Harlan Tarbell – Complete Tarbell Course in Magic 1-8

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TheTarbell Courseis without a doubt the most comprehensive and most encompassing magic literary work in existance today. It has almost 1300 pages and nearly 2900 illustrations. It covers practically every form of magic： sleight of hand with cards， coins， thimbles， cigarettes， silks， ropes， …， up to mentalism and illusions. It goes beyond the mere technique and teaches patter， routining， marketing and other often neglected facets of being a magician. There is no other book which comes even close in breadth and depth of the material covered. It is amazing that since the late 1920s nobody has written anything as comprehensive as theTarbell Course. This course has lost very little over time and is still a wonderful reference work and study aid. Most would agree that theTarbell Courseshould be part of any magicians library.

David Bamberg (Fu Manchu) credited the original course with making him the success he was.

You will get the original correspondence course of 60 lessons plus the one post graduate lesson that Tarbell wrote. These 60 + 1 lessons are not identical to the later published anthologies (book volumes 1-8 of which only 1-5 were actually written by Tarbell himself; the other volumes were added later under theTarbell Coursename mainly for marketing purposes). For the most part， the 60 lessons can be found under different lesson numbers and sometimes different headings in the volumes 1 to 5 of the books. The post graduate lesson was reprinted in book volume 8. There are some parts from the original 60 lessons that you will not find anywhere in the eight book volumes.

The 60 lessons are laid out with a lot of thought. You learn not just the moves and principles， but the history of magic， ethics， how to market yourself and patter to each trick. In one sentence a unique book sitting on the peak of the pile of magic literature.

[Another very similar course， in some ways quite a bit better than theTarbell Course， is theRupert Howard Magic Course.]

Table of contents

lesson

1. THE HISTORY OF MAGIC

2. THE HISTORY OF SLEIGHT OF HAND

3. NECROMANCY AND DIVINATION

4. DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERSTITIONS

5. MAGIC AND RELIGION

6. MAGIC AND THE SCIENCE OF MEDICINE

7. THE ROPE AND TAPE PRINCIPLE

8. THE RELATION OF MAGIC TO OTHER SCIENCES

9. THE PRINCIPLES OF CARD EFFECTS

10. CONFIDENCE AND ENTHUSIASM

11. THE PENETRATING RING; THE JUMPING RUBBER BAND; THUMB TIE WITH RUBBER BAND; THE JAPANESE THUMB TIE

12. CARDS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT; THE CARDS UP THE SLEEVE

13. THE REGULAR PASS; THE CARD STAB; THE X-RAY KNIFE; THE MAGNETIC KNIFE

14. THE FORCE; PRODUCING A CARD FROM A WHOLE ORANGE; THE CARD AND THE BANANA; THE BEWITCHED BANANA

15. GUIDE TO CARD POSITIONS; VARIOUS PRINCIPLES OF PALMING AND SHIFTS; THE CONJURER’S TOUCH; A MYSTERIOUS DISCOVERY; “MARVELLO”; CARDS， ENVELOPE， AND HAT

16. “TACK IT”; NEW ERA VERSION OF CARD THROUGH HANDKERCHIEF; THREE CARDS THROUGH THE HANDKERCHIEF; RISING CARDS THROUGH HANDKERCHIEF

17. “SNAP IT”; FLASH CARD PRODUCTION; MYSTERY OF THE GLASS HOUSE

18. RISING CARDS

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