Enviromagic

Dear Friends in Magic,

This month we’re delighted to hand our Museletter over to our contributor CJ IMay, whose work proves that magic can do more than astonish. It can inspire real change! CJ challenges us to develop our own “enviromagic” or adapt our existing routines to prepare for Earth Day 2027!

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Earth Day is over. Get ready for Earth Day!

Now that the pixie dust has settled from Earth Day 2026, it is time to start preparations for Earth Day 2027. Your Earth Day.

I hereby issue my 2026 Enviromagic Challenge and offer. I challenge at least three members of the Magic & Mystery School to develop an enviromagic effect, routine or show in preparation for April 2027. This is not an “unfunded mandate.” I will be happy to work with you and up to two other members of our School to gear up as much or as little as you wish.

And we will make sure to match it to your persona, style and likely venues. No costs, consulting fees or requirements for eye of newt or wing of bat. So, what are we talkin’ about, here? Below are some options.

Effects and Routines

These are effects that lend themselves to scripting with an enviromagic theme. I have used these.  But you may have many other effects which you love and which can be given an enviromagic twist. For example, there are many effects with paper and bottles that can be scripted to create wonder, inspiration and empowerment regarding recycling.

• Newspaper Restoration – this can be modernized to restore something other than a newspaper. George Parker restores a map of the world – huge environmental potential.
• Foiled – Tom Yurasits foil-to-can.
• Bottom’s Up – Tom Burgoon’s Okito Doll effect with a plastic water bottle.
• Linking Rings – endless usages for showing environmental connections.
• Money Effects – flash paper, spring bills, instant paper to money, and many other money-related effects can showcase the costs of waste, the savings from recycling and the economic development potential in a circular economy.
• Hot Rod – starting with six stones of blue changes the traditional multi-stone force to single color problem. It also allows a brief lesson in how our waters are home to many (change to multiple colors).  Likewise, forests (of all green) are home to many.
• Sands of the Desert – this is a near perfect set up for a demonstration of what a mess we make of water with pollution and what a change we can bring about when we clean up our waters.

Shows and Sets

These are shows and sets which work for me. Let us adjust them to work for you and your audiences.

• Recycling is Magic – a storytelling show in which a wizard saves a town from ogres only to be tasked with cleaning up the mess.
• Wizard of Basura – a show in intentionally broken Spanish (no experience necessary) which teaches the basics of recycling through effects and games.
• Earth Hero Magic – the magician shares the secrets that everyone can use to be heroes for our planet by recycling, using clean energy, and protecting our waters.
• The Gross & Disgusting Magic Show – making shameless use of juvenile stunts and pranks, such as eating a sandwich made with gummy works and parmesan cheese. The magician teaches a lesson on how gross stuff we litter in our neighborhoods can reach the ocean.
• The Wizard of Aquilon – although this fairytale storytelling show is too tied to Cyril the Sorcerer, it can serve as a model for your own personal story.
• Little Fairies, Big Magic – created for fairy festivals, a growing sector in the US, this show combines story and a number of magician-in-trouble tricks to showcase how the fairies display their anger before villagers learn to protect the forest.

Beyond Magic

Here are a few add-ons to performances that strengthen the experiences:

• Tik Tok Trash – this gameshow-style activity can run 5-10 minutes. Challenging one or more participants to sort photos of recycling and trash while a clock ticks loudly promotes learning about recyclables, a key problem in all recycling programs. Children can be so tied-in to the challenge they all want to play. It can be a great hook for potential clients that might be skeptical about the educational value of a magic show.
• Certificates – instead of signing autographs on photos I sign certificates documenting that young attendees have learned how they can help the planet with enviromagic. This creates a memento and may remain a key element in their path towards more environmental awareness and action.
• Gigs and Clients – having worked and performed in the environmental field for decades, I can offer some suggestions on how you can expand your client base to include Earth Day events, schools, libraries, and other venues by offering enviromagic shows.
• Baseline Learning – you do not need to be an environmental professional to do environmental magic shows.  But getting some very basic information on a topic, by reading and by checking with professionals, is key to creating a show that is grounded in accurate information. I am very happy to provide decades of recycling experience and some other guidance on water, climate etc.
• Juggling – If you get juggling balls in blue you have an instant means of discussing the importance of “not dropping the ball.” I perform my own version of “The World’s Most Dangerous Juggling Act” with globe-like juggling balls.
• Guilt and Power – it is important to neither villainize “bad actors” during a show nor lay guilt on the audience for any problems they may have contributed to, e.g., not recycling properly. Instead, showcase the power we all have to do important things. People do not like to be guilted or burdened. They do like to feel powerful and heroic.

