The fading enchantment of Dhaka's magic schools

Take the West route from the Ittefaq Circle towards Bangabhaban. A red poster by the sidewalk will grab your attention. It says 'Learn magic' with an arrow pointing towards a dark alley, which will take you to the ground floor of a typical Dhaka building. 

At the end of the alley, there is a tiny room with cerulean floral tiles. Sitting on an old, squeaking chair, 60-year-old Akter Hossain Khan sips on raw tea. He is the owner and trainer of the 'Shahmoni Magic Academy'. This did not match with the magic schools I had in my mind. The 50/50 ft room felt stuffy and gloomy. 

"I was just 15 years old when I undertook the apprenticeship of Magician Shahmoni. It was 1981. My family had understood by then that I was not made for academic studies. So, they let me follow my passion," Akter Hossain said. 

In 1990 when his guru died, Akter was the one who had to do the magic shows. In the last 30 years, Akter Hossain performed more than 5,000 magic shows all over the country, even in India. And that was the year he established Shahmoni Magic Academy at Toyenbee Road.

"This room has been my office, my classroom and the shop for my magic instruments for the last 30 years," he said.   

The table in front of him has laminated old photos of himself where he is wearing a maroon blazer and holding a colourful flower bouquet that he just fished out of a thin pipe. In another photo, he seems to keep a person afloat in mid-air.  

"I have had more than 2,000 students that have taken magic lessons from me. There are a few who are still in the profession," Akter Hossain said. He charges Tk1,500 for 20 magic lessons. 

"It was in 2020 when I last performed on stage as a magician. After that, the pandemic happened and there were no more magic shows," he said.  

Like Akter's Shahmoni Magic Academy, there are a couple more magic academies in the capital. Bangladesh Magic School in Uttara is run by magician A K Shah, who has been in the magic industry for the last 29 years. 

He charges Tk5,000 for 40 magic lessons- 20 free hand lessons like palming, passing and swinging and 20 instrumental magic lessons. "You will have to buy the instruments from me after learning," A K Shah said. 

The 20 instruments cost Tk100 to Tk300. He will teach for seven days, one hour for each.   

Before the pandemic, Bangla Magic was called Magic Academy. As the pandemic hit, the academy struggled to get students. In 2022, it changed its name to Bangla Magic and shifted to Banasree from Agargaon. 

"We no longer take students. But if you want to learn magic, you can visit us and I will teach you the magic tricks for free. You will have to buy the instruments and their price starts from Tk100," the owner Prince Harun said. 

The instruments include a special pipe for the flower bouquet trick, a special bowl for the fire-bowl pigeon trick etc. There are also chemicals for some tricks such as water turning into ice, or for a fire trick where the magician lights his body on fire etc.  

Bashed Mahammud, a successful student from Shahmoni Magic Academy

Bashed was 10 or 12 years old when he first saw small magic tricks from one of their tenants, Ansar Ali, in the capital's Bashabo area. 

Around that time, one of his father's friends, Moazzem Hossain, who played the character 'Kadumachi' in BTV, showed magic at their home. These two people inspired Bashed to learn magic. 

At the beginning of 1991, Bashed went to Shahmoni Magic Academy and admitted himself. "Back then I paid Tk1,020 and Akter Bhai taught me 40 to 45 magic tricks in nine days. I got the instruments and started practising regularly. That is how my journey began," Bashed said. 

That year, Bashed had five more peers with him who also took magic lessons from Akter Hossain, who is not into magic anymore. 

"But it never left me. I am an MBA graduate, and I have worked with NGOs and corporate organisations like ActionAid, ILO and Airtel. But I couldn't continue my magic with the corporate jobs. In 2009, I left my job and decided to work with only magic," Bashed shared. 

He is currently the president of the Professional Magician's Club in Bangladesh. The club has 14-member magicians from Dhaka, Bikrampur, Chattagram and Cox's Bazar.   

Before the pandemic, Bashed performed 50 to 60 magic shows a month on average, sometimes three to four shows a day. 

"Birthdays, family get togethers or picnics, gaye holud functions or weddings, kids' parties, Christmas parties, corporate meetings, dealers' committees, activation shows – I have performed in more than 7,000 shows in the last 30 years," he said.

But after 2021 or 2022, he now performs at around five shows a month, earning Tk80,000 to Tk1 lakh. 

Bashed charges Tk15,000-Tk20,000 for a birthday show of 25 minutes. If you want an hour-long quality show, which will include semi-illusion and medium illusion magic, it will cost you Tk1 lakh and a regular one-hour show will cost Tk40,000 to Tk50,000.

"The pricing depends on the quality of your skills and the face value of the magician. Magician Jewel Aich has a face value, so obviously if you want to bring him to your party, it will cost you more while an amateur magician will perform for much less. As an organiser, you need to do a background check," Bashed added.  

Bashed has more than 5,000 magic instruments worth Tk15 lakh. "Starting from Tk100, I have magic instruments worth Tk5 lakh." 

Before the pandemic, he had two rented rooms to store these instruments. But now he can no longer afford that. The instruments are now at his place and some are at his assistant's. 

"I had six to seven assistants before. Now I have three who have been working with me for more than 10 years. One of them has been with me for the last 20 years," said Bashed.   

Pigeon tricks are famous all over the world. When we asked him what he did with the pigeons that he brought from nowhere, the magician shared a secret with a mischievous grin on his face. "We train the pigeons. I have 10 pigeons at my assistant's place. We train them regularly." 

Dwindling demand for magicians 

It has been only four to five years since China started producing magic instruments for lower prices. Before that the magicians depended on India and if one could afford, s/he imported from the United States or Europe. 

"I still remember that in 2005 an international magic festival was organised here in Dhaka where the great magician Franz Harary performed. He showed the magic of floating in the air. I decided to buy that instrument from the US and it cost me a total of Tk5 lakh to bring it here," recalled Bashed. 

India organises multiple magic festivals every year where magicians from Bangladesh also participate. "Back in the 1990s, the magicians there used to have stalls at the festivals where they sold their instruments. We bought instruments from there. The instruments used by international magicians were extremely expensive, we could never afford to buy those. All we could do was try to make a copy here," he said. 

But now, instruments are available at a much lower price. Also because of YouTube and unprofessional magicians, the magic industry remained informal. "A basic magic show of 20 minutes for a birthday party will cost Tk12,000 to Tk15,000. But any amateur or someone who knows one or two tricks will do the same show for Tk3,000. That is how the reputation of the industry gets ruined," Bashed opined. 

According to Akter Hossain, "Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country, magic as entertainment is not much appreciated in the religion. So, mass people are a bit critical regarding this type of entertainment."