Are you looking for a magician who performs sustainable entertainment?
Are you looking to hire a sustainability magician? Sustainability in magic, eco-friendly props, and green event entertainment, sustainable magic, sustainable magician, sustainable entertainment. As the world burns through forest fires, drowns in floods, and constantly navigates a more volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous environment in a disrupted world.
Sustainability has become part of corporate social responsibility, and greater awareness is being brought to individuals as a whole. Whether through personal choice or corporate choice, sustainable entertainment is becoming more of a thing. For the last 5 years, I’ve held my magic to make it more sustainable and gentler on the planet. It already has a pretty much zero carbon footprint. I use a deck of cards, my mind, a pen, and a few business cards, but there are considerations for all of it, not only getting to the gig, but the product I use as well. That said, I am also a consultant for sustainable event entertainment and would welcome a few thoughts on how we can become more sustainable in the industry.
What does a sustainable magician do?
The first is: can we consider reusable props made from sustainable wood and metal, with a recycled, sustainable plaque stick? There’s a large market for props coming out of China, and sometimes there’s a sense that demand for durability outweighs demand for sustainability.
This durability-sustainability conflict results in magicians buying magic from China and, indeed, from their local magic shop, and, unfortunately, it’s not made sustainably. When we do buy magic, it’s important to consider single-use gimmicks or disposable paper products in magic routines. I would say every person on the planet who is a professional magician has one box, two boxes, three drawers full of magic.
They don’t use. Why is it that we want to buy the latest and greatest piece of magic? As a result, the carbon footprint would be extremely high if we had never used that product. So really, when it comes to buying new magic, it’s important to consider whether we’re buying it compulsively or consciously. Are we buying it because it’s the newest, latest, and greatest, or are we becoming more conscious and thinking? How is this going to affect the environment?
Some more considerations:
Am I really going to use it? How can it fit into my current repertoire and set? Not only is it more sustainable, but it’s also gentle on your pocket because you can save money. Generally, there’s a one-month window from after an exciting new trailer selling a dream product or gimmick before the negative reviews come out, saying people have been mis-sold. What else can we do? We can also highlight digital magic routines, whether it’s AR (augmented reality) or VR (virtual reality), which help us reduce our physical waste while increasing that wow factor.
Contemporary digital magic is still in its infancy, despite being around for 5-10 years. Still, it allows us to perform magic without buying more playing cards, pens, or plastic items that harm the environment. Unfortunately, buying playing cards comes down to one route.
Watch Duncan's Sustainable Magic Showreel Below:
What about Playing Cards for sustainable magicians?
It’s usually the United States Playing Card Company, USPCC, based out of Ohio in America. However, it’s important to consider the ethical implications and to consider our magic producers and retailers, giving some eco-consciousness to their products. It’s popular in magic to buy a peek wallet, a wallet that lets you peek at information. I know some manufacturers are now creating vegan leather wallets, but I believe we should question whether this is truly sustainable as well. Creating vegan leather may actually be more harmful to the environment. One other thought is to suggest to clients an eco-friendly magic option, such as one that fits within green event planning. What can they be doing to increase their consciousness, as opposed to impulsiveness, in creating events?
The number of events I go to has a huge amount of food waste, a huge amount of plastic and banner waste, unnecessary lights, a desire to make it bigger and better than the year before, and all of this. Whilst it may look great, the long-term effect on our children’s future is yet to be defined, but we are certainly seeing it as a forest fire as well.
Watch Duncan's Sustainable Customization Reel Below
Custom Sustainable Magic Routines
As part of creating custom routines, I can also showcase eco-conscious messaging through a subtle combination of magic, such as regrowth or rebirth, in illusions. I’ve even created eco- or green-style magic.
Another consideration in eco or green event planning as a sustainable magician is asking ourselves whether we can recycle, donate, or even auction off worn-out props to schools or community groups to extend their lifecycle. We can even donate them to our local magic circle or magician’s guild. Now, the magic circle is the largest and best-known in London.
Still, there are several different guilds, such as Nottingham Magicians’ Guild, Derby Magic Circle, and Leicester Magic Circle, which often host auctions. It’s a great way to recycle your old magic props without putting them in a bin and adding to the landfill, which has a negative impact on the environment. It’s also important to consider upcycling by being creative, creating new tricks from old or discarded pops. Sure, we can buy the newest, latest, and greatest and have everybody come up with the creative ideas themselves, but if we’re truly acting more consciously, can we use our own creativity, which of course magic should be to come up with our new tricks without boiling more things, but putting new spins or fresh spins on what we already own.
Watch Duncan's Sustainable Stage Show:
Promoting Sustainable entertainment
The final part I want to mention is how we can promote sustainability as part of our brand to attract environmentally aware corporate clients. In part, this is why I’m creating this post: I’m genuinely conscious about the environment and am trying my hardest to be as carbon-neutral as possible. In my garden, I have a closed-loop system: I put every scrap or waste into my recycling or compost bin, and I try to recycle all of my garden waste as well to use it for fresh compost. This extends out into my props. Maybe you could call me tight, maybe you could call me frugal, but I don’t just buy lots of props just because they’re the latest and greatest. I question. Do I need them? I consider my impact on getting to events, whether it’s by bus, train, or electric car.
Finally, for those who really want to go to extremes independently, they can use magic to raise awareness of environmental causes at events. Now, of course, there needs to be consideration of whether this aligns with a company’s message, because you don’t want to become a preacher.
Final Thoughts On Sustainability In Magic and Entertainment
However, if you can entertain without preaching, this can be a great way to increase that green awareness. So, there you have a few thoughts, suggestions, and ideas on becoming more ethical and more green, specifically in the form of magic or entertainment. Can we become a more sustainable industry? Can we become a more sustainable magician? I believe we can, and as green event entertainment becomes more of a thing, we must evolve and adapt even faster than the world is declining. If you’re interested in getting in touch to explore how Duncan can bring his green or sustainable magic to your event, you can contact him through his contact form using the button below, drop him an email, or give him a call.
He’d be happy to discuss how you can make your event greener and how he can contribute his green, environmentally friendly magic.
