Magicians Without Borders was founded in 2002 by Tom Verner of Lincoln, alongside his partner, artist Janet Fredericks, who performs as his assistant, LaFleur. The now-international organization brings magic shows to regions in unrest across the globe, as a way to bring joy and hope to people living under challenging circumstances.
In the past two decades, Verner and Fredericks have entertained scores of people across 47 countries, including Iran, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
Verner recently returned from Poland and Ukraine, where he performed for students in Krakow and Lviv, among other cities and towns.
Verner and Fredericks visited the Vermont Public studios this summer to discuss Magicians Without Borders and that recent trip to eastern Europe with Vermont Public's Jenn Jarecki. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity. The interview began with a question for Verner on how Magicians Without Borders began.
Tom Verner: I was on my way to a meeting in Poland, and through an amazing constellation of circumstances, ended up in the refugee camps in Kosovo. That was during the Balkan War. We came to a little town, and the UN driver said, "This is not a refugee camp, but life is terrible in Shutka. They need some magic there." So we went in, we did a magic show, and this Roma woman came up to me, and she had a 5 denar Macedonian gold coin in her hand, and she dropped it in the palm of my hand. And she had seen me multiply flowers and sponge balls and all sorts of things. She points to it, she says, "Make more money." And so I took it, and there were four or five Roma men standing beside me, watching this. And I throw it into my hand, and I squeeze it, and I open my hand, and there is a big, what looks like a chunk of gold. Actually, it was pyrite, fool's gold. And I offer it to her, and she smiles, mildly amused, and says, "Money. More money." Two of the Roma men say, "Make us visas to America."
That night, I'm back in my little room, and I realized two things that have become the cornerstone of Magicians Without Borders, and I didn't know "Magicians" was born that day.
Everyone understood magic. I didn't speak Roma or Serbo-Croatian. They didn't speak English, but they all spoke magic. I had been doing magic at that point for 25 years. I never realized it was a universal language.
And the second thing was, Harry Houdini once said — who was a refugee from Hungary — and Houdini said, "Whenever I do my magic for poor people in difficult situations, it not only amazes and amuses, but it awakens hope that the impossible is possible."
Jenn Jarecki: I'm glad you brought up some of the core tenets of Magicians Without Borders because as I was doing more research about you all, there were three that seemed to come up as well: entertain, educate and empower. Janet, can you tell us more about those three tenets?
Janet Fredericks: We started going to entertain, and then we realized that the entertainment was really healing, that laughter heals. We realized that a lot of children wanted to know, "How do you do this?" Of course, everybody's curious, how is it done, but there are certain kids that wanted to know. And so we started to look at educating those kids so that they could be the future of Magicians Without Borders. These children, once they learned the magic — and it took a lot of concentration for them, and it developed their confidence and their ability to be out in front of people and have a voice, and we saw how empowering that was — they performed right along with us.
Jenn Jarecki: I'm hoping we can turn to the recent trip you took to Ukraine and Poland, Tom. So I understand you've been to Ukraine multiple times since the war first broke out in 2022. Can you tell us more about where you traveled on this recent trip, and maybe who you met along the way?
Tom Verner: So, we have done four trips to Poland and Ukraine, and the first one was just eight weeks after the war began when things were still very chaotic and refugees were still pouring across the border into Poland. And so we went to Krakow, and we've always gone to Krakow because you can't fly into Ukraine. So, we did shows there on each of our four trips. And then we took the bus ride into western Ukraine, where a wonderful organization, the Ukrainian Children's Action Project, has set up what they call recovery camps, and they're for about 70 children and their moms.
Jenn Jarecki: Janet, you've called Magicians Without Borders "citizen ambassadors." How does that play out when you all travel?
Janet Fredericks: Well, first of all, people are amazed that we travel together, just usually the two of us — it started out that way. And that we would go to some of these places. They're not in the Lonely Planet guide, let's say that. They're really impressed that we would take our time, spend the money to travel and entertain them.
Tom Verner: I think it's important to say that Magicians Without Borders started very much with the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and America was being seen around the world as an aggressor and an invader, even though we saw it as part of the war on terror or whatever. And I think LaFleur and I brought another image of America to the world.
Jenn Jarecki: So, I know Magicians Without Borders is a nonprofit organization, but I'm curious how you all fund this work and the trips you take.
Janet Fredericks: At first, we put out a call to family and friends, and some of our own money, and we were very happy to receive something to get going on our first trip. And it was kind of trip-by-trip raising money.
But as we performed more and we had more credibility, we've done a lot of work with the UN High Commission for Refugees and many, many NGO, non-governmental organizations in these many countries we've been to. Tom also performs here as a magician, not under the Magicians Without Borders mantle, but he tells the story about Magicians Without Borders and what we do the rest of the year. So that has introduced us to many donors.
Jenn Jarecki: Well, one last question for you both, which is, what's next for Magicians Without Borders, both within the borders of the United States and without?
Tom Verner: Well, we have a wonderful man named Carlos López who lives in Bogotá, Colombia, and he has been working with us for 10 or 12 years, and he's very savvy in so many ways, and he's probably going to take over Magicians Without Borders when the time comes. And he's running our nine educational programs around the world now, being in touch with the teachers. He and I are traveling together, but I'm seeing him more and more taking over that international work, and LaFleur and I bringing Magicians Without Borders home.
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