WATCH: The man with a plan, meet Durban street magician, Thulani
"I am a magician and I want to show you a couple of my tricks."
THULANI Maak-n-plan (pronounced Makaplan), as he is known to his friends on the streets, is a man with a plan for any situation.
The 38-year-old has been living on the streets of Durban for more than 15 years and is known as a performer and also dabbles in magic.
Although he was reluctant to talk to us when we first met him and some of his friends at the Denis Hurley Centre while they were waiting for their meal, it all changed when his friends told him I was from the Berea Mail. His face lit up and he exclaimed, “I have been looking for you for the longest time. I want people to know what I do.”
“I am a magician and I want to you to see a couple of my tricks and hopefully you can write something about me in the paper. I just want to show people out there, that these streets are full of talented people. Don’t worry, everybody knows me here, you’re safe,” says Thulani confidently as he reaches for his backpack. Inside the back-pack are as his clothes, blankets, his much-treasured cards he uses to perform magic, coins, balls, scarves and all sorts of props he uses in his performances.
As he gets busy setting up, a crowd gathers around us and he says: “Look at them, all of them, none of these people have money but they expect me to entertain them!”
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He does a ‘find a card’ trick, which involves him asking a spectator to select a card. By now, the crowd is now cheering him on and as the trick reaches its climax, he says ‘Abracadabra’ and the card that was chosen is no longer there. The spectators scream loudly in delight. For the next trick, he asks if anyone has a coin in their possession and unfortunately no one has.
“You see, I told you, they don’t have money! I am used to performing for people in the streets. One day I would like to perform for bigger crowds. I am working on some new tricks. Where there are people that is where I perform,” he says. As a parting shot Thulani says: “I am expecting to see myself in the paper very soon!”
Anthropologists chronicle this form of street magic dating back to about 3,000 years ago and there are records of such performers across the continents, notably Europe, Asia/South Asia and the Middle East.
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