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Mr. Antony Hassini, founder of the International Magicians Society, based in New York, arrived to Jeddah from the United States to personally handover the MERLIN Prize (the Oscars for illusionist) dedicated for outstanding illusionists worldwide. Mumdo Marzouki, however, received the prize in a ceremony that hosted media and illusion show fans. In this regard, Mr. Hassini, stated that panel of judges decided to grant the organization's prize to the best illusionist in the Middle East, namely Mumdo Marzouki in recognition of his contributions to such art in the Arab World.
Mr. Hassini, continued saying 'It is an honor to grant such prize for the first time for a Saudi artist who managed to be among the masters of such art worldwide, taking into consideration that such prize is granted based on rigid criterion including live show, history, skills and professionalism of the illusionist' Giving a background about International Magicians Society, Mr. Hassini said that it was established in 1968 and now has more than 41,000 members and is the only organization in such field was listed in the Guinness Record and the MERLIN Prize is one of most important prizes given to illusionists worldwide for the past 25 years; hence, such prize was granted to international illusionists such as David Copperfield, Criss Angel, Harry Blackstone, Jeff MacBride and finally Mumdo Marzouki. In this occasion, Marzouki, said 'it is an honor to receive such prize personally from Mr. Antony Hassini, who is a welcomed guest to this country – Saudi Arabia. This prize, however, is the fruit of more than 26 years of hard work taking into account that such art captured my interest as early as when I was 10 years old. I won the admiration of millions of fans through live shows locally and internationally as well as my own TV series on Rotana, namely (Hala Show), the MBC (Mumdo illusion Show) which broadcasted last August (during Eid Al-Fitr holiday) which was conceived and produced by my production house “Mumdo Productions”.
The show was broadcasted in 2 parts where he managed to produce a helicopter in front of a live audience in the presence of the Lebanese singer Madline Mattar who was the honorary guest in the show. As to (Mumdo's Mystery Box) which were launched in the summer of 2013 exclusively for Obeikan Bookstores in Saudi Arabia, Marzouki said “The product contained in a box that consist of 7 simple tricks along with a book written in Arabic for easy reference on how to implement such illusion tricks. The product, however, targets both genders of all ages with an aim to educate and also entertain. The cost of the product is SR 120. To put is simple for the fans, Marzouki said, to be an illusionist you have to play the audience up to the point where they see things that are imaginable. In other words, to convince the viewer that the box in your hand is empty where in fact it is full. Such art needs passion, hard work, practice and experience to reach the point of professionalism; thus, such requires years of hard work.
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