Once You Know The Secret



Magic (and most of my of life) continues to be put on hold as we finish the move that never ends, but it hasn't stopped me from grabbing a deck and practicing what I've been working once in awhile.  The endless mundane tasks of purging an old house and setting up a new one has also given me time to think about magic and why it's important to me.

I mentioned that one of my earliest influences was a certain magic set, however I wasn't specific.  Coming across one of the tricks from that set reminded me that it was a Chex cereal "Scarecrow Magic Set," that I saved box tops to get.  Luckily, my parents were in a Chex phase at that point, so the only real waiting came after we ordered it.  Back then there was no such thing as Next Day Shipping... you were lucky for something like that to arrive in 3 - 5 weeks.  To my young, impatient mind it was more like 3 - 5 years, but when it arrived, I was in heaven!



I had to go on-line to find a picture of the set, but a couple of the tricks I never forgot.  One was a little plastic jug that you could pour the water out of, show it completely empty, then pour more water out.  The other was something called an "Imp Bottle."  IF you knew the secret, you could lay it on it's side.  If you didn't know the secret, it stayed upright.  I did these tricks over and over and over, and although they never said it, I'm sure I drove my parents insane.



As I thought about this set, I was reminded that about the same time, a magician named Marshall Brodien began selling "TV Magic Cards."  The words in the commercial still give me a thrill, "It's easy... when you know the secret!"  When we discovered that they were selling them at the local Ben Franklin 5 & 10 (yes, I'm that old), another begging session added the cards to my arsenal.  I was about 5 or 6, so they honestly weren't that easy for my small hands, even knowing the secret, but they were fun to play around with.  Mr. Brodien eventually sold an entire set, which I never got ("Why do you need 2 magic sets," I remember my Father saying), but watching him perform the tricks in the commercials continued to stoke my fire for tricks.

I rediscovered Mr. Brodien on Facebook recently, and was both happy to see that his passion for magic hasn't wavered, and sad to hear that he is having some health struggles.  Lately, he has been selling autographed copies of his magic set on Ebay, as well as autographed pictures of his time as "Wizzo the Clown" on The Bozo Show.  At some point, I expect his magic set will become part of my collection.

Thank you, Mr. Brodien, for helping to ignite my lifetime magic flame.  Thanks also to my parents, for eating endless bowls of Chex...

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