TV Magic Cards with Marshall Brodien – the best commercial ever

Mark Frauenfelder 4:34 pm Thu Oct 1, 2015

I wonder how many thousands of kids were introduced to the joy of magic from buying TV Magic Cards after watching this commercial that ran on TV ad nauseum in the early 1970s.

Magician/pitchman Marshall Brodien delivered his enthralling patter in a flat Midwest accent that has stuck in my mind for decades (he pronounced "card" as "cared"). The cards' effect was wondrous, at least to my 10-year-old imagination.A dollar ninety-eight was too dear for me, but I finally got a deck for my birthday. They truly were as wonderful as I'd hoped. I thought the way the cards actually worked was even cooler than the effects you could do with them.

Gareth Branwyn reminded me of this deck after he reviewed my new book, Trick Decks, at Make. He had the cards, too!

The cards are still available today, with the same cool shared-A logo on the cover! The price, $(removed) on Amazon, is cheaper than the original price when you adjust it for inflation. I just bought a deck for my daughter Jane. She's going to love it.

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