Magnus says goodbye to Sportacus

Magnus Scheving is at a significant turning point in his life. He will be fifty this year (2014), is recently divorced and is stepping down from his role as Sportacus who holds the hearts and minds of children around the world. At such a turning point, it is natural to look both back and forward. Kristjana Guðbrandsdóttir spoke to Magnus about his eventful life, which is comparable to the Icelandic sagas, where each great deed drives another.

As a child, he ran dozens of kilometers a day with a telegram, during his school years in Norway he saved his schoolmates by burying them in a ditch, as a young man he set out with an idea that everyone thought was crazy and has now become a superpower. It cost blood, sweat and tears. Literally. A fall has been a blessing in disguise many times along the way. He walked around with a broken arm, vomited blood before an important meeting where the product was health, and passed out at work.

In addition, Magnús has had remarkable encounters with many of the world’s most famous world leaders. He has done push-ups with Berlusconi, supported Michelle Obama herself, and was kidnapped in Colombia during an urgent meeting with the country’s president. Back home in Iceland, however, he often stands in the way of the government to get them to recognize the value of the industry he represents. Magnús welcomes a journalist to the LazyTown studio in Garðabær. It doesn’t look like much. A grayish box-shaped, corrugated iron building that isn’t even marked LazyTown.

Inside, however, over 100 episodes of one of the most high-quality children’s content in the world have been produced, which have been sold to over 170 countries around the world. All produced in-house, from concept to finished product. The value is enormous and behind it is the tireless work of the entrepreneur Magnus and the people he has recruited, and the amount that has been produced within these walls corresponds to the production of 26 full-length films. Lazytown has been around for 20 years. In the beginning, the message was embedded in a book, then a play, and later it made its way into the television series that everyone knows and has found its way onto television screens in over 500 million homes around the world.

More valuable than fish

Magnús is quick on his feet and darts around the house while he tells the story and introduces the journalist to every nook and cranny of the house. He has largely built the house’s infrastructure himself. In fact, he seems to be involved in most everything related to the operation, even the smallest details.

His assistant is at his fingertips, there is no shortage of one. Most of his colleagues say they have a lot to keep up with Magnús. His energy is unmatched. He must be more valuable to Iceland’s GDP than fish. “He looks like a Scandinavian man trapped in the body of an Australian bodyguard” said a Times reporter after interviewing him a few years ago.

He has rarely been in better shape and the last few years have been extremely challenging for him. Almost four years ago, a watershed moment occurred in the business when the media giant Turner acquired LazyTown.

The Turner Group includes television stations such as CNN, TNT and Cartoon Network. Turner made it a condition that Magnús remain both CEO of the company and in the role of Sportacus. That’s why he had to get in top shape and work even harder at the business. Later, he tells about his strange methods for fitting fitness into his daily routine.

Every minute counts

The fourth season of the series is currently being put to the final touches and the workload is intense. Thirteen new episodes need to be completed before Easter and you can tell from the atmosphere that every minute counts. Regularly, busy employees come with documents for Magnús to sign or to deliver something. He has a unique ability to handle everything that comes his way smoothly and without losing track.

A relaxation room catches the eye of a journalist, with white leather chairs and white curtains. “I had to create some kind of shelter here at the workplace because here I sometimes had to work for 24 hours straight. The workload can sometimes be overwhelming,” he says, and with that, he is off again. “It is necessary to rest to get my bearings,” he calls out, because he knows that a journalist is somewhere behind him and possibly falling behind.

Cauldron

There are talented people working in every corner of the company. Both Icelandic and foreign experts. Stefán Karl Stefánsson sits in a recording studio and plays an old woman. He does it so funny and well that you can’t help but burst out laughing.

In a computer lab, a technical team works on computer-generated effects. A journalist gets a sneak peek of it and it’s safe to say that the episodes have developed rapidly, the characters of LazyTown go into space in the episode he gets to see a short excerpt from. There are Icelandic tech gurus and foreign experts who join forces. Such is the atmosphere in LazyTown, a boiling pot of ideas and people who have the talent to implement them.

Competing with the best in the world

The path leads to a large meeting room in the building. A large wall is covered in chalk. Another large chalk board stands in the room, also covered in chalk. It is also written on the windows. It describes the atmosphere. It is both carefree and disciplined at the same time. Overwhelming and demanding.

There is fruit in a bowl on the table and Magnús is enjoying a grape and putting his feet up on the table as he speaks. What is uppermost in his mind – after the tour of the company – is how much water has flowed into the sea and the people who have helped him. As mentioned earlier, LazyTown is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and has been around the world since then. That is no exaggeration.

