Don't Get Me Started

What was it that initially piqued your interest in magic?

Many magicians get their start by seeing other magicians: on TV, at a party, wherever. I stumbled into a magic shop by accident (Abbott's, in Colon, Michigan). There are other ways it happens, too.

For generations, Mysto Magic sets were a common starting point. Made in New Haven, Conn. by the A.C. Gilbert company, these magic sets were widely available in the first half of the 20th century (in America, anyway). They were sold in department stores, toy stores and other large retail outlets. Mysto sets, however, were a small part of the line of toys made by Gilbert (which had its biggest successes with the famous Erector sets), and contributed minimally to the company's bottom line. So, when Mysto sets were phased out of the Gilbert catalog, other companies stepped in to the market. Two of these firms are still around; S.S. Adams of Asbury Park, NJ, and Fun Inc. (under its Royal Magic banner) of Chicago seized the opportunity to supply kids across America with boxes of tricks on a grand scale. The Royal Treasure Chest of Magic was a staple of the Fun Inc. line for years.

Then came Marshall Brodien and his TV Magic Cards and TV Magic Sets, which was sold through the world's greatest advertising medium: TV. Interestingly enough, Fun Inc. had a hand in these magic sets, too. Beginning in the 1970s, Fun was contracted to produce the component parts that would make up the famous (and popular) Marshall Brodien line.

In whatever era you consider, very often magic sets have had a hand in taking a youngster along the path to professional magician. Boxes of tricks have been making life-long magicians out of kids for well over 100 years, and continue to do so today.

And now to bring the story full-circle, from an introduction to magic to becoming a full-time magic person (I'm not a performer, and thus not really a "magician," per se).

My first magic set was, believe it or not, made by Fun Inc., and was still in production when I started working here in the fall of 2001. A couple of years later, I had a hand in redesigning the set (and the others in the Royal line) into our current sets.