During the Holy Month there’s a whole host of activities taking place around the city but one intriguing option is the show of Dr Muntaser Al Mansoori at Al Raha Mall.
It’s not often an award-winning magician puts on a spectacular stage show where the audience can get up close and personal to the illusion, but that’s exactly what’s happening at Al Raha Mall thanks to one Dr Muntaser Al Mansoori. Twice a winner of the Merlin Award (the magic equivalent of an Oscar) Dr Al Mansoori has, literally, got all sorts of tricks up his sleeves for the young and old alike. We caught up with the self-styled King of Magic to find out more about him, his show and how he still has to prove to people that what he does is nothing more than an illusion and absolutely not black magic.
How long have you been doing magic and how did you first get involved?
I’ve been doing this for 26 years now. I once saw a Russian guy do a magic show in Ras Al Khaimah and I asked him to show me how he did it, but I was told that it was black magic. I said, ‘Black magic? No, this isn’t black magic, he’s just hiding things in his hands.’ Even when he was making things disappear I knew it was just a trick but he wouldn’t teach me how to do it.
So this intrigued you and you wanted to learn how to do some tricks?
Yes. I wanted to learn and I met a guy called Hamed Ali who actually sold magic tricks [props]. I asked him, ‘Are these all just hand tricks or is this some sort of black magic?’ And he told me ‘No, this isn’t black
magic, it’s just hand [sleight of hand] tricks but they are very special and can be performed on the stage.’ I asked him how many tricks or props he had. He told me he could sell me 50 so I bought them all! He was quite surprised. It was expensive but I wanted to learn. I went away and trained. Two days later I went back and said, ‘Do you have any more?’ He couldn’t believe it! I performed a show for him and he was surprised. Afterwards he took me into his house, gave me back the money I used to buy his tricks and said I was like one of his children. He then opened up a special room that had all of his tricks and so on and just gave them all to me. That was the beginning.
So how did you get to the stage that you’re at now? What was the process?
After one year of training with Mr Ali he told me it was time to go to America to go to the International Brotherhood of Magicians school. I went there for years, then I joined the International Magicians Society where you learn even bigger tricks and how to put on a big show and now here I am all these years later and I’ve won two Merlin Awards. For the first Merlin Award I was coming and going to the US for four years and then I had to have an exam where you learn how to do magic tricks. You have to work out how to do certain things.
You’re currently playing at Al Raha Mall all the way through Ramadan so what sort of show can people expect from you?
I do all sorts of illusions. If you want card tricks I can do that. I can do anything. I can do tricks with empty boxes, knives, birds and so on. I can do anything.
Is your show at Al Raha Mall good for families?
It’s a great show for all of the people, not just little kids. It’s a lot of fun and everybody that sees it loves it. Lots of people have been to see it from all over the UAE. People need to understand that this isn’t black magic, they shouldn’t worry. It’s just some fun with some tricks.
Do some people still think that what you do is black magic then?
Some people think it is but I always tell everybody that comes to the show, ‘This is not black magic.’ I also get the audience up on stage and get them involved in the show so that they’re in control and it’s not me, to prove that it isn’t black magic.
You’ve also won two Merlin Awards, can you tell us a bit about them?
Yes, I’m the first person to win these awards in the UAE. I’m going to bring them down to Al Raha Mall, who I must thank for letting me do my show, so that people can see them and have their photograph with them. I won them on behalf of the whole UAE family not just for myself so I want to make everybody happy.
What’s your favourite trick or do you have something that you’ve not done yet but would like to do?
All of my tricks are good so I don’t have a favourite. I enjoy doing them all. Some of the tricks I’d like to do are making the Burj Khalifa in Dubai vanish and I’d also like to make an aeroplane vanish from Abu Dhabi airport. It’s something I’d like to make happen this year but I need to have a big sponsor on board because doing something like that is so big that it means it’s going to be very costly.
Show timings are 8pm until 11pm at Al Raha Mall, www.al-rahamall.com (02 556 2229).