“I admire the people who work here. Last year, the third series about life in LazyTown was released and that series has already been sold to over 120 countries, we have to sell them to more countries, because the series has not yet started airing in South America – which is one of our strongest strongholds. And now we are putting the finishing touches on the fourth series. If we compare it to the first series we produced, it’s like heaven and earth. The development is incredible” he describes, explaining that the knowledge has created a learning curve in the company that is growing exponentially.

“The knowledge of the LazyTown staff has been growing in all areas of program production. We are competing with giant companies, the best in the world, and it is interesting how well we are doing considering how little experience we Icelanders had in producing children’s content or television content in general. The individuals who have worked for the company over the years have received training and knowledge in a wide range of filmmaking. In computer visual processing and sound, costume design, set design, technical photography and much more.

Many took their first steps in this industry in Iceland at LazyTown. Many of them still work in domestic production. Since its inception, LazyTown has created hundreds of jobs in Iceland and played a major role in the development and growth of the Icelandic film industry. I can name CCP and True North as successful companies that have their roots in LazyTown.”

Sportacus’ new gadgets and tricks

According to Magnus, there are many surprises in the new series. The company collaborated with Iron Head Studio in Los Angeles for the filming of season three to update Sportacus’ costume. This same company designed costumes for blockbusters such as Batman Returns, Spiderman, Wolverine, X-Men and others. In the new series, Sportacus is therefore well equipped, with a special backpack that is packed with various useful things for a hero with no superpowers.

“Sportacus has no superpowers other than the will to live a good life. He gets his strength from eating healthy food and exercising. In the good backpack, he keeps various necessities, such as smart rockets, which he can travel with to sports tournaments, and a tennis racket to help others out of trouble and, of course, sports candy. He now has a device on his wrists that shoots out useful gadgets.

There are many other new things in the series, including a new star in the role of Stephanie, Chloe Lang, a great girl from New York who does a great job. Stephanie from the first two series was 23 years old and was out of the role. Máni Svavarsson wrote 26 new songs for series three and four, many of which Chloe sings. The fourth series, which we are currently finishing, contains, in my opinion, the very best episodes we have ever made. They will be on television this fall. It is also fun to say that many Icelandic actors play roles in the series.”

Everything done in-house

Magnús tells a rather remarkable fact. Almost all the activities that take place in LazyTown are done in-house in this gray wrought iron building in Garðabær. LazyTown not only produces television content, but also a lot of other things. Plays, books, music and then Magnús takes an active part in the health efforts of governments around the world.

“For example, we were using Turner Special Effects in Atlanta, and we saw an advantage in bringing this further to Iceland, where we put together a team of Icelanders, which is one of the coolest teams I have ever seen in Iceland. It is very rare in production in general that everything is done in the same house. From idea to finished product. I have not seen it anywhere and I don’t know any examples of it.”

An industry that is under attack

He mentions that unfortunately film and television production in the country is under attack. The government does not see the opportunities that filmmakers have worked tirelessly to foster so that they return multiple dividends to the country. He knows the lack of understanding firsthand.

“In the twenty years that we have been operating, we have calculated that about 11 billion ISK has come into the economy due to the production of the shows. Of that, 4.5 billion has come in over the past 2.5 years – or since we started production on series 3 and 4. I have been told that this is the largest foreign investment in Iceland since the restrictions were imposed. I find it completely incomprehensible that the government is cutting funding for the film industry when it has been shown through unequivocal research that creative industries return many times what the state contributes to the industry. Of course, there are parties that have proven themselves well, such as the Office of the President of Iceland and the Ministry of Industry, which have often shown understanding to the industry. But we can do better. We cannot compete despite wanting to be at the forefront if the state does not support us better. That is out of the question.

I have met closed doors more often than open ones when it comes to the Icelandic government. There needs to be awareness here. We are not just an aluminum plant. We are not a third world industrial country and we should not just look at low-wage jobs in tourism. “Let’s create jobs that don’t drain the country’s resources, but rather create new wealth that is inventive.”

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Government involvement is essential

“The rebates can be increased and the government can be mobilized to be more involved. Today the rebate is 20%, but we are seeing it increase in the countries around us. For example, the UK has recently increased it to 25%. The New Zealand government flew to Hollywood to discuss with the producers of The Lord of the Rings about plans to cancel filming there. People there saw the importance. I often think that the government is too short-sighted.

In this context, it occurs to me that investors often take risks with entrepreneurial companies. It is often said that Icelandic investors are driven by greed, but that is not always the case. Many investors in Iceland have shown understanding to entrepreneurial companies. Thus, Icelandic investors have sometimes lost a lot of money by investing in a risky industry that, despite everything, contributes to the development of society. Investors have lost money in LazyTown, for example.

