Painting the town with magic

When DMC was a child, his father took him to a local magic shop, and after that, he wanted to learn as much as he could

Drummond Money-Coutts (DMC) became enamoured with magic at a young age, like most sleight-of-hand artistes. But, he is no ordinary magician. He is not a guy in velvet standing against a pigeon cage, and sawing women into two. His tricks go beyond magic. And his performance over a video call crashed our doubts about his ability to play.

This writer has never attended a magic show, neither does she believe in magic. "Pick a card," DMC begins. "I'll call it Prutha's card trick," he smiles. He shuffles the deck and asks to draw six cards of our choice. Two minutes later, the letters PRUTHA appear on the table. How he did that, is going to remain a mystery.

London-born DMC comes from a family of financial experts. But since he was a kid, his Plan A and B were to enter the world of magic. "When I was 18, I had gone to Kilimanjaro with my father. He asked me what my Plan A was. And I quickly said I wanted to learn magic. Plan B? Apparently I said, and my father reminds of this chat, that Plan B was to make Plan A work," the 35-year-old, who is currently in Mumbai, tells us.

His forever dream, he says, is to recreate the magic that left a tremendous impact on him. "My objective is to recreate a moment of wonderment and astonishment for other people."

In recent years, the international star has got more attention thanks to his TV shows, Death by Magic and Beyond Magic. In Netflix's Death By Magic, he attempts feats that have proved fatal for other magicians. Does that mean he is a thrill-seeker? "Not many people know this, but out of the eight stunts we did, I had to see paramedics almost three times. This means almost half the stunts went wrong. It was a dangerous show. We had to go to five different countries and the schedule was packed. So we never had the time for rehearsals. With fire, gun and water, many things went wrong - most of which we did not foresee. But it went well in the end, and the show was a success."

DMC's big influencers were Dutch magician Tommy Wonder and Argentina-based René Lavand. "While Wonder was very smooth and engaging in his tricks, Lavand had an accident and lost his arm. So he would do magic with one arm. It's very rare to have such artistes in the field." This is not DMC's first trip to India, neither is it his last. His grandmother, he says, loved this country. "I first visited India when I was 18. When I reached Delhi, I remember the city filling up my soul. I've come to Mumbai a dozen times for shows." DMC also has a tattoo on his head written in Hindi. "The second the plane touches the runway, I begin to smile. This is what India does to me."