‘I haven’t been to school’: the superstar magician who

Suhani Shah’s act got so big that she went professional in first grade – and she has even had to convince people she’s not actually magic

There are stage parents, and then there are Suhani Shah’s. When Shah – at age six – told her father she wanted to be a magician, he didn’t just encourage her: he told her, go big. Don’t get stuck doing tricks for your school friends or at birthday parties, he warned: “Your vision needs to be bigger. Put together a whole show.”

Wait – he was saying this to a six-year-old? Shah, now 34, laughs. “Yes!” she says. “I’m sure I didn’t understand it. I probably said yes just so I could do it.”