Jón Ásgeir is one of them, he invested money in LazyTown at the beginning. At the time, he was just starting out in business, and he believed in me, and without him, LazyTown would not have been created.”

Opening amusement parks around the world

Magnús has more time than before to consider matters carefully. Now that he has finished filming his last series as Sportacus, he is looking to the future.

“As mentioned before, LazyTown is a platform for a much more diverse production than television shows, and therefore it is natural that the operations change now that we have produced about 100 episodes. There is a benefit in that production. For example, we have not dealt with digital production such as apps that encourage health and a healthy diet. We are working on preparing such content, where children receive targeted encouragement every day from Sportacus. Then we aim to open amusement parks with an emphasis on physical activity around the world. The plan is to open next year in the City of Arabia, others will be built in Qatar and Kazakhstan and in other places. We are working closely with the Turner Group on these matters.

The LazyTown part of the theme parks is designed for the youngest children. I believe there is a lack of such entertainment for children and LazyTown will participate in it around the world.”

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New Icelandic play

“We are also thinking about making plays bigger events. I am particularly excited about a new Icelandic play that will premiere this fall on the occasion of the anniversary year at the National Theatre. It has been quite a few years since we last had a play in Iceland and it is time for a new generation to enjoy it. This is an original Icelandic work by me and Ólafur Þorvaldz, who has worked as a scriptwriter on LazyTown. We Icelanders own LazyTown like the Danes own Lego and Legoland.”

Broken Arm in Handball

It is interesting to recall in this context that Magnús has staged two plays in Iceland, both of which were sold out. The first time he wanted to stage a play, he couldn’t even get into the big theaters. He didn’t give up and showed the play in Loftkastalinn, where it was a complete success and attracted more guests than, for example, the City Theater in the entire season. The director was Baltasar Kormákur, and in the play, Selma Björnsdóttir played Stephanie (Solla Stirða) and Magnús played Sportacus (íþróttaálfurinn). Then the fall almost threw a spanner in the works, because he broke his arm during a rehearsal a few minutes before the play’s premiere and continued with this injury during the play.

“I managed to break my arm just before the premiere and had to rush to the emergency room while the guests were settling in. I arrived there half-naked, with my hat on my head and the bell dangling. With red cheeks and a fake beard. I was having an X-ray taken on my arm and the make-up artist was allowed to finish the make-up. I don’t think this is the first time that the X-ray room has been turned into a dressing room and a patient has their make-up done in the meantime. At least the doctors were amused by the proceedings. I was pretty nervous, though. The play was about to start, the guests had arrived and the president was in the front row.

I asked the doctor what I should do and he said I would have to cancel the show and get a cast. I didn’t take it seriously as the show had already started and it was not possible to send the guests home. Finally he agreed to inject my hand with anaesthetic to reduce the pain. He then told me to be careful and to protect my hand. He didn’t know that the entrance involved me walking on my hands onto the stage. I rushed down to the theatre and onto the stage, just in time. I do a handstand and try to walk on my hands onto the stage, and then I realize that one of my hands is completely dead. I can’t feel it.

So I’m about to fall off the stage onto the president, but I manage to save myself by going into a corner. This was very special. I then had the cast put on my hand, but I broke it off every weekend before the show and then had to put it back on after each weekend. There were four shows every weekend and no one noticed that Sportacus had a broken arm.”

The man behind LazyTown

It’s clear that Magnús has a unique tenacity. His stories are lively and it seems that his life has been packed with exciting events where everyone chases each other.

It’s impossible not to wonder what kind of man he is. Who is the man behind Sportacus and the LazyTown Empire? While Magnús recounts stories, he shows a journalist pictures from his life and work on a large screen. There he appears with world-renowned world leaders such as Berlusconi, David Cameron and Michelle Obama. The journalist catches a brief silence in a rapid narration and asks where the journey began. He gets it. It began in Reykjavík. Because that’s where Magnús was born.

Learned a lot from his parents

Magnús’ parents are Eyjólfur Magnússon and Þórveig Hjartardóttir, who worked in teaching and childcare. The family moved around the country, as was common for that class. Magnús moved often and therefore rarely managed to form strong relationships with his acquaintances and playmates. He would not have close friends until his late teens. “The teaching profession required moving around, so I moved around. It was great in many ways because I met a lot of people and got to know interesting people. For example, I had a rather wide circle of acquaintances but few close friends. Then I didn’t have any until later in life. I didn’t think about this as a little boy, I was energetic and always found something to do like being in a band, playing sports and drawing.

I think I was dyslexic, I made up a special method to be able to get through textbooks. Used my visual memory to save me, my strengths today lie in what I had to overcome in childhood. For example, I find it easy to watch a movie that is all in pieces, I can put it together in a few seconds. That is some result of what I trained myself with. I find it easy to see the framework of the structure of images, which comes in handy in my work.

