From vanishing the Burj Khalifa in front of a stunned Dubai audience to teleporting people on live television, UAE’s very own David Copperfield has done it all. Yet it was never easy to begin with, says Emirati Moein Al Bastaki, who had to spend a ‘lifetime’ to win his father’s confidence. Bastaki, who is a senior banking professional by the day and a “mentallist, illusionist and a magician” by the night, says it all came to him from his grandfather who passed the tricks of the trade on to him as a child. His first stage show, an informal one in front of his family at the age of nine, was a failure in his own words but he hasn’t had to look back since, having now sealed his place as arguably the world’s most famous Emirati magician to have emerged from the UAE.

Al Bas­taki says many peo­ple of­ten wrongly as­so­ciate his art with black magic and sor­cery and hence see it as a ta­boo. It is this myth that Al Bas­taki as­pires to break through his per­for­mances while putting the UAE on the map of magic. “Why can’t we in­spire the West­ern artists for a change?,” he asks.

I do not have magical powers but I can make people have the illusion that I am doing something magical. If someone comes and offer me $100,000 for a wrong cause, I am never going to do it but if it is for the right cause, I am up for it. I just want people to change their perception about magic. That’s all!

The 39-year old is also a fitness buff and, in 2017, had landed a role as the TV presenter for a weekly Arabic show where he delivered highlights from WWE matches. It is there that he got the chance to perform tricks for WWE stars such as John Cena, The Miz, CM Punk and R-Truth. The neighbourhood gym is where he still heads to every evening for inspiration.