Martin Breese interviewed Robert Harbin on March 26th, 1977, not even one year before Harbin's untimely death. The interview took place at Harbin's home in London, England.
Spend 90 minutes listening to Robert Harbin - one of the world's most creative illusionists and inventors. Here is the full life story of the man who invented Zig Zag and a number of other illusions that will be performed by magicians over the years to come. Since making the recording Robert Harbin became ill and died. The words spoken on this tape were used as the basis for The Robert Harbin Book published by Martin Breese. Hear how Robert Harbin, bitten by the magical bug, arrived as a young man from South Africa full of enthusiasm but very little practical experience. Listen to him laughing at some of his early disastrous performances and see how modestly he talks about his own performing ability. No secrets are revealed on this recording but an idea he discussed for a presentation of Seven Keys To Baldpate provided sufficient information for a performer to set to work to develop a routine based on just a few minutes of discussion on this recording.
Harbin was a professional magician and most famous for his Zig-Zag Girl illusion which he invented and which sadly was pirated by many dealers and illusion builders. Harbin talks about Zig Zag and he said that only those who purchased his book had the right to manufacture a Zig Zag for their own use and he said that already there were many times more Zig Zags than copies of the book that he had published. He was saddened by the piracy but expressed very little bitterness. "There is little honour among we thieves," he said. The Zig-Zag Girl is very likely the most performed stage illusion of all time. Harbin was also devoted to origami, wrote a number of best selling origami books and was the president of the British Origami Society.
What an interesting character Robert Harbin was. Here is Robert Harbin's life story. A tale of hardship, bitter experiences and how it all lead to his great success.
This is a digitally re-mastered (MP3) version of the original MagiCassette™ first released in 1977 by Martin Breese and later released as Magi-CD™ - now owned by Lybrary.com.
The MP3 format allows you to listen to it with your iPod or other MP3 player.
