For 34-year-old Megan Swann, turning magic into something green was trickier than it first appeared. “You soon realise when you’re working as a magician and doing parties that no one wants to hear about deforestation while performing the ‘torn and restored newspaper’. “’Happy birthday: the world is burning!’ doesn’t really work,” she laughs.
But she persevered in conjuring up ‘environmental magic’– a new take on the age-old art form that aims to inspire climate awareness. It’s a beguiling combination. There is, after all, something unnatural about magic: it breaks the laws of physics, suspends reality for a few enchanting seconds and disrupts our perception of the world. But it turns out it could also be a powerful force to help us reconnect with nature.
Swann has been set on this course ever since she received a magic set when she was just five. Then, three years later, Roy Marsh – a magician and now her friend – performed at her birthday party and she was spellbound, attempting to replicate the effects for friends and family. “It was quite an important part of my journey. I think I bored everyone slightly doing all these tricks,” she recalls.
