The nail trick he performed earlier was among the first he learnt from his grandfather, a trick that comes from the Indian fakirs and it is probably as old as magic itself, a trick that I tried to unmystify all afternoon, but Moein wouldn’t tell.

“I don’t feel the magic anymore, that feeling of being mesmerised. By now I know most tricks, how it is all done. There is no more wow, like in the times when I was a kid,” says Moein, glancing at the nail on the coffee table.
After swallowing glass and burning alive, nothing scares Moein — except for heights. The art of magic gave him the power of fairy tales, yet he lost the one thing he loves most: the magic itself!
It took him three years to create this stunt, which was inspired by the magician who influenced Moein most — David Copperfield — who once made the Statue of Liberty disappear.
“It wasn’t visible from every angle, but it did disappear.”
Yet, nothing seems more spectacular than making Burj Khalifa disappear.
“The hardest and most dangerous act I did was to set myself on fire. My whole body was in flames. I had some protective clothing, but I left my head and my hands uncovered, so I can show people that is me and it’s real,” reveals Moein.
For him, the greatest pleasure in his work is that first moment when your eyes open wide and sparkle in amazement. You know there is a trick somewhere, but it all looks so real and perfectly unexplainable!
“I don’t feel proud to fool you, but happy to entertain you,” stresses Moein.
Others asked to be “teleported” or even make certain political leaders disappear.
“One lady asked me once to turn her husband into a ring she could wear it on her finger. I explained that what I do is illusions, and I cannot perform real magic, so she said ‘ok, then just make him handicapped’. I explained again the same thing and still she requested to ‘just turn him into a ghost’!”
“I had so many weird requests,” smiles Moein.
Big corporations, royal houses and ordinary people alike love to be entertained by Moein. Yet, sensitive borders remain. The biggest of them all is convincing people that he has no super power, the magic that he does is not “real magic”; he is not Harry Potter, Merlin or Jafar. His art looks like real magic, but it is just tricks, illusions.
His illusionist friends around the world often help him get the props he needs for his performances, since none of his “tricks” can be bought in UAE and most not even through Internet, but have to be specially created. It is all worth it, though.
“The magic world is a very small one. We talk to each other, sharing ideas, consulting one another,” says Moein.
Some of these tricks he learnt from somewhere else, others he created himself, like the dancing shishas.
He once swallowed several individual needles and a string, and pulled them out from his throat all attached to the string. On a different show he pulled powder out of a bowl filled with water. In a blink of an eye — literally — he can change his white kandoora into a blue one. He can even make the shisha hoses dance.
TV stations from all over the world began wanting him on their sets and organisers invited him to perform in their events and festivals. Moein began wowing not just the big crowds, but personalities too. He “tricked” Maradona, John Cena (the WWE hustler), singers, actors and even politicians, leaving them jaw dropped.
The broadcast had a domino effect. People were hooked! An Emirati magician? And have you seen what he does? It’s amazing!
“I was really worried weather to appear on TV as Moein Al Bastaki or Momi, because magic is a big no no here and I could face lots of negative reviews. In the end, I chose to come out and let it all happen,” he says.
And so he did, and not just a college, but went all the way to getting a Master’s degree. He then again went to his father and told him he still wants to be a magician. He thus became a bank manager by day and an illusionist in his spare time, performing increasingly difficult magic tricks for his friends, placing them on YouTube and his first website — Momi Illusions. Until one day a TV station interviewed him.
“After high school I went to my dad and told him I want to be a magician. He gave me a slap and said I should finish my studies,” smiles Moein.
As it happened, his father owned a video shop at that time and Moein found several tapes of David Copperfield, so he took them home and studied them in detail.
His grandfather, a tradesman, used to travel to India for business. While there, he learnt the art of magic from the fakirs. He tried to pass on the tricks to his sons — Moein’s father and uncles — but they wouldn’t have it. Moein though, was all eyes and ears.
“One day my grandfather takes a coin, puts it in his mouth and bits it in half. I thought that he might have really strong teeth, but then he shakes it and the coin becomes whole again. I was mesmerised! I went outside, looking for all the damaged, bent, not normal coins and take them to him asking to turn them into normal coins so I can by a bicycle,” Moein recalls his first encounter with magic.
Of course, giving the connotations that magic has in the Arab world, his wasn’t an easy journey. It all started in Dubai, his hometown, when he was six years old.
Moein Al Bastaki is the first Emirati magician. Not a sorcerer, but a professional illusionist. His story is worth telling, full of passion, danger and the unexpected. He has swallowed glass pieces, set himself on fire and made Burj Khalifa disappear.
“Yes, there is a trick,” he eventually admits, smiling.
He takes it and, slowly, inserts it into his nostril, pushing it deep under the eye bone. He even uses my finger for the final push. No tears, no blood, no pain.
“You can check it. It’s a real nail,” he says, handing over the nail, which, indeed, is nothing but a nail.
We shake hands and exchange pleasantries. On the coffee table in front of him, Moein suddenly places a pretty big nail.
In the light lobby of St Regis Saadiyat hotel, Moein Al Bastaki doesn’t show the slightest hint of the magic that is about to happen. The tall, soft-spoken 32-year-old Emirati seems to give all his attention to the white sandy beach and the sea in turquoise hues that is just an eye glimpse away. It is the first time he sees the Saadiyat island and he hopes that one day soon he will simply levitate over it — or better still, over the Abu Dhabi Corniche.illusionMoein — the first Emirati magician — has wowed not just the big crowds, but ‘tricked’ personalities like footballer Diego Maradona and wrestler John Cena
Silvia Radan / 24 November 2012