Harry Anderson Quotes

My family has something of a special relationship with confidence tricks: my grandfather was a professional swindler.

"Do you like card tricks?" "No, I hate card tricks," I answered. "Well, I'll just show you this one." He showed me three.

I realised how much misdirection is in stunt co-coordinating. It's similar to magic, the tricks we use to make people think the stunt is real. I also have a lifelong fascination with gambling cheats. I'm not one, but I do have a fascination with it.

As a close-up magician, I was using gambling cheating techniques.

If I had auditioned for 'Merlin' on magic alone, I don't think I'd have got it. Like any kid, I probably had a magic kit, but it's not something I ever pursued. I've never watched a magic show like David Copperfield or used him to base my character on, but I really like David Blaine and Darren Brown. They are doing wonders.

One day, I saw a magic show, and I was like, 'I have to learn how to do this!' Every time I went to Las Vegas, I had to get at least two or three tricks from the magic shops.

If you want to talk about magic, the stuff that blows me away is the stuff that's done close up.

I've always loved movies about con men. I think con men are as American as apple pie.

If people are fans of 'Mindfreak,' they are going to be so excited with 'Believe.' They are actually going to see those illusions that people think can only happen with trick photography.

When I was six years old, I fell in love with magic. For Christmas, I got a magic box and a very old book on card manipulation. Somehow, I was more interested in pure manipulation than in all the silly little tricks in the box.

Magicians have done controlled testing in human perception for thousands of years.

I did rough hustling, what they call 'playing against the wall.' I just played myself with the players, so I would pay; I would make them shill. I would pay certain players and then take from others.

Did I run real swindles? Oh, yeah. I mean, I started as a - on the street. I did not begin as a performer. I began running the shell game.

I don't have the attention span to practice sleight of hand.

For the grifter, ripping people off is seldom the point. The grifter is an artiste who invests in the long con.

It's okay," he informs me. "Your grandfather is teaching me how to play poker." If I know Grandad, that means what he'll really be teaching Sam is how to cheat.

Magicians are definitely more arrogant. They're kind of like "Abra Kadabra, you're an idiot," they don't let you in on the joke. Comedians, you're always in on the joke unless it's Andy Kaufman.

I had never really been around cards.

Ive said its a little bit like a magician performing for a convention of magicians... all the magicians in the audience watching this illusion-Do they see the illusion, or do they see the device that made the illusion? Probably they see a little of both.

I always say that I love magic but I hate magicians. I like being fooled. If you wave your hands in front of my face and I think you're doing a trick, I'm easily impressed. If you pull a quarter out of my ear, I'm quite certain you're a wizard. But I don't like the way most magicians don't act like they're magical; they act like show business dicks.

It is curious and we magicians collect curiosities, you know.

Disappearing act? That's a magic trick, isn't it? I like magic tricks!

There is not a physicist in the world who can perceive when a parlor magician palms off playing-cards.

The existence of tricks does not imply the absence of magic.

It was the heart of any scam or fiddle -- keep the punter uncertain, or, if he is certain, make him certain of the wrong thing.