Teller at age 11Teller explores his magical roots in a great article that he wrote for the NY Times which can be read in its entirety HERE.
"I wore that magic set out. We had a dusty storage room in our little house, and I would sit in the dusty storage room in the afternoon and just work the things over and over again, for my own edification. I wasn’t really performing for anybody. I was just obsessed with it. And incidentally, on my 60th birthday, my closest friend in the world found a copy of the Howdy Doody magic set on eBay, and it was advertised as “the same kind of magic set that got Teller started in his career.” My friend gave it to me, and I just sort of collapsed and couldn’t stop crying, because it was so thrilling."