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The Digital Pabular CDRom
Produced by Martin Breese
International
Reviewed by
Peter Duffie
Pabular was
one of the very best close-up magazines and it was published in Britain. It ran
for eight volumes and had three editors during its lifetime: Fred Robinson, Walt
Less and Stephen Tucker. Eric Mason was the art editor and Nick Bolton was the
publisher.
The magazine was launched in September 1974. The first trick in the first issue
was a coin routine by Andrew Galloway, the only pupil of the late John Ramsay,
and an authority on misdirection. Though very simple in technique, "The Pegasus
Coin" was intentionally given prime position in the magazine because of the
misdirection involved, and the details were fully revealed for those who wanted
to learn more than the mere mechanics. This would set the tone for what was to
follow. Under the tight editorial rein of card and close-up expert Fred
Robinson, Pabular became one of the most respected journals of its time.
Fred was able to coax people to contribute a calibre of material that one
wouldn't normally expect for a magazine. When Juan Tamaritz allowed Fred to
publish his "Oil & Water" routine in it's entirety, Fred was delighted.
When Fred resigned his position as editor in January 1981, his friend Walt Lees
succeeded him. Walt, with his excellent dry sense of humour, continued to
maintain the high standard for a period, before handing over the job to Stephen
Tucker. Steve continued to produce a quality journal, stamping his personality
on it with his quirky editorials.
Although a British journal, the list of contributors reads like an international
Whose Who in magic. Top-flight pros like Fred Kaps and Juan Tamaritz shared, not
only their magical secrets, but their 'performing" secrets, too. An essay by
Fred Kaps on performing magic professionally for laymen was considered by Fred
Robinson to be one of Pabular's greatest moments. However, there are literally
hundreds of great moments in this magazine.
Other names whose material can be found within these pages, include: Jack Avis,
Gaeton Bloom, John Carney, Tony Corinda, Ted Danson, Will Dexter, Bob Driebeek,
Shiv Duggal, Peter Duffie, Alex Elmsley, Dominique Duvivier, Cy Endfield, Bob
Farmer, Flip, Piet Forton, Roberto Giobbi, Ray Grismer, Paul Hallas, Steve
Hamilton, Francis Haxton, Jim Hooper, Basil Horwitz, Charles Hudson, Gentleman
Jack, Larry Jennings, Rick Johnsson, Peter Kane, Gerald Kosky, Simon Lovell,
Trevor Lewis, Ed Marlo, Bob Ostin, Pat Page, Oscar Pladek, John Ramsay, Bob
Read, Rovi, Sam Schwartz, Al Smith, Hans Trixer, Stephen Tucker, Dai Vernon and
Tommy Wonder.
Then there are the one-man issues, these include: Roy Walton (2 issues), Phil
Goldstein (3 issues), Gordon Bruce, David Carre, Walt Lees and Barrie
Richardson.
Digital Dream
Enter Martin Breese. For some years now, full sets of Pabular have been eagerly
sought, often exchanging hands for high prices. It seems incredible that this
can now be purchased for such a modest price on a single CDROM and viewed
electronically on any desktop computer, laptop, or hand-held reader. The file is
PDF format, which opens in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Most computer users will
already have this, but the CD comes complete with Adobe Acrobat Reader for
anyone without.
Search & Research
Following an introduction by Martin Breese and a short article from Ian Keable,
you will arrive at the excellent index, compiled by Ian Keable. This is in
several sections - each section covering the complete magazine, but in a
different way. The first section is hyperlinked and runs in page order. Here you
can click on any trick or article and are instantly transported to that page.
The other sections of this index, while not hyperlinked, allow you to locate
specific contributors, tricks and articles. Here you can either go back to the
first section and use the appropriate hyperlink, or you can use the search
facility within Adobe Reader - entering a name or page number - to locate the
item.
For research, this is the way to go. Before the advent of digital media, how,
for example, would you have found the whereabouts of an obscure name merely
mentioned somewhere within the pages of an eight-volume magazine? The only way
was to read every word in every issue until you found it…if you found it. With
this, you simply type in the name you seek, and hit the return key on your
keyboard!
There are a small number of items by a certain individual that had to be removed
from the digital edition due to unforeseen problems, and while these items
certainly would be of value to readers, they constitute only a tiny fraction of
the overall content.
Like Martin Breese's previous digital releases (Pentagram and Max Andrews
Magic) this is a veritable snip at the price. Even if you're not a fan of
digital media (ebooks), for this money you simply cannot go wrong.
Highly recommended.
© Peter Duffie March 2002
To order a copy direct from Martin Breese Magic priced £31.75 ($45) airmail post-free anywhere in the world Click Here