✦ Golden Grolla Award 2017

Paul Harris

The father of astonishment

Paul Harris is one of the most original creative minds magic has ever produced. From the 1970s onwards he invented a stream of close-up effects that looked like nothing anyone had seen before: visual, direct, almost self-working miracles where a card bends, melts, or changes in the spectator's own hands. Pieces of his, from torn-and-restored cards to impossible objects, have become part of the standard repertoire of magicians everywhere.

His trilogy "The Art of Astonishment" is a cornerstone of modern close-up magic, but it is more than a collection of tricks: in its pages Harris laid out his personal philosophy, the idea that astonishment is not a reaction to being fooled but a natural state of mind, a moment in which the world becomes new again. That idea quietly changed how a whole generation of performers thinks about what magic is for. As a consultant he has also shaped celebrated television magic seen by millions.

Masters of Magic honoured him with the Golden Grolla in 2017, welcoming to Saint-Vincent the man who taught magicians that their real product is not deception, it is wonder.

Honoured by Masters of Magic among the legends who have shaped the history of magic.