Aww. I never met Harry Anderson but I saw him perform a number of times — at the Magic Castle and other venues. He was always slick, funny and able to send the audience out chuckling. I always thought it was interesting that he basically played two roles in his performing career. One was as an unscrupulous con man who would bilk you of your last greenback if he could get away with it. The other was as a judge.
To be truly great at magic, you need more than the ability to deal off the bottom of the deck or palm a coin or misdirect an audience's attention while you hide the potato under the cup. You need a talent for delivery and it's not far removed from the talent needed to tell a joke effectively. Most magic tricks have punchlines and like an expert comedian, you have to be able to time them just right. Mr. Anderson was an expert comedian and an expert magician and no one did a better job of intersecting those skill sets.