I was an imaginative child and just had a pretty good childhood. I was most often in the position of my dad teaching me. It wasn’t always fun to have your dad as your head teacher, as everyone can imagine. Then you’re a student, not a son. Although I wasn’t always happy about my lot, my dad had a great and good influence on me. He taught both academic subjects and gymnastics and swimming, as well as running the cinema in Borgarnes. He did a lot of things and usually included me, so as his son I also took part in a lot of things.”

Five-year-old Sportacus

Magnús was only five years old when he started working. He ran with telegrams all over Borgarnes and sometimes outside the town, as there lived a single man who received an incredible amount of telegrams from desperate women in the town. “The telegram worked in such a way that someone called down to the post office/telephone exchange and I reached the person on the phone. Lúlla who worked the phone opened the window and shouted, Maggi – telegram! I came running and grabbed a small piece of paper and then ran off to reach the person on the phone. At that time, not everyone had a telephone.

Then the other person on the end of the line was waiting for me to reach the person, and therefore it was necessary for me to run as fast as I could. There lived a single man about four kilometers outside the town. I often had to run to him. There were many women calling him on the weekends. There weren’t many single men in Borgarnes, so it was very tiring for him and me, who had to run to him often and frequently by text.

Sometimes it was two phone calls a day, four kilometers to him and back. That’s eight kilometers. Quite a distance for a child, but it increased his endurance, which came in handy later in life.” He worked at this for several years and says that he often got very hungry on all these runs. So he ate berries and other incidentals that the women of the town gave him during the day. A true little Sportacus. “I was often hungry and skinny. I would yell at a few women who gave me food. I would charm them and sometimes say that my mother hadn’t woken up early enough to feed me. Which was actually not true at all, because my mother was a great housewife, but I was just always hungry in those years.

I used to just reach for berries that grew on trees along the way, currants and such – sports candy. Sometimes I would jump into the gardens and grab a big rhubarb. I immediately became a little Sportacus.”

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With a salary comparable to the president

At the age of fourteen, the family moved to Hvammstangi. There, Magnús experienced the best time of his life. “I was fourteen and starting to stand on my own two feet and it was a lot of fun. There was almost nothing going on in the town. No gym and no swimming pool and a big shock for an athletic boy. So I took every opportunity to run and exercise.

I got involved in pipe casting at an early age in Hvammstangi. It was a kind of prison job. I was locked up there casting pipes for hire. It’s one of the most amazing jobs I’ve ever had. I think I had a salary similar to the president. It was assumed that the average person produced about 30 10-inch pipes a day. I was a very energetic young man and made 300 pipes a day. I was 15 years old, I worked from seven in the morning until two at night. It was a horrible job, but I found it fun.

I saw the work as a competition and competed with myself to see how many pipes I could cast in a day. I have worked a lot of piecework all my life. Then sometimes I took it upon myself in the evenings to fix cars. I fixed all the cars in town with my friends. We seemed to do this well, we were even made to pick up the police car and drive it back and forth even though we had no license.

Lost a good friend

Magnús continued his wanderings in the manner of his parents. At the age of fifteen, he moved to England and studied English and tried boxing. There, his friendship with his friend, Inga Helgadóttir (he called her Systu, known as Kentucky in Iceland) and his childhood friend, Steinar Skúlason, who died prematurely in a car accident, became stronger, and so I went to England. In that country, I got to know my childhood friend, Steinar Skúlason, even better, and Systu, who I still have as a friend. His name was Steinar, who would have been fifty on April 20th. He died at the age of 21 in a car accident on Keflavík Road. It was a big sadness for me. The first real loss and it changed me forever. Then I discovered how fragile life is. How short it is between everything being okay and hopelessness. It is a one-off event and that is why it is so important to enjoy the journey. We were very good friends and I started to breathe differently. Life could just as easily have disappeared from me tomorrow.

Of course, like others, I lose this important piece of knowledge from time to time. But it is still there. I know that living in the present has no meaning if you don’t think about the future. The present does not mean now. Living in the present means that you hope there is tomorrow and that you know that your actions have an impact. Both for good and for bad. It is the constant struggle of the individual to act correctly with this knowledge in your pocket and of course the line is to do much more good than bad. This is a line that you dance on your whole life. Steinar’s death brought me this knowledge early in life.”

Saved my schoolmates

At the age of seventeen, Magnús went to Norway and studied at a folk high school. He enjoyed his creative school work and it wasn’t long before he became a school hero after saving his classmates from freezing cold. “I thought Norwegians were kind of boring, but I still enjoyed myself in Norway.

