who specialize in sleight-of-hand) feature at least one or two of his ideas. I don't know whether this holds true for magicians in peru and bangladesh, but I know for a fact that skilled magicians in Europe (including greece) and Japan share the views in the article here. If I was given the task of naming the 5 most important magicians from the last 50 years, in the terms of promoting artistic evolution within close-up magic, Mr. Harris would be one of them. (The other four would be Dai Vernon (USA), Tony Slydini (USA), Juan Tamariz (Spain) and Tommy Wonder (Holland) )--TStone 07:13, 18 January 2006 (UTC)