Hey, presto!

Mohammad Koya, Dubai-based magician who has performed at several venues during the Dubai Shopping Festival.

I must have been around 10 or 11 at the time, but the memory of that card trick is still vivid in my mind. To us children, it seemed like the deck of cards was moving away from us and becoming smaller and smaller until finally it simply disappeared into thin air. Incidentally, this was one of the first tricks I performed after I became a professional magician.

Magician's assistant

I hail from Kozhikode, a city in Kerala, southern India. Initially I enjoyed entertaining people, particularly children, with fairly simple sleight-of-hand tricks. My performances at the time were mostly limited to family gatherings or small birthday parties.

But my life changed after I came to the UAE in the '70s; thanks to my hometown friend F.R. Khaleel, project manager, Awazi Gargash Group, who is my mentor and pillar of support.

I wouldn't have been able to take the leap from performing at small birthdays to doing fairly major tricks on a public stage if it was not for his constant encouragement.

Learning the lingo

The biggest challenge I faced in my career as a magician was learning to become fluent in English. I realised it is important, particularly when performing before cosmopolitan audiences like those in the UAE. I worked hard at it and today I am able to present fairly good acts before any audience. I believe that if you truly put your heart into something you want to achieve, you will taste success.

Audience participation

I remember a day some time ago when a member in the audience before whom I was performing said to me at the end of the show, "You seem to perform all your tricks so effortlessly." This remark truly touched me. That day's performance has become a kind of benchmark for all my performances.

My greatest inspiration is my audience. Seeing the smiles on their faces, hearing the applause, witnessing the childlike glee on their faces when I make a dove disappear or change the colour of a deck of cards… all these make me truly happy.

The charm of magic is that it brings out the child in every one of us. It gives a break from the monotonous nature of our day-to-day life.

Dressed to thrill

Almost every performing magician dresses up in a trenchcoat and funnel hat – perhaps to project an image of flamboyance and slight eccentricity. Most of them are trained in schools of magic. In many ways I am unlike them.

I am a self-taught magician. Also, I am not overly materialistic. I honed my skills doing courses related to magic tricks through distance education programmes, watching CDs, reading books on the subject… I used to spend hours in my room (which I shared with a couple of others) staying up late and rehearsing tricks long after my roommates had gone to sleep.

I plough back a major portion of the income that I earn through my shows into buying more and better props.

Curtains up

I started out professionally as an assistant to a well-known Iranian magician named Abbas Ismail during the 1996 Dubai Shopping Festival.

My work was simple – all I had to do was perform simple magic tricks for children aged 3-10. I enjoyed doing that. For 53 days, I worked for DSF operating from Al Shifa Road.

The Iranian magician was impressed by my efforts and later took me on as his apprentice. Initially, I remember I used to feel a trifle nervous performing before large crowds. But today, I am much more comfortable, even when performing in front of thousands.

I have performed for all the Dubai Shopping Festivals. I have also performed at the Global Village, Burj Al Arab and several top hotels and malls in the region. What's more, these days, Abbas Ismail and I swap programmes whenever our schedules are tight.

Pick a card, any card

Magic is all about sleight of hand. Of course you also need to be a smooth talker and a showman of sorts. Like music or dance or any other art form, you need to have an innate talent for performing tricks.

Magic is all about applying scientific principles to create a sense of illusion. Practice is crucial and so is preparation. You need to invest heavily in props if you are planning to perform major illusion acts. I prefer to term magic as
a 'scientific hide and seek' act.

The three simple principles of a magical performance are position, precision and patience. The popularity of magic lies in the fact that people are fascinated by surrealism. It throws open a gate for them into the wonderful world of imagination.

Magic shows have an element of intrigue, suspense and fantasy associated with them.

The biggest draw of magic is the fact that many believe it exists, quite like how a child believes in Santa Claus or a tooth fairy.

A magician never tells...

I converse with my audience as much as possible and use many comical acts to build a rapport with them. I try hard to ensure that my show does not become boring or lose its punch.

When I perform at five-star hotels, I use the table-to-table approach. I move from one table to another and do tricks and illusions up close. When I am performing on an open stage, my wife, Kunchibi and son, Ashiq Mohammad, help me out.

My wife often accompanies me as my assistant. My son is interested in magic shows and even suggests acts. He has plenty of ideas some of which I try to incorporate in my shows. I enjoy teaching him all the tricks that
I know.

Through my shows, I often try to tell the audience that there is really nothing supernatural about magic tricks. Sometimes at the end of the show, I dedicate a special session to
the audience where I let them in on how I did a particular trick. Of course, I know where to draw the line.

Final act

Though I am in my sixties and have dabbled in magic, music and mimicry, I still believe there is so much more to learn. My message to the youth is do not be scared or shy to experiment and find your real interest in life. Fire your passion with constant persistence.

Mohammad Koya can be contacted at mohamedkoya1@gmail.com

– As told to Feby Imthias, a freelance writer based in Abu Dhabi