The challenge is hereby issued! I look forward to working with you to inspire our audiences to save the world.

Cyril John “CJ” May
cyril.may@aya.yale.edu
www.cyrilthesorcerer.com
www.betterworldmagic.com

Cyril John “CJ” May is both faculty and on-going student at Jeff McBride’s Magic & Mystery School. He received his Master’s in Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment and remained on campus for more than 20 years serving as Yale’s first recycling coordinator. He now works for the City of Waterbury where his primary focus is public outreach on recycling and related issues. A key component to his outreach efforts in Waterbury is the provision of enviromagic shows to schools and events. He has received an Award of Excellence from the Linking Ring for his “Green Magic” column and was named “Recycler of the Year” by the National Recycling Coalition for his innovative use of magic for recycling education. He insists that you do not need to wear a pointy hat to perform enviromagic.

Jeff McBride is the “Story Master”

Story Master Series 2026 now available for purchase!

Starting in May 2026 – all lessons are recorded so you can watch anytime. This is a “learn at your own pace” three-class module. You can start anytime, and take the class at your own pace.

Discover the Secret Power 

Discover the secret power of your personal stories, and add a touch of Magic. Jeff McBride is a master magician and storyteller, and he invites you to the most comprehensive magic storytelling course he has ever taught.

In these three extraordinary classes, you will explore personal stories, master the use of magic as a visual metaphor, and discover how to connect deeply with your audience. Rare archival footage, live demonstrations, and Bardic Circle insights make this a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience.

Why This Series is Unmissable

Jeff McBride has helped many magicians just like you to learn the art of storytelling. Learn from Jeff McBride, world-renowned magician and performance innovator. Explore your personal stories and learn the secrets of how to turn them into compelling performances, which integrate magic as a metaphor to empower narrative and create emotional impact.

Study legendary routines, historical sources, and innovative performance methods. Gain practical techniques for small and large audiences, from close-up to stage. 

Now you can learn how to add the power of storytelling to your magic!
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/story-master-series

The Uphill Battle of Pick a Card, Any Card

Dear Friends in Magic,

There are a few phrases in magic so familiar, that the moment they’re spoken, the mystery begins to disappear. We’ve all used them. We’ve all heard them. And if we’re honest, we’ve all felt that subtle shift when an audience leans back instead of leaning in. In this Museletter, Mystery School Instructor Frank Zazanis invites us to take a hard look at one of the most common.

The Uphill Battle Of Pick A Card, Any Card

“Oh, I’ve seen this trick before,” the well-dressed person at your corporate strolling gig says, and with righteous indignation you think to yourself, ‘No you haven’t, I just came up with this variation on the ambitious card to pepper mill yesterday.’ You are frustrated with them for assuming they knew what was going to happen, but can we blame them if the first words out of our mouth were the familiar “Pick a card, any card?”

Let’s try a little experiment: What comes to your mind when you see the following phrases:

A long time ago in a galaxy…
It was the best of times…
Space, the final frontier…
A spool of yellow cotton thread…

The way you most likely finished some, if not all, of those sentences (if not, as Max Maven said, you need to get out less) is exactly the same way people finish what they think is coming next after “Pick a card, any card.” They think it is the same trick their friend from school, their uncle, or—hopefully not, but possibly—someone less practiced in the art of magic showed them, and they liked it, tolerated it, or hated it. Regardless, we are fighting an uphill battle every time we use that line.

I think we owe it to our participants, the art as a whole, and ourselves to give it just a bit more effort. If we really want to give them a magical experience, perhaps we should start with something magical. I can hear you now asking me, “But Frank, I like doing this card trick. You’re not going to ask me to stop doing it, right?” Right, I am not going to ask you to stop doing the routine. I would never dream of asking a fellow magician to stop doing card tricks—that would be the impossible dream indeed.

I am simply going to invite you to change how it starts. If we spend just a few minutes brainstorming the possibilities that can be used instead of asking people to pick a card, any card, like a sideshow flim-flam artist (unless you, in fact, are a sideshow flim-flam artist, and in that case, please keep using the line), we will change not only our magic but, dare I hope, the world’s perception of magic as an art. A lofty goal, but one that can be achieved if we all respect ourselves and our art just a little bit more. It will eventually change.

