I am a beginner that is interested in close-up magic, mainly cards. Which do you think would be more appropriate for me:

Tarbell Course (All 8 volumes)
Card College (All 5 books) + an Intermediate card book.

Thanks.

-Tim

I don't have Card College, so I can't comment on it, but if you want cards, DON'T go to Tarbell. The card material in it is outdated (Although a few, like card to orange, are very good), but the non-card material is very valuable.

Basically, get Card College for cards, or Tarbell for non-cards.

Shane Wiker

I think I'll just get Card College now and Tarbell later. Any ideas on a good intermediate book on effects?

If you're interested in cards only, all five card college books cover everything from the basics to very advanced. Tarbell has mostly non-card effects.

Off Topic: If you don't want to spend all that money you can get Royal Road to Card Magic for 8$ (or electronic form from Lybrary.com for 5$). It covers the basics and is a good place to start, but the presentations are a bit outdated.

And while we're mentioning http://www.Lybrary.com ---

They have the original Tarbell Course (which includes everything in the hardbacks save for Volume 7 and part of Volume 8) on CD for only $37. I do disagree with Shane's assessment that Tarbell's card information is outdated. But I totally agree with Dark's recommendation of Royal Road to Card Magic - as a matter of fact, I recommend it over Card College.

OK, I will buy Card College and Royal Road, but but does anybody know a good intermediate card book, mainly with effects?

After you have gone through at least Card College vol1&2 or Royal Road,and only then try Smoke and Mirrors by John Bannon,Art of Astonishment by Paul Harris and The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley by Minch and Elmsley.The Books of Wonder by Minch/Wonder is also highly recommended.
But I advise you to first go through Royal Road and Card College to pick up the fundamentals and basics as these books are not for the beginner.Another good idea would be to work through the Easy to Master Card Miracle videos before attempting the mentioned books.These videos are excellent in honing the skills you have learned in Card College.They also contain some of the most astounding tricks as well as classic tricks.
Andre

If you are realy interested in card magic, as was stated previously, the card colledge series 1 through 5 are excellent, and the material does include inetrmediate to advanced teachings. Specially volume 5, since it put emphasys on tricks themselves. If you really want an other intermediate book on card manipulations and illusions, my advice is to start by learning everything in these five books. Trust me, you definitely have more than a couple of weeks of work ahead of you, and everything tought in there includes tricks utilizing the techniques shown.

Have a good day!

Tim,

If you're going to buy the Tarbell books later on, I would get it on e-book.

You get all eight books and more on it!!

Check out http://www.lybrary.com and its only around $37.00 to get it all.

Emmett

OK, but it is missing about 1 1/2 volumes from the printed version.

But I'll decide about Tarbell later on.

Thanks for the great advice everybody!

The Tarbell Course In Magic is a must for any magicians library and Royal Road To Card Mgaic is also a must

What are you talking about?

You have it wrong. The Tarbell CD-Rom from Lybrar.com is not the "Tarbell Course in Magic' that we all have.

It's the "Tarbell System" from 1920. And it has more in it then the "Tarbell Course in Magic"

In the 60's they took the "Tarbell System" and pull items out of it to make the "Tarbell Course In Magic"

They didn't take all of the items that the "Tarbell System" has. So the "Tarbell System" has all of the "Tarbell Course In Magic" has, and more!

"Tarbell System" came first. I don't know why they call the CD-Rom, Tarbell Course In Magic, when in fact it is the real "Tarbell System"

Emmett

By the way Vol. 8 in the Tarbell course isn't by Dr. Harlan Tarbell. He pass away in 1960.

Vol. 8 came out in the 90's. I don't count this as a real Tarbell book because he pass away in 1960. This book came out 30 yrs after he pass away.

Emmett

If my information is correct, the original course was entitled the *Tarbell Course in Magic* AND the *Tarbell System* -- depending on which cover of which lesson you looked at.

The original 60 lessons (plus a post-graduate lesson) were compiled into Volumes One through Six, with enough left over to fill about half of Volume Seven. Not much later (a decade or so?) Volume Eight was published with mostly new material and (The Excitement!!!) an INDEX!! (We who have http://www.lybrary.com's CD-ROM need no index; we have a powerful SEARCH feature. Ahem.)

Chris Wasshuber in on these forums and can give you much better detail than I. Given the choice between the hardbacks and the CD-ROM, I choose his CD-ROM any day of the week.

Either way, it's an AWESOME resource -- I defy anyone to mine it completely within one lifetime. There are magicians who own nothing BUT Tarbell and do quite well for themselves.

As the publisher of the electronic version of the Tarbell Course/System, let me try to clear up some of the confusion. Everybody here is partly correct.

In the late 1920s Tarbell wrote, what I call the _original Tarbell Course_ (often also called the Tarbell System). These were 60 lessons. Later he wrote one post-graduate lesson which one could call the 61st lesson. These 61 lessons constitue the Lybrary.com electronic version of the original Tarbell Course (sells for $37 only on my website). Much later these 60 lessons have been _reworked_ into 6 book volumes. In this process of reworking several things happened. Some parts were left out, others were changed, and new material has been added. The majority of the material however stayed more or less the same. However it was rearranged into a different sequence. The rearranging was unfortunate, because it completely destroyed the pedagogical structure of the course. The original lessons were meant to be learned 1 through 60 in sequence. That is the main reason why I like the original course a lot more than the book volumes.

After Tarbell's death Harry Lorayne wrote volume 7 and later Kaufman and some other author whoes name escapes me at the moment wrote volume 8. It is therefore pretty obvious that vol 7 and 8 are not really part of the Tarbell Course. Their addition to the Course was largely a marketing ploy.

So in summary, the 60 lessons or original course is not identical to the 8 volumes, but shares the majority of the contents. So you have to make your own decision about price/searchability/contents/... As some have already stated, the Tarbell Course CD I sell is arguably a great deal. Everybody should have this CD as a reference and study aid.

Chris....

You sold me Chris...thanks for the time to come and clear up things.

I also wanted to mention concerning the original post asking for references of card material. All of the above mentioned material are great and I only wanted to add that Jerry Mentzer has some material that is almost slieghtless that was nice for me to add to my learning from Royal Road. A few of those books are Simple Yet Effective Tricks with Cards and Cunning Card Miracles. These can be bought for under 10 dollars and he is an great author and teacher. He also has a great book called Counts,Cuts,Moves and Subtlety that I think all card workers should have in their library and it is under 10 dollars most places as well.
Wade

I second the nomination of Smoke & Mirrors by John Bannon.

Do you know a dealer from whom I can get Smoke and Mirrors who also has Card College?

By the way, can anybody give their opinion on volume five of CC as compared to the rest?

Thanks.

-Tim

Smoke and Mirrors is out of print-but don't be disspared-I found my copy at Bradbury Books.Keep on seaching,you will find a copy.
Andre

Dr. Harlan Tarbell's work is timeless in any format! EVERY magician should study Tarbell's course to learn history, timing, promotion, drills, confidence and all the other secrets that "books of tricks" lack. ENJOY!!

What is the difference in the presentation of the material in the Tarbell books and the CD? Are the diagrams / pictures etc. in the CD as clear as the books?

Thanks