'Not playing tricks, but preventing magic from vanishing'

Chandigarh, April 28: As a world-acclaimed magician, Tony Hassini’s not playing tricks to make things disappear. Rather he’s using his hands to prevent the enchanting art of magic from vanishing - to the extent of planning an Olympics for the genre in India. The ace, elderly and globetrotting rockstar magician Hassini is the president of the US-based Intertiol Magicians Society, the world’s largest professiol body of magicians. “Persistence and determition are the two key words to success,” Hassini, 75, who was born with a hearing impairment and dyslexia, told IANS in an interview here. It’s the repertoire of tricks that changed his life.

“Magic gave me the self-confidence and the opportunity to see eye-to-eye,” the Muammar Gaddafi lookalike said.

Sharing his inspiratiol journey from a disabled child born during World War II to an immigrant dish-washer to an acclaimed magician, Cyprus-born Hassini said: “Everybody has the desire to be rich. Talent doesn’t make it. There are so many talented people who are starving. Hard work doesn’t make it.” The American magician, who has instituted the ‘Merlin Award’, the Oscar of magic, and is known for making the skull float, believes magic is an art and a business too. “I studied magic when I was 16 years old. India, where magic is a traditiol form of art, has a lot of talent. Sadly, the magicians are starving. It’s becoming a vanishing art. It needs to be protected by making it commercial and linking it with tourism like in Thailand and Las Vegas,” he said. IANS