Thinking of storylines for Sparlock, I'd have him as an 'ancient wizard' appearing in the modern day and trying to impress kids with 'magic talk boxes'... which are really just walkie-talkies. The kids, of course, realize they aren't magic, but Sparlock plays it up and the kids play along because it's fun to pretend with Sparlock.
Another, Sparlock pretends that he has miniture musicians in a tiny magic box... but it's just an ipod.
So much stuff we have today would seem like black magic just a couple hundred years ago. Even a cheap flashlight today would be a magic trapped sunbeam in the minds of the ancients.