Here are some examples of ways to have a card selected that don’t sound like someone’s uncle who knows one trick:

“When you look at what I have in my hands, you may see a simple deck of cards, and it may be exactly that, but what I see is 52 unique possibilities that will lead us down a brief magical adventure. Would you take just one of these possibilities to begin this adventure?”

“You know, people say that card tricks are boring, especially the way my Uncle Todd used to do them. I don’t do card tricks; I create moments of magic with these portable pasteboards of power. I’d like to create a moment like that for us. In order to do that, we need one of you to be the star of this moment, and I need you to choose one of these to represent you.”

“I’m going to show you something amazing using a stack of bowling balls. Oh, I guess I forgot to pack those. Well, I can do the same thing with these, and my insurance won’t go through the roof. Please take one of these flat, rectangular bowling balls so we can get on with it.”

“Look at all of these options you have to start a minor miracle with. Point to whichever of these seems the most miraculous to you.”

Now, I know these particular lines may not suit you and who you are on stage or when strolling about your corporate gig, but hopefully they are a starting point for you to create your own.
 
Each introduction we do to every effect we perform is absolutely critical to the experience we create. How would you want your magic to be remembered? That all begins with the first thing you utter at the moment you approach a group or walk on, but it is heightened by the introduction to the effect and the action you wish the participant to take.
 
I look forward to seeing what you come up with to replace “Pick a card, any card.” Now please go write a line, any line, and go forth and change the world, one piece of magic at a time.
 
Frank Zazanis (Franklin Williams)

Jeff McBride Was on Fire!…(almost)

Putting Out the Fire with  Gasoline
Or
The Night Jeff McBride and Tina Turner Were on Fire…Almost!

It was the mid-1980s and I was performing at Caesar’s Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. I was the opening act for Tina Turner, and as you can see from my make-up, it was in a phase of my career that I fondly call my “Alice Cooper meets Marcel Marceau at a Kiss concert.” Anyway, it was really working, and I was the opening act for many rock acts of the time including Cheap Trick, Asia, and Tina Turner. I have lots of wild stories about this era of my life!

The Following Story is One of the Wildest Shows of My Life!

My act took place in front of the curtain while the entire band was set up behind it waiting for their cue. The timing of the show was carefully rehearsed. I would finish my act, take a bow, and throw kabuki streamers out into the audience. The moment the streamers were thrown, there would be a blackout. The band would count it off, five, six, seven, eight. The curtain would open, the lights would come up, and the band would burst into David Bowie’s song Putting Out the Fire With Gasoline as the opening song.

That Was the Plan…Until…

When I threw the kabuki streamers into the audience, I did not know that every table in the room had small tea lights burning on them. Tiny candles were placed across the tables every few feet. The paper streamers fell across the audience and landed directly in the candles. Immediately the thin rice paper began to catch fire and the long strands started burning like little fuses. For a moment it looked like the entire room might go up in flames!

Fortunately, kabuki streamers are made from very thin rice paper and they burn quickly. The flames ran through the paper and went out before they could ignite the tablecloths or the napkins on the tables. It was a close call and certainly gave everyone a scare, and I learned a powerful lesson: always do a complete run through before the show with props, especially if there’s fire involved! 
 
These are the kind of lessons I’ve learned the hard way. I share these cautionary tales with students and remind them that I’ve made these mistakes so they don’t have to! One of the advantages of having a magic teacher is they’ve made so many mistakes and learnt from them, and they can save you years of trials, pitfalls and perils along your path.
 
When I see you next, remind me to tell you why I never have wheels on my table on stage…but that’s another story for another time.

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It is guaranteed to get 100% audience participation. There are only a few units left. This is one of the most powerful audience participation routines that I’ve ever encountered! I’ve worked on it for many years and now I’m sharing this amazing act with students who are members of our Mystery School and those who read our newsletter. That’s you, my friends!

This Act Starts with My Confession

Speaking of fire, in the next few days Abigail and I will be getting ready to go out to the Nevada desert for our 26th annual MayFire gathering. We gather with our friends each year in the desert to share magic, music, poetry, art and yes, light a beautiful fire. Here is a photo of us from many, many years ago playing music! We’ve been sharing these magical events with our community for over 30 years!