Saving the planet, one magic trick at a time

For 34-year-old Megan Swann, turning magic into one thing inexperienced was trickier than it first appeared. “You quickly realise if you’re working as a magician and doing events that nobody needs to listen to about deforestation whereas performing the ‘torn and restored newspaper’. “’Joyful birthday: the world is burning!’ doesn’t actually work,” she laughs.

However she persevered in conjuring up ‘environmental magic’– a brand new tackle the age-old artwork kind that goals to encourage local weather consciousness. It’s a beguiling mixture. There may be, in spite of everything, one thing unnatural about magic: it breaks the legal guidelines of physics, suspends actuality for just a few enchanting seconds and disrupts our notion of the world. Nevertheless it seems it is also a strong pressure to assist us reconnect with nature.

Swann has been set on this course ever since she acquired a magic set when she was simply 5. Then, three years later, Roy Marsh – a magician and now her pal – carried out at her birthday celebration and he or she was spellbound, trying to duplicate the results for family and friends. “It was fairly an vital a part of my journey. I believe I bored everybody barely doing all these tips,” she remembers.

A few years later as a budding magician, Swann enrolled within the Younger Magicians Membership (YMC), the youth wing of London’s legendary Magic Circle. “Immediately I wasn’t simply doing stuff from youngsters’ magic units any extra. My family and friends have been like: ‘What? How did you truly try this?’” Card tips didn’t attraction. “They’re boring. There are solely so some ways I need to have the ability to discover a card!” As an alternative, Swann received into silent stage magic, utilizing music to swerve the necessity for a script and to calm her nerves.

However divination wasn’t her solely devotion. She’s at all times beloved nature and practically turned a vet, as an alternative opting to check wildlife conservation on the College of Kent. “I preferred the concept of saving the world. I’ve at all times been into doing stuff for the better good that makes folks completely happy fairly than one thing that makes numerous cash.”

Swann’s dissertation shone a highlight on her love of leisure, specializing in the ability of efficiency expertise in training. “I studied the animal exhibits at London Zoo and surveyed folks [who were watching],” she says. “The issues folks remembered most have been what they discovered essentially the most pleasurable and funniest.”

Much more highly effective is the shock issue. “The aspect of shock will be fairly good as a result of your mind tries to suppose again as to whether you possibly can have seen that coming and so that you bear in mind it,” she explains.

Unsurprisingly, she as soon as once more made a hyperlink to the world of magic. In magic, in spite of everything, shock is in surplus. It was right here that she started to fuse the 2 loves, placing collectively a cabaret present a few years after graduating college that featured some tips that have been linked to wildlife conservation.

Swann realised that academic exhibits – fairly than informal occasions – have been her calling and designed a present for schoolchildren. It included the aforementioned ‘deforestation deception’ and different green-fingered sleight-of-hand. “I attempted to hyperlink the tips to actions that folks watching may take. So, I produced flowers and reminded all of them to develop extra issues,” she cites for instance.

I attempt to discuss what we are able to do and the progress we’ve made. Folks don’t want a lecture. They want inspiration

Different tips included the ‘needle by balloon’ representing warmth being trapped, ‘countless water’ to seize the affect of turning off the faucet and ‘the miser’s dream’ – a magic routine by which magicians classically produce cash from the air – however with lightbulbs as an alternative of onerous money. And, like every good present – hearth. “As a result of world warming’s going to make issues sizzling!”

All the time in a number of locations on the identical time, Swann additionally loved a spell as the primary feminine president of the Magic Circle from 2021 to 2023. “It was fairly a nerve-racking time, throughout Covid,” she remembers. “Nevertheless it generated a lot constructive press and there have been much more girls coming by. Once I was within the YMC I used to be typically the one woman there however now there are total teams of ladies. They really feel much more comfy now.”

Swann laments that she nonetheless has to take care of lame jokes about her being the magician’s assistant. However she is aware of learn how to silence them. “My associate’s a magician and he takes nice enjoyment of telling them I’m the previous president of the Magic Circle,” she laughs.

Now, she is collaborating with UCL to adapt her act for adults and make it much more memorable. The college runs a programme referred to as Performing Planet Activism, a part of which entails funding artists to collaborate with researchers to develop environmentally themed items of artwork.

She’s realised she isn’t the one one with particular powers. “It was unimaginable to fulfill all these artists working on this sphere. I assumed I used to be actually bizarre,” she laughs. Working with Ilan Kelman – professor of disasters and well being – the pair are difficult local weather doomism by her magic with slightly assist from an especially glamorous assistant: Constructive Information.

“Professor Kelman was actually eager to work with me on the message of hope. He truly put me on to Constructive Information,”says Swann. “I take advantage of the weekly e-newsletter emails as a supply of data once I must create new tips.” Her newest act is centred on motion. “I attempt to discuss what we are able to do and the progress we’ve made. Folks don’t want a lecture. They want inspiration.”

She’s additionally taking her present to company occasions to encourage folks to dwell in additional eco-friendly methods. “My job is to get folks taking motion and dedicated to sustainability,”as she places it. “It’s about turning that despair into motion.”

Sooner or later, she hopes to do extra analysis to guage the effectiveness of various components of her act. For now, she’s quietly assured that she’s having an affect. “It feels completely ‘me’ and I really feel a lot extra assured. It’s what I’m meant to be doing,” she says. “They appear to search out me actually humorous, which is a brand new idea.”

My job is to get folks taking motion and dedicated to sustainability. It’s about turning that despair into motion

Swann tries to keep away from something too darkish. “I believe I’ve the positivity aspect spot on, which individuals don’t count on after they hear it’s local weather themed.” And he or she has new tips up her sleeve, together with an act that sees her predict the long run final result of our actions, producing flags from around the globe with numerous constructive tales about their local weather insurance policies.

The business extra broadly can also be slowly turning into extra sustainable, Swann reckons: some decks of playing cards at the moment are recyclable, and producers of props look like contemplating the atmosphere slightly extra. For her personal half, she makes use of public transport to achieve her exhibits: “If I’ve a protracted journey, I cost a bit additional and put the cash in direction of a sustainability initiative.”

However why is magic such an impressive method of turning these disillusioned with sustainability into local weather wizards? “It’s an uncommon method to have interaction folks and it’s actually visible. It appeals to everybody,” she solutions, earlier than puzzling over the query additional. “It reminds us that even unimaginable issues will be completed.”

Images: Sam Bush