The art of illusion has always been one of the most impressive forms of performances. Fortunately, Egyptians are getting their share of entertainment, as magic is growing in popularity day after day. If you’ve stumbled upon Karim Makram at any of Cairo’s hottest events, then you’re definitely lucky. The talented illusionist’s tricks will make your jaws drop, but his friendly persona and playful attitude will put a smile on your face.
Karim, who’s actually a mechanical engineer by day, started practising magic four years ago after an illusionist pulled a trick on him, leaving him with tons of questions. “Because engineers always seek an explanation for everything, I started digging into it. I started by reading a lot of books about magic, and then I started creating my own tricks over time,” Makram told us.
The self-taught illusionist started doing this as a hobby, but then people started asking him to do this professionally at events. But because Karim’s number one priority is to see the smile on people’s face after one of his tricks, you’ll probably seem him roaming Cairo’s events and venues, doing it for free, spreading joy.
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The feedback has always been great. In fact, Makram told us that feedback and reactions normally give him inspiration. He uses their assumptions about how he performed a particular trick to come up with new ideas for other tricks. Makram also opened up about how hard it is to practice magic here in Egypt. “Most Egyptians don’t like to be fooled; I think it’s in the culture,” he said. “Some of them don’t enjoy the show, and instead, they keep on trying to figure out how I fooled them, but most of the time, I use that to fool them even more.”
Karim has over 500 tricks up his sleeve, but one that we can say never fails to leave everyone questioning their existence is when he makes an entire deck disappear from the audience’s own hands. This one always gets the best reactions according to the charming magician.
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As a part of continually developing himself, Karim hopes to delve deeper into mindreading. He even wants to have his own prank magic show someday; which is something he’s been working on for the past six months.
Luckily, Karim’s day job doesn’t stop him from pursuing his passion, as most of his performances take place after working hours. “And of course, I sometimes use my magic to entertain people at work,” he laughingly said. What a fantastic work environment that must be!
