Since I had the Harbin resources out (Lewis’ biography, Steinmeyer’s notes from assorted places, reprinted stuff from Abracadabra, Mysto Magic’s reprint of his books, and “Harbin’s book”) , I thought I’d see if there was any interesting “paper effects” for Feburary’s meeting of the Northwest Ring of Fire.
Harbin loved things that folded but I eliminated most of those since they were cardboard or fibreboard (often plywood) and I wanted “paper”. I had to take a detour to UTube to watch his performance of Zig-Zag Lady. I also eliminated mental and mind reading stuff that used paper although he had many published ideas on these. Noted elsewhere is the fact that Harbin did not publish any tricks that involved origami. Steinmeyer used Harbin’s ideas to invent a piece using origami for the Harbin Centenary Celebration (A Tribute to Robert Harbin, “A Trick for Lillian”).
I still think his newspaper tear (can be seen on UTube) is one of the best situational presentations of magic that makes sense. He describes both methods he used in his works (Demon Magic and “his book”). He also had a couple of newspaper predictions that involved tearing. Three from from his book, Demon Magic: “Some Paper Magic”, looked interesting. Continue reading
Three years ago, during Steinmeyer’s comments at the Magic Circle’s Harbin Centenary Celebration, he related a conversation with Lillian Oppenheimer, who brought paperfolding to America, “She interrupted the conversation to point out, ‘You know, I think that Harbin also did some magic, didn’t he?’ The fact that Ms Oppenheimer could make this remark, and I could find it funny, is evidence of jus how important Harbin was in these two different fields.”