Agreed. :D in fact, magician's assistants are the ones doing most of the weight, especially for a lot of illusions like these, so I wouldn't dismiss them as just mere "assistants" but rather as separate performers in their own right.
Paul reproducing the illusion which Robert Harbin made famous, and Paul taking it one stage further with the middle section. I couldn’t see how it was done by Robert, and I still can’t. It’s one of magics greatest triumphs!