talkmagic.co.uk

There are lots of people who recommend the Tarbell course In Magic.

I was wondering, in which way do people define him, if you had only ONE choice of the following.

As a great magician.

As a great teacher of magic.

Either way, I have only been able to glance through parts of the course since I got it. ( moving soon! ) He has definately got alot of respect. You only have to read some of the names of magicians that contributed to the books to learn that. Unlike so many posts we read about nowadays, he always starts of by saying if it was a trick from someone else, or based on one from someone else, then gives them full credit.

Harlen was both but he is "old world" magic and I guess if you were to narrow down what he accomplished best, it was teaching -- putting information into a form that was convenient to learn from.

Keep in mind that we are talking some of the basics of the industry (by today's standards) and what some might even want to call "out dated". Yet, many wonderful things come from the Tarbell course and it lays a very sound foundation in one's life, giving you a glimpse into all aspects of magic without having to invest lots of time and money to do so.

Regardless your experience level, this is something (along with the Mark Wilson Course) that should be on your book shelf at all times.

Thanks Craig. I'm sure you will take this the right way, but I was hoping someone of your "years" would answer, and in fact, hoped it would be you. As I had said, I haven't had a proper chance to study, rather than look through them. I am amazed at not only the "older" style effects, but how many so called new ones are in there too.
This is a long shot, but have you seen or herad about the "Organ Pipe Production"? Iy seems a much more fantastic method than using a square circle production. I am hoping to work out a routine to bring it both up to date, and for a childrens audience.

Not certain what you mean by Organ Pipe... there are so many names for some of this stuff and in Harlen's day there had to be 150 different kinds of tubes & boxes from which to pull something out of; this due in part to Dante's use of the Kuma Tubes in his shows I believe.

Keep in mind, you will find a ton of material in Tarbell that has been repackaged and remarketed as "original" and "grand breaking" routines of current trend by several of today's so-called "innovators"... if that's where they are getting the basis to their ideas it just stands to reason that this should be where you (anyone new) gets their foundation from.