The school I went to was very creative. I took part in a production that toured all over Norway – a dance show – and the theme was against nuclear power. Fortunately, this is not available on video,” he says, laughing. “I painted and made sculptures and enjoyed creating. At this school, art and sports were intertwined in a very effective way. Some seeds were sown there that I still live on in my work at LazyTown. It wasn’t without incident.

I was rewarded for saving my classmates by burying them in a pile of snow. That’s when the Icelandic fleece sweater came in handy. We were walking, on our way to a mountain hut, when we encountered crazy weather and almost got stuck outside. I then resorted to burying ourselves, a group of twelve people, one of whom was an Indian who had never seen snow before. He was closer to death than life. I have never been more grateful to Icelandic wool, because I took off all my clothes and put on Icelandic wool and my raincoat over it. The wool saved me completely.

I stood there digging snow for ten hours straight. My friends all gave up and crawled into sleeping bags that were snowing over, so I had to do everything I could to get them to shelter, as every minute mattered. After this incident, I was a bit of a hero at school and didn’t have to contribute much to the cause after that,” he says, smiling broadly.

Tearing down an entire forest

His diligence has sometimes cost him trouble and confrontation. He causes them a more delayed resentment. Then it happened in Norway, where he was fired from his first job for reckless logging.

“In Norway, I was fired from my job for the first time. I took on logging as a summer job. There was a quota that was supposed to follow, but I was in top shape and tore down the forest with a chainsaw and cut it all down. It all went crazy. In two weeks, I finished three to four months of work. I destroyed the bonus system that the loggers worked according to and they got really angry with me. They told me: You are an Icelander, come here for a short time and upset everything. We are going to be here for a long time! They had me fired because the Norwegians were supposed to take the lead and so I was fired for diligence. It was completely ridiculous,” he says, laughing at the memory.

Always sober

Magnús returned home to Iceland after a fame-making journey in Norway. He had yet to find his family. Become a carpenter, athlete of the year, entrepreneur of the year, European champion and later a world-renowned campaigner for children’s health and an entrepreneur in business. He started teaching gymnastics at World Class and took the profession all the way to the end as he had hoped. He taught in the evenings and the classes were very popular and considered one of the toughest in town. He wanted to become an architect but started by studying construction. He felt he needed to know how houses were built before he drew them. In parallel with his carpentry studies, he sneaked away to finish his matriculation exam at night school.

How did he manage to do all this?

“I never drank alcohol or smoked. I was always alert and therefore accomplished a lot, and after losing my friend, I immersed myself in my studies and work and my hobbies, which were sports and design, especially car design.”

Not overactive but persistent

“I often hear that I am overactive. I have often wondered about this. No one in my family would say that about me, that I am overactive. They would rather describe me as hardworking. I was raised to be hardworking and my role models in my family were strong.

An overactive person can hardly concentrate on the same thing or project for 20 years. Those who have been with me in running LazyTown also know that I have a lot of patience and perseverance. Building LazyTown required patience; I had great ideas and expectations, but for a long time I had to accept a completely different outcome than I had hoped for.”

The right idea at the wrong time

LazyTown, or Latibær in Icelandic, was born when the first book was written in 1994. At that time, Magnús had been giving lectures on health all over the country and also teaching gymnastics all over the world after achieving world-class success. He noticed during his travels that parents were worried and confused.

Obesity was becoming more prevalent in children, and inactivity and poor diet had a significant role to play. Magnús became increasingly convinced that this was where he could make a difference, and the idea for Latibær was born. “I saw that obesity and inactivity were becoming prevalent in children and adolescents. Diets were changing very rapidly, and so was the culture of young people, computer use was increasing, and digital entertainment was replacing outdoor games.

I also saw that there was a gap in the market. There were no healthy role models for children. There was no motivation, no positive encouragement for health. This doesn’t happen by itself. The industry was closed to this positivity and busy with other things. I saw it for myself when I went on a trip to Silicon Valley almost 20 years ago and went to a lot of meetings. My message was that I wanted to create a video game where kids moved in front of a screen. But I spoke to deaf ears. I was right at the wrong time. Later, the Wii would come to market and become popular.

So I had to find another way to channel my idea. I spoke not only to deaf ears in the United States but also here at home. I must have sat in 400 meetings before I managed to organize a children’s marathon and a health initiative, and when I talked to fishing companies about the importance of promoting young people’s consumption of fish, I got the answers that the domestic market was of little importance to them. Social responsibility was minimal. Far too few saw a particular benefit in working on such issues.

