Harry Anderson

I clearly remember when Harry Anderson arrived in Los Angeles for the first time. He had spent most of his career on the streets of New Orleans and San Francisco before moving indoors at The Magic Cellar in San Francisco. Here he was forced to learn how to use a stand mic. The owners of the club were constantly telling him, “Not so loud, we can hear you fine through the speakers.”

Around 1977 he was booked into the Palace of Mystery at the Magic Castle. I attended the early show one evening and remember thinking, “there’s no way that this level of hilarity and chaos is going to be repeated at the 10:00 show.” As the crowd filed out, I jumped back into line so I could watch the next show. If anything, the pandemonium during the next show had been ratcheted up considerably. Honestly, I’d never seen anything like Harry the Hat and neither had anyone else. With his slouch hat, wide tie, and con-man persona, he seemed like a character out of the 1940s. The fact that this character also did amazing magic was just a bonus. We became fast friends.

Between 1990 and 1993 I worked on a book called Wise Guy that included all of the material that Harry had devised up to that point. I recorded dozens of long conversations about all facets of magic and it was from these tapes that I was able to write the manuscript. Many of the effects that he had used throughout his career were standard tricks but he always managed to transform them with an original routine. Harry purchased a Micky Hades Finger Chopper, and his girlfriend at the time, Allison, was missing half of her little finger on one hand. Now don’t get ahead of me.

To help out during the show, she would be sitting at the close-up table. Harry would demonstrate how the blade of the Finger Chopper could easily cut a cigarette in half and then invite a spectator to insert his finger through the hole. Harry held tightly onto the end of his finger as he explained to the audience why the spectator was so uncomfortable. He knew what was going to happen, he just didn’t know when it would happen, and that’s what created the tension. To ease his concern, Harry explained, “I’ll smack the blade down on the count of three. No, that’s too common-place. Let’s say on the count of four and a half. Allison, you be the one who counts.” Allison held up her hand with her fingers curled in. When she said ONE, she extended her index finger. As each successive number was announced, she straightened another finger. On the count of four-and-a-half, her little finger was extended. It looked exactly like the old gag where you fold your finger in half. Then she rotated her hand until her palm was facing the audience. That’s when everyone suddenly realized that this was no gag. This was real. This guy’s crazy. And that’s when Harry slammed down the blade.

Here was a piece of apparatus that thousands of magicians had in their drawer at home, but it took Harry Anderson to turn it into an unforgettable theatrical moment.

Studio photo from Harry’s recurring role as con man Harry the Hat on Cheers.

Then there was the Needle Through Arm. Hundreds were sold but Harry created a career defining routine that propelled him from Las Vegas stages to Saturday Night Live. Throughout the entire routine, Harry continually told the audience that it was just a trick and what they thought they were seeing wasn’t really happening. “Come on people. If your cat had kittens in the oven, you wouldn’t call them biscuits.” But the audience chose to believe their own eyes rather than what this con man was saying. And when Harry was suddenly surprised by the blood that started streaming down his arm, the audience was further convinced that they were right and that this needle trick had gone horribly wrong. The effect just looked so damn real.

When Harry taped his first TV special called Hello Sucker (which you can still watch on YouTube) the front row of the audience was composed largely of Harry’s friends. I played the role of Walter Helmhurst and lent him a five-dollar bill. My wife Tina Lenert was the poor soul who pulled the needle out of Harry’s arm. During the taping, part way into the Needle routine, Harry didn’t like the way the needle looked in his arm. You are probably aware that to perform this trick, the performer’s arm is bent up and the needle is held on the upstage side. The performer appears to push the needle through and only then is the arm lowered so the audience can see that it has apparently penetrated the flesh. Normally the illusion is perfect, but on this occasion, Harry didn’t like the way it looked. He suddenly said to the director, “Keep rolling but I’m going to start over.” He pulled the needle out, cleaned up his arm, and began again. The audience didn’t mind and ultimately, they didn’t even remember miner glitch.

Performing his stage version of the Three Card Monte called The Monarch Monte.

Now we jump to the editing room weeks later. Harry is there with the editor and the director and they are running the Needle footage back and forth through the editing machine. They watched as Harry suddenly pulled the needle out of his arm, and then watched the same piece of tape backwards. This time it looked exactly like the needle was being pushed visibly through his arm. The director shouted, “That’s the shot.” The rest of them tried to explain that this was actually Harry pulling the needle out of his arm but they were seeing it backwards. The director said, “I don’t even know how this trick works but isn’t the effect supposed to be that Harry is shoving a needle through his arm? Well for those few seconds, for the first time, I actually saw him do it.”

Millions of viewers had no idea that this impossible shot of Harry visibly pushing the needle through his arm was actually a few seconds of video tape being shown backwards and in slow motion. The result of this was that Harry and I had many long conversations about the difference between an acceptable camera trick and an unacceptable camera trick. Harry’s theory was that if an effect can be explained by saying the camera was stopped and then restarted, you shouldn’t do it. But no one assumed that the Needle Through Arm was accomplished through the use of a camera trick. Not with real people sitting a few feet away, who are screaming and laughing at what is happening right in front of their eyes. Any one who ever saw Harry perform the Needle in a live show would be willing to testify that yes, they saw him push a long knitting needle through his arm and yes there was blood, but no wound was left behind. They know what they saw and no one is going to tell them otherwise. We both agreed that this camera trick did not create the effect, it merely enhanced it.

A short time after Hello Sucker aired, Harry appeared on the Larry King Show wherein viewers could call in with questions. During the broadcast, a magician called in and said that he owned that Needle Through Arm trick and there was no way Harry could have done what was shown on the screen. Larry King was about to cut the guy off but Harry interrupted and said, “wait, that’s a good question.” He went on to explain that there were two versions of the needle trick. One was mass produced for amateurs and was sold in magic shops. The other was a professional version that very few magicians had access to. What he had seen Harry do on television was the professional version. The caller probably thought that this explanation was a crock but Larry King thought it made perfect sense, and thus, a potential uncomfortable situation had been averted.

So, what was it that propelled Harry Anderson to the very forefront of American popular entertainment. No one believes it was the standard tricks that he purchased at a magic shop. Instead, it was a completely original, and wholly believable character that was an exaggerated version of who Harry actually was. Harry really was a product of the streets. For years he took money from people on the sidewalk by hiding a pea under one of three shells. At the end of one day, his efforts produced a hat full of dollar bills and a broken jaw.

Part of Harry’s Needle Through Arm routine had him shoving the needle through the head of a fake rabbit.

So, Harry’s advice to all of us would be to spend a little less time on the nuts and bolts of the tricks and a bit more time on who we are up on that stage. What is our backstory? What do we want the audience to believe about ourself? Make sure that everything you say is perfectly suited to the character you are trying to portray. Once you have figured out the answers to these questions, you’ll find it much easier to create routines and write patter for yourself.

The path you will travel down is long and winding. The joy you will surely enjoy during your journey is not the result of reaching your goal but is the journey itself. Learn to enjoy this process and you will look forward to the hours of work and the slow and steady progress.