Harry Anderson Quotes

My interest was magic, believe it or not. I became an amateur magician and did something like 400 magic shows through my teen years.

My interest in magic was kindled by Steve Martin, the comedian I'd gone to high school with.

I never quite know how to describe what I do. I normally just say, 'Oh, I'm a magician', which probably puts fairly naff ideas in people's minds but is pleasantly conversation-stopping.

I'm not a big fan of doing it because I get really frustrated because I can't do any of the tricks, but I love to watch magic.

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

I started performing when I was 9 or 10, doing magic.

I always wanted to do magic tricks - I feel like that could be the the next wave.

He spent hours and hours and hours practising these conjuring tricks. It's just such a curious thing.

I've been doing magic since I was five years old, and when I was trying to get acting gigs, I found I could make a good living at it. It's great to kind of shake the cobwebs off and get the feeling of a live audience again. I love close-up magic, the card stuff, the coin stuff, the really up-close David Blaine stuff.

All David Blaine is is a good-looking magician.

I definitely went through my magic phase. I think all little boys do at some point or another - they get fascinated by magic tricks.

Magic is like special effects live, and I love to perform, so it sounded like doing magic tricks were a good way to entertain people.

I'm a magician. A lot of people don't know that I've won awards. I used to do big stage shows.

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.

Dai Vernon, the greatest sleight of hand figure in the history of the art, rarely performed. But he invented magic and had an enormous influence on the whole range of sleight of hand. And so often, the magic he was doing was to fool other magicians.

I did magic at children's parties when I was a kid.

Magic came very easy for me when I was a kid. When I was 8 years old I started doing it, and by the time I was 12, I was already published in magic books.

I'm friends with Criss Angel. Criss has offered me a million times to go downstairs and see the setup. I don't want to see it. I just want to go, 'God, how did you do that?'

Harry Collins was the first magician I ever saw back in 1965 when I was five years old. He was doing a magic show and I was the volunteer from the audience.

I suppose that if I could only do one thing, a solid card effect would be pretty high on the list. That's the root of it all, sleight-of-hand. It's certainly the thing I feel most comfortable with.

Magic and new technology have always walked hand in hand - even back in the days of Robert Houdin.

I don't think you can say something is or isn't magic. That's what was cool about Houdini, because he was a magician who had a magic show, but he was also an escape artist, and they kind of, over time, blended together. They both kind of enhance each other, I think.

I'm a big Penn & Teller fan. But I myself was never very good; I was a teenage magician who performed at kids' parties. I can still perform a vanish, credibly, and I still, in special circumstances, will make a balloon animal.

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.

The problem with stage magic is that it looks really good, but everyone knows there's a trick box.