Book publishing is booming

“We wanted to find the right solutions to this and started finding the right people to work with us. I spoke to Karl Helgason, who was with Æskun publishing. He is an extremely powerful man, one of the men I have ever met who really wanted to make a difference. He didn’t just publish any books, he wanted to have an impact – that they had a message. I wrote three books and published them. That was the beginning. Then I wrote the aforementioned play, which was such a huge success. After publishing books, plays and a Latibær game, Ragnheiður Melsteð and I formally founded the company Latibær. We followed that up with another show at the National Theatre, established a Latibær radio station and our own economy around encouraging children. The Lató economy.”

Lató is better than the Icelandic krona

The Central Bank stood up against the Lató economy. Magnús laughs about it today, but all jokes aside. “Economic systems that measure happiness rather than wealth are being worked on in the world. The Central Bank was not at all impressed with this economy, they went completely crazy at the bank. I really don’t understand why Lató is not in the discussion about the euro,” says Magnús.

“Lató money will only grow, economic growth is measured in terms of happiness and loyalty. I was interviewed on a show in the UK last week where they were saying that Icelandic raw materials were the healthiest in the world, I think we could just stand a little ahead with Lató in the economy, for example against the dollar. Lató is much better than the krona, the Central Bank wouldn’t have to control the currency, the people should take it on and the exchange rate would follow their happiness. I think most people would give all their kronor and all their euros to get healthy.

When you get sick, you are willing to give all your belongings to get healthy again. That is why it makes sense to have an economy that measures health and happiness, more than anything else.”

Continuing to expand

LazyTown grew and prospered, and Magnús brought along a good group of people, including CCP and Baltasar Kormák, to work on promotional materials for the foreign market. The strategy was set on producing television content for children. “We decided to make promotional materials to show abroad. We set off on a journey around the world, Ágúst Freyr Ingason and I, and fought to sell the idea of ​​Lazytown. We took a lot of time for this, travelling around the world and getting to know how people went about it. It happened that we managed to get a meeting with the big company Nickelodeon. Then it was time for the big moment, nothing could go wrong.”

Bloody sale

Magnús had a lot of trouble in his life before he managed to sell the idea of ​​LazyTown to Nickelodeon. Eleven days before departure, he had a tonsillectomy and was supposed to take it easy afterwards.

However, Magnús got busy writing a cookbook and a few hours before the flight to the United States, the incision started bleeding. “The bleeding was incredible. I went to the emergency room and they cauterized the wound in my throat. It was one o’clock and the flight was at four o’clock. I swallowed a lot of blood and the doctor told me that I had to just vomit the blood, my body couldn’t handle it otherwise. I couldn’t get it out because the wound had just been cauterized and it was all quite sensitive. I was in a terrible state of mind about this but I didn’t want to miss the meeting at all. I just got on the plane and the doctor warned me and said: You’re going to be sick. I don’t recommend you go.

I took off and it wasn’t long before the pressure in the air made me feel sick. I got so sick that I remember lying there thinking that I would soon be knocking on God’s door. A doctor was called on board who tried to take care of me and the situation was considered so serious that when we arrived in the United States, a wheelchair was waiting at the gangway and an ambulance had been called and hospital admission had been ordered for several days. I grabbed my partner Ágúst in a frenzy at this discovery and said: I’m not getting out of this plane in a wheelchair. I’m going to sell the healthiest products in the world and I’m not going to leave the airport in an ambulance. That’s out of the question!

Then Ágúst helped me out of the plane, I went straight to a hotel. I was sick all night, sweating and losing many liters of water. Then I woke up at 9 in the morning, got dressed, took a shower and put on a suit and tie. I showed up at the meeting, gave the sales pitch, did push-ups and did some jumping jacks, splits, spikes and the whole thing. I had been waiting for this opportunity for years and I wasn’t going to let it slip away. I spent two hours with them selling this and I succeeded. They wanted to produce 40 episodes.”

In the uniform for four consecutive years

A huge effort lay ahead at home in Iceland. Magnús decided to build a film studio in Garðabær, a fully equipped studio, and produce the episodes in Iceland. He recruited talent from all walks of life and the first episodes were created.

Lazytown is still selling these first episodes and in fact they recently went on sale on Netflix around the world, including in South America where a huge market area has opened up for the company after a lot of hard work. Magnús did as much himself as he could. He worked night and day and immediately began to fulfill numerous roles within the company. He did not intend to do that and especially he did not intend to get stuck in the role of Sportacus for all these years.

“My work has always involved playing many roles, CEO, screenwriter, director, actor, lecturer and athlete. I was in my thirties when I published the first book about LazyTown. Ten years later I was forty and started acting in the LazyTown episodes. I looked everywhere for a new Sportacus but couldn’t find him, and then it was time to film.

