Tarbell 29: Billiard Ball Manipulation

Delight your audiences when you master the classic of Billiard Ball Manipulation!

Billiard Ball Manipulation has been featured prominently in the acts of nearly every stage manipulator in the last hundred years.

Its popularity and versatility comes from a combination of a simple (yet clever) gimmick, and pure sleight-of-hand techniques.

Learning the moves and routines will not only help you improve your dexterity but you’ll also learn valuable lessons about angles, timing, and misdirection.

Here you will find fundamental moves, covering a wide range of possibilities, which require dedication and practice to make them smooth and surprising.

The lesson begins with a full routine incorporating various sleights. You’ll learn many ways to produce and vanish a ball, and show both hands empty.

You’ll learn the core concept which allows you turn one ball into two with a wave and immediately show both of them solid.

We’ll continue with the fancy roll-out production of the third ball, and Dan shows you how to apparently swallow it and bring it back from your stomach which sets you up perfectly to produce a total of four balls. Plus, Dan teaches you an elegant move that allows you to show all four on both sides.

Although some of the moves in this routine are challenging, Dan gives you his simpler, more direct routine to use while you’re mastering more advanced moves.

Then Dan takes a color-changing routine to the next level to show you the possibilities you can create.

And finally, a simple transposition of two different colored balls gets the Harlan treatment as he offers you two very different approaches to it.

One becomes a surprising exchange of two borrowed objects, and the other is a comedy piece that’s a sure cure for your Saturday night fever.

So, prepare to delight your audience with your digital dexterity as you master the quintessential classic of Billiard Ball Manipulation.