BEN HARRIS INTERVIEW + DOWNLOADS

The Merchant of Magic is please to have teamed up with one of the most influential magic creators of our time.. Ben Harris.

For those of you new to magic, Ben Harris has been inventing magic tricks since the late 1970's. His most famous invention, COSMOSIS: The Original Floating Match (1986) is one of magic's most popular effects. It is also one of the most ripped-off tricks in modern history as any search on the internet will prove. As the author of dozens of books, manuscripts and lecture notes on the art (as well as 40 plus individual tricks), Harris has toured, lectured and performed in over 30 countries.

Over the next few years, we will be slowly adding Ben's full range to the site! Check out his range in our BEN HARRIS SECTION

Interview with Ben Harris

“Card magic and guitar playing both float my boat. I like to explore the possibilities with each medium.”

Ben started his magic career in 1979 after a childhood obsessed with: searching for mysterious secrets, faking UFO photos, pretending to read minds, and karate chopping through stacks of roofing tiles with his proclaimed magical “Qi” power.

“I was a naughty boy, and still am.

Sometimes I really like to screw with people’s minds, push the boundaries. Take the ‘karate chopping through a stack of tiles or bricks’ as an example. It's a trick, but people are prepared to believe it’s something more mystical. They are prepared to believe that this trick demonstration "PROVES" some higher, or special, power of some sort. That's scary!

It even fools the Guinness Records people.

My first marketed trick was called ‘Needled.’ Immediately after releasing this I completed a booklet called “Eyes Only” which I self published. It was then picked up by Hades.”

“Hades published ‘Gellerism Revealed’ too, I believe.”

“Yes, they did,” Harris replies.

“What led to the Geller book—why did you write it?” I inquired.

“I wanted to join the Magic Circle in London. That was every young magician’s dream, right? My thesis for membership is what, in due course, became ‘Gellerism Revealed’. It took years of careful research and observation. The book is credited with being the first to really lay bare the methods and the all important psychology of the so called 'Geller Effect.'

I'm told that James Randi has even called it The 'Bible' of gelleresque methodology.

I recently watched Richard Osterlind’s ‘Easy To Master Mental Miracles Volume 4’ on DVD, and both he and Jim Sisti spoke fondly about it. This is the book that really pushed metal bending along in the magician’s realm.

Uri quotes from it at his website, twisting the context in a quite brilliant stroke. We once debated head to head via satellite which was quite a buzz.”

Harris pauses at this point and a card exits the deck with a little click. Gliding across the table, it comes to rest at my fingertips.

“Examine it, if you will. Make sure there are no secret attachments or motors, or mirrors, or...”

We both laugh, we both know the drill. Seriously, let’s get back on track. When did you start touring and creating magic for a living?

“The big break came in 1980 when I created the ‘Epic Flight’ concept. This was a genuine discovery of an odd scientific principle. No one had noticed it before. The effect sold by the thousands and by this time I had a whole swag of other effects.”

“Epic Flight? That’s with the keys and marking pen?”

“Yes, the secret being that a dry erase marker will neutralise a permanent marker. What was not possible to erase became possible to erase. The method has found much praise in the professional mentalism field.”

“You undertook world lecture tours in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. What were the highlights—your favourite countries, your most vivid memories?”

“I could not do it today. With all of the current travel restrictions, the delays, the delays, the delays. I just don’t have the patience. However, in my day I lectured in over 30 countries. I’d attend the big conventions too. Running a dealers stand really is hard work. Have you examined the card? May I have it?”

Ben takes the card at his fingertips and places it face-down on the table. He now waves his hand in small circles above the card. He’s moving his hand in swirling circles, casting a magical “spell” so he says.

Amazingly, the card starts to move. It firstly slides across the table top—in little jerking moves—AWAY from Ben’s hand. It looks so weird. Logic dictates that if there were any threads, it simply would not “look” like this! Then, suddenly the card simply “took off”—sliding across the table and leaping into my lap.

He laughs and asks that I examine the card again. He then takes the card back, asks that I examine his hands, then repeats the effect. I was baffled. This was like real PSI (or so I imagined). Harris then picked up the phone and muttered what I assume was a product number. Promptly, a slickly packaged product called “ZOOM” was delivered to the desk.

“A gift. Now let me show you something special. I’d like you to sign the card in your lap with this pen. Or if you like, you may want to exchange it for one of these...”

He spread the deck face up between is hands allowing a free choice. As I’d be signing the card, I opted to exchange my Jack of Spades for a more signature-friendly Two of Spades.

“Will I sign the front or the back?” I asked.

“It matters not” came the reply.

As I inscribed away, Ben picked up the tale where he’d left off.

“The times we are talking about, all the tours and what now seems like and endless stream of product, all occurred between 1985 and 1995. Cosmosis was a hit and controversial. My books like ‘Killer Klose-up’, ‘Dimensional Relativity’ and ‘Off The Wall’ were all successful. Tannens now own ‘Wall.’”

I proffered my now signed card to Harris and he slowly slid it into the center of the deck. He snapped his fingers and then turned the top card over. It was my signed Two of Spades. Once again he slipped the card into the deck’s middle. He handed the deck to me and asked that I hold it on my flat, outstretched, palm. Again he snapped his fingers. A look of “go on check it out!” prompted me to turn over the top card. Again it was my card.

I was impressed, but this is fairly standard “Ambitious Card” fare at this point.

“You see, that’s the ‘power of enlightenment’ at work. The term ‘Enlightenment,’ contrary to popular belief, does not refer to the gaining of wisdom. Rather it is...

“Rather it is...

The ability to make an object lighter, by increments—to ‘enlighten.’ Let me show you. Turn your card face down atop the deck. Now watch...”

Harris made strange passes from his position across the table. I held the deck in my outstretched palm in front of me.

“A fully fledged demonstration of the power can achieve levitation. It’s complete ‘Enlightenment,’ nirvana.”

As he spoke, the IMPOSSIBLE began to happen. The top card of the deck, my face-down card, BEGAN TO FLOAT. It lifted about an inch or so into the air, hovered and then settled back down onto the deck. I’d already turned the card over before Ben had a chance to say, “Go on, you know you have to take a peek!”

“Leave the card face-up this time.”

I’d placed the deck on the table and now placed my card as instructed. Once more, after the magical incarnations, my CARD ROSE INTO THE AIR. Again it hovered, and then floated back down. This was a card I freely selected. I signed it. Harris is across the table. I held the deck! I examined everything. The grin on his face was broad. He knows that this is something special. (Update: Indeed it is something special! This effect is called ENLIGHTENMENT and it was released to the magic fraternity in May of 2008. It has met with international acclaim, becoming one of the years best-selling and most discussed effects).

One of those “I have to take it phone calls” interrupts the proceedings. Harris is required at the factory to “place nicks.” These are the small nipples that hold die-cutting within it’s parent sheet to stop all the bits from falling out. “The positioning on some jobs is critical,” Ben adds. With this, the meeting is wound up and I proceed to my car—Zoom in hand and my head filled with ‘enlightenment.’