Written by: Sania Ahmed Khan
Posted on: May 17, 2018 | 
| 中文
Shaheer Khan
Shaheer Khan is a professional magician, illusionist and an endurance artist. He first came into the public eye last year, as a series regular in Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar’s show ‘Geo Khelo Pakistan.’ Since then, he has performed in various morning shows, corporate events and webcasts. He has baffled audiences with his mind reading abilities, leaving Pakistani cricketer Muhammad Hafeez in hysterics when he correctly guessed that he was thinking about the birth of his first child. He also revealed Rameez Raja’s ATM pin and Wasim Akram’s favorite cricketer during one of his performances.
A self-titled ‘mystery performer,’ Shaheer Khan is performing for audiences all over Pakistan with Fun Ka Kaam, Ali Gul Pir’s entertainment company. The event titled ‘The Other Side’ was held as a three-day interactive theatrical at FTC Auditorium, Karachi from 11th to 13th May.
As a teaser for the main show, Shaheer Khan began his performance with an exciting demonstration. A tall needle was pierced upright, through a small wooden block, and then placed in one of four identical brown paper bags. The bags were shuffled and Shaheer Khan relied on the audience’s instinct about which bags did not contain the needle. When the audience picked a bag, he smashed it with his bare hand. When only two bags remained, an audience member directed Shaheer to smash the one on the left. The volunteer on stage, who had also been picked from the audience, had doubts about this choice and thought it would be safer to smash the other one. Shaheer took his advice, and thankfully smashed the paper bag, remaining unharmed. The other bag did indeed contain the needle, and Shaheer stated, “When conflicted about something, always trust your gut instinct.”
He wandered around the audience, often with a deck of playing cards in his hands, engaging with people at random and making sure everyone got a chance to experience the other side. He would ask audience members to clear their minds, and concentrate on just three thoughts; their name, the name of a favorite celebrity, and the memory of an event that had deeply impacted them. Repeatedly, we were instructed to think about these things. Shaheer approached audience members and slowly uncovered their thoughts. An adventurer’s memory of trekking in Tanzania, on Mount Kilimanjaro, in the scorching heat was correctly guessed down to the last detail!
As if his eerie mind reading powers weren’t enough, Shaheer Khan was phenomenal as a presenter and entertainer. Volunteers from the audience were chosen, with a paper ball passed around the auditorium. When interacting with volunteers, he created suspense through hand movements and change of tone, prompting applause as he uncovered thoughts one by one. Minor blunders were covered with jokes, and thus a lighthearted environment was maintained throughout his performance.
Speaking to the mystery performer at the end of the show, I learnt that Shaheer uses no magic tricks in his performances. He has always been fairly intuitive and has trained himself to read people’s minds by listening intently and observing behavior. “The key to accurately predicting what another person is thinking is by forming a personal bond and asking the right questions. I observe individual qualities of that person and shape our discussion in a manner which leads to them disclosing more information,” he said. While this is not possible with a large audience, Shaheer practices this method in more private settings.
Shaheer Khan thanked the audience for their support and as a final trick, unfolded the paper ball that had been passing around all night. As a volunteer read out what was written on the paper, the audience roared with excitement. The audience’s memories, celebrity names, serial number of a currency note from the audience’s pocket – Shaheer Khan had foreseen the entire show!
All images provided by the writer unless mentioned otherwise.
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