I planned to direct, not act. But then I got into it and got stuck in the costume all these years. I have calculated that if you add up the time that has been spent filming, I have been in the costume for almost four years straight. Actually, Sportacus’ costume is a ski suit, because it is 45 degrees hot. I never intended to make this my life’s work, and especially not at the age of fifty. And that was how it went. But now I say stop, I don’t plan on wearing the uniform when I’m 60″ he says and laughs.

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Considered crazy

Magnús’ fellow travelers tend to shake their heads at all the activity he’s doing. But the truth is, he simply tries to make the most of his time. The last few years have been challenging in this regard, as Sportacus needs to be in top shape and a man in his fifties needs to have more to do to stay in shape. Not to mention running a company as large as LazyTown at the same time.

That’s why, as CEO and Sportcus, Magnus has to do push-ups at airports around the world, jump while waiting in lines, take meetings while jogging around the house or on shopping trips.

“People sometimes don’t realize that I exercise very little because of other things. I have to somehow fit my workout routine into my daily life, and it often gets me in trouble for being considered crazy. I have some weird workout routines that I follow to stay in shape. For example, doing 200 push-ups before I fly. It’s no fun for the people traveling with me. I’m doing push-ups all over the airport.

My traveling companions ask me to do them in secret, like behind the baggage belt or on a bench. Then I do 20 jumps while waiting for a taxi. I’ve had meetings where I’m lifting weights or doing abdominal exercises, I’ve also asked people to come to meetings with me in jogging pants and then we’ll jog around the house. However, those meetings are usually shorter than usual.

Bearded fan worries

It doesn’t matter to Magnús whether people think he’s acting strangely as he jumps around on the road. The opinions of children are more important to him. He keeps many of the children he has met close to his heart.

“Very early in my career, I realized that LazyTown has a very big impact on children. I’ve always felt that kids trust Sportacus and confide in him about many things and tell him stories, they also see through you if you’re not okay. You have to love what you’re doing and children can see it right away in your eyes if you’re not okay with what you’re doing.

I’ve met so many kids and what’s interesting to me is when kids want to show me what they like, how hardworking and enthusiastic they are. That makes me happy. I go to kindergarten and I go to the store and kids start showing me all kinds of gymnastics – splits, push-ups and jumps. It actually often happens that adults do the same, especially if they bump into me while they are having fun.

The other day I went to Melabúð and there was a bearded man who thanked me for not smoking because I had come to his school to give a lecture. I thought to myself, how old have I really become? Am I 100 years old? Back then, he was just a well-bearded young man in the latest fashion and looked much older.

I have also visited countless children who do not enjoy the same quality of life as other children. Children undergoing cancer treatment and other difficult treatments for serious illnesses. I am often asked to come by doctors, parents and relatives. I have met these children and entertained them and brought them healthy food to eat. In some cases, I have flown halfway around the world with sports snacks for these friends of mine.

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The most difficult visits

“The hardest thing I have found is visiting children in hospices, children who I know are saying goodbye to this world. Maybe only a week away. Then you have to be strong and have to be there for these children.

I have often been close to breaking down in these situations, but when I look back I see that these moments have given me strength. I am very aware of how precious and fragile the life and health of children are in all respects. The most painful memory is of a boy I visited in hospice. We gave this boy Sportacus’ shoes and sent him a special ten-crystal, like Sportacus has on his chest. The parents filmed our moments together as a keepsake and cried the whole time. But they were still so happy that I had come to see him. Later, the boy was buried in the costume.”

Arm curls with Berlusconi

Magnús’ travels have also included meetings with world leaders and dignitaries around the world. He has had a lively meeting with Berlusconi, been kidnapped in Colombia, talked to David Cameron, spoken at a conference with Colin Powell and been asked for advice by the president of Chile.

“These are all very colorful people. When I spoke at a conference with Colin Powell, there were 5,000 guests. There were 2,000 people in line to get my autograph after the lecture for their children. But no one specifically asked for Powell’s autograph. He said to me: I really need to borrow the costume from you to increase my popularity.” “In Italy, there was a lot of excitement with Berlusconi, he called all the staff in his ministry and aides to watch me perform. “I had to throw myself down for him to do push-ups and he was the most fun guy.”

Kidnapped in Colombia

“I was so scared while traveling in Colombia. I was there for an interview and was in a situation not unlike now. Suddenly, four men came in with machine guns and announced to me, with a distant look, that I had to come with them immediately. I didn’t understand what was happening but stood up. Then one of the armed men said that I would do well to come and talk to both the president of the country and the minister of health. They threw me into the back of an old Range Rover with an armed escort and then drove ahead on motocross bikes with their machine guns in the air like madmen. I was thrown into the ministry for a photo shoot and there I was handed a thick book and told: Obesity in Colombia is 49%. Fix it! A little pressure. Then I was thrown back the same way back to the interview. Quite a unique life experience.”

