What can you say about a man who has clicked his fingers and made the Taj Mahal vanish into thin air? And who has made Michael Jackson disappear for a few moments and reappear in a different part of the stage along with his brothers. And who turned singer Janet Jackson into a panther in front of a stupefied audience.

With the light reflecting on his golden curls, Franz Harary steps dramatically out of a ball of mirrors and makes an expansive gesture to the crowds. And as the famous American illusionist starts his routine, the audience willingly suspends disbelief. He starts with a relatively simple illusion, making a handful of rings disappear but soon progresses to complex moves in which he makes a young boy appear to levitate through the air. And with a flourish he cuts through a box with a petite dancing girl in it.

“When you rip it all away, all you have is mind games,” he says with a broad smile. And with that, he puts his words into action and makes a piece of paper appear to float between his palms.

Harary’s almost an old India hand by now. He’s currently performing for about three months at the giant Kingdom of Dreams entertainment park in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi. But he’s been in the country many times before. Last year, he was a judge in a TV reality show in which several young magicians pitted their skills against each other. The winner of the reality show, Tejas Molade, is performing with Harary at the Kingdom of Dreams. Previously, Harary famously came to India a decade ago and made the Taj Mahal disappear.

He calls himself a master illusionist and some of his illusions have been truly remarkable. At the launch of Steven Spielberg’s movie Transformers in 2007 in Tokyo, Harary appeared to change a 40-storey skyscraper into a transformer. He’s produced illusions for Broadway shows such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid too.

Franz Harary wows the audience with his mesmerising act (above and below) at the Kingdom of Dreams in Gurgaon

Celebrities who’ve used his magic for their live concerts include Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Cher, Madonna, Prince and Missy Elliott. For instance, he created an illusion for Elliott’s concert where each of her dancers seemed to have a part of her which was reassembled on stage. Closer home he’s even made Shah Rukh Khan disappear during a show and come back from another part of the stage.

Harary’s own brand of magic’s distinct. He uses a blend of robotics technology, hydraulics and even three-dimensional vid-eos to make his tricks tick. “My magic’s not necessarily beautiful. What I bring is in the backdrop of a world of missiles and warehouses. It’s a mirror of the real world and therefore, fantastic,” says Harary who is canny enough to capture the attention of a Bollywood-loving audience in India by throwing in lots of dancing and entertainment with his illusions.

His almost bottomless bag of illusions has even allowed Harary to actually sell magic. “I reverse engineer illusions that my clients want. For example, you want a magic cellphone, I’ll work it out for you and not produce another such product. It’s all very exclusive,” says the magician who also calls himself an illusion engineer. Magicians like Chris Angel, David Copperfield and David Blaine apart from Hollywood studios like Universal, MGM and Paramount have bought illusions from Harary.

The illusionist began dabbling in magic at a young age. By the age of 13 he’d perform small tricks and even tried to make his grandmother disappear. He found a commercial opening into the world of illusions at age 21 while performing at Michael Jackson’s 1984 Victory tour. He made his name when Jackson appeared to levitate and disappear from one side of the stage and reappear with his brothers on the other side.

Harary’s often said that he’s a fan of India’s magical traditions. “Indian magic is thousands of years old. Take for instance, the basket illusion where a boy’s put into a basket, the lid’s put on and he’s stabbed several times. Or the trick where a rope’s made to stand up like a snake and a boy climbs it. Such iconic tricks are almost dead. There are just sparks of it once in a while,” he notes.

He likes to emphasise that Indian magic is to be discovered on the streets and talks of the time when during one of his visits to the country he strayed from the tourist route to the Shadipur Depot area in Delhi. There, he discovered Kathputli Colony, a slum near Shadipur Depot which is home to street performers like magicians, acrobats, mime artists, puppeteers, snake charmers, bear handlers and monkey trainers.

“The group of magicians there call themselves the Masat and they perform the amazing magic with rock, dirt and stones. They don’t have money or technology but their magic is mindboggling,” he says. Harary also talks of the insecurities of his profession and calls it a ‘fringe art’. But he’s booked at the Kingdom of Dreams first and an exhausting list of shows ahead of him in places like Tokyo, Shanghai and Mongolia. Also, there’s a project for MTV in New York.

Yes, magic’s all in a day’s work for Harary. But he has words of caution to offer. “Remember, magic happens in your mind. Everybody needs to believe in something bigger than them. That’s where magic comes in.”        

Photographs by Rupinder Sharma