With Michelle Obama

Magnús participated in Michelle Obama’s public health campaign in the United States and filmed commercials with the First Lady in the White House. He has often worked with governments on various health-related issues. “I almost broke the crystal crown in the White House when we were there doing some jumping. I got Róbert, a gymnast, with me and we were jumping and skipping around the White House. At the same time, all the US congressmen were in the house for a tea party. That one day a year that everyone meets.

As soon as I got home from the campaign with Michelle, I got a call from the First Lady in Chile, who wanted to do the same as Michelle. So we went there and to Mexico. It is interesting to mention in this connection that I tried to get a meeting with the Minister of Health in Iceland myself. It didn’t work.

However, I got a meeting with the Minister of Health in Mexico at 4 am. Because I was leaving for a flight at seven and he didn’t want to miss a meeting with me. He just came at four and met me. We’ve been to many countries with health campaigns but not much in Iceland in recent years. It would be nice to do more here at home.”

A difficult and painful divorce

Magnús is at a turning point in his life in many ways. “There are many things weighing on me. I’m at a big turning point personally. I have a big birthday this year and I went through a shock in my personal life. Divorce is difficult and it hurts and it’s especially hard for the children. Of course, no one wants to go through divorce, but it happens. But life goes on and I’m determined to find happiness.”

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New challenges

Although Magnús has taken off the heavy and hot uniform of Sportacus, he still has heavy responsibilities and new challenges. Freedom is ahead and he has a lot to choose from.

“It’s easier for me to take a break than it often has been before because of how far we have come in the development of LazyTown. It’s all shaped, patted and ready. The ideology is strong and the knowledge has been built into a good foundation that can be built on for the future.

New ones come with taking off Sportacus’ costume. “I’m in a routine that I need to get used to, it’s going to be strange but at the same time I experience a sense of freedom. I don’t want to drive myself through this stress anymore and enjoy life more. There are so many things I haven’t been able to allow myself because of contracts related to LazyTown – for example, going skiing. As soon as filming ended, I went skiing and snowboarding, which I wasn’t allowed to do because of the risk of injury. I experience freedom in small doses and see life ahead in a bright light.”

Opportunities are many and varied

I tend to direct my energies widely. I pour myself into a variety of subjects, I fear little. My subconscious guides me. I can name examples. I read a lot of good and entertaining books, but I also read books that I have no interest in reading. I grab them randomly from the library and can’t even read the title of the book until, for example, I’m on the next plane and then I have to finish them. I read to calm myself down and open myself up to new ideas.

It’s necessary to broaden my horizons and explore something new. When I started this, I sometimes found it unexciting, but over time, these books are constantly surprising me. You never know what the next book will be about; politics, biographies, space travel or Cuban cigars. Among these books are nuggets of gold and poets that I would not have otherwise met.

I sometimes think of life ahead like a trip to the library. Why not grab something new and explore it? Maybe it won’t be worth it, but maybe I’ll come across something unexpected that changes everything and opens up a new perspective for me. Now it’s just a matter of waiting and seeing.

I’m open to life’s opportunities. My future is based on the fact that I want to do something different and bigger in scale. I give a lot of lectures all over the world but have had to limit it due to work lately but now I’m going to start increasing it again.

I also want to try my hand at filmmaking and am interested in documentary filmmaking and making films that are in a completely different spirit than what I’ve worked on here in LazyTown so far.”

Nobody Can Stand Alone

He says he has learned along the way that no one can stand alone. “Nobody wants to be a superhero and always be right and save the world all by themselves. Behind everyone who is doing something, there are always a lot of people and of course it is best if your family can stand by you, which mine always has, and then support from colleagues and friends is very important. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by good colleagues and friends.

Health is about balance and if I were to draw a circle around all the LazyTown characters, they would form one healthy person. Each person needs to find their own balance between these characters. Sometimes I am Sportacus when I wake up and I feel like I can do everything. But the next day I may be Robbie Rotten and I want to do less. But sometimes you are like Stephanie, unafraid to try new things and sometimes you are Ziggy sitting and pampering yourself with a little chocolate. Another day you can be Trixie who breaks the rules and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Sometimes we have to break the rules to make things right. We know that from human rights struggles throughout history. For example, women didn’t have the right to vote until someone broke that rule. No one wants to raise a child who only follows the rules. Children can see themselves in these characters and they should never have to live up to the pressure to be perfect and always right. Children are born superheroes and we can learn so much from them. The idea of ​​a superhero should be about the small yet important things in life, choosing health and building self-confidence. The best thing parents can give their children is unlimited care and self-confidence. Those who have that will succeed in life.”

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