Hadji Ali was known by many names but famous for only one thing; his ability to regurgitate the contents of his stomach.
While wowing crowds across the world in the early 20th century by projecting vomiting fluids across a stage, he earned a variety of nicknames including the Human Volcano, Egyptian Enigma and the Amazing Regurgitator.
He also became an inspiration for the illusionist David Blaine, who is performing in Abu Dhabi next week. Blaine spent 20 years trying to emulate his act.
Other fans of Ali’s included Judy Garland, who, although she branded him fat and ugly in a television interview, was equally as impressed with his talents.
Born in Egypt some time between 1887 and 1892, Ali became one of the most celebrated acts in the vaudeville entertainment genre.
"Hadji Ali elevated regurgitation from a marketplace and sideshow demonstration into a full-blown vaudeville act, complete with costumed assistants, special effects and an exotic setting," wrote Frank Cullen in Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America.
“He began his act with small feats,” Cullen said, “such as swallowing then spitting up quantities of watermelon seeds and nuts, building to a startling finish.”
Ali took his act around the world, impressing crowds by spouting a fountain of water across a stage while often dressed in a white silk robe with a large cloth belt and silk headdress. A woman, thought to be his wife, joined him dressed in a similarly styled costume.
"His rather unique and foreign appearance certainly captured attention, as did the vast amounts of water he was able to ingest and expel with ferocious pinpoint precision," wrote Vikas Khatri in True Stories of 81 Weird Humans.
“There really was no trick to the regurgitator act as it was a matter of controlled vomiting and repetitive training of the muscles of the stomach and throat to clench at will,” he said.
Ali’s flamboyant onstage persona fitted perfectly into the vaudeville theatrical genre that was very popular in the United States and Canada from the 1880s to the early 1930s.
He reportedly performed for royalty as well as some of the best-loved celebrities of the time.
In a television interview with Johnny Carson, Judy Garland was less than complimentary about Ali's appearance, describing him as a "great big, fat, ugly fellow" who "threw up for his living".
“He didn’t dance, he didn’t talk, he didn’t do anything,” she told Carson. “Then his wife would come out with balloon trousers and an enormous fish bowl on her head full of fluid, which was half-kerosene and half-water. She would hand the fish bowl to her husband and he wouldn’t dare talk, I guess, for fear something from the last show might return.”
Ali’s appearances across the world, including in the United Kingdom, Australia and the US, generally generated interest in the local or national media.
The Reading Eagle in Pennsylvania described Ali as the "Human Ostrich" in a 1926 article advertising his visit to the town. It said Ali turned himself into a human fountain and a human fire department, swallowing and disgorging handkerchiefs, nuts, watches and other objects "never intended for a stomach".
In 1926 Ali told a reporter at the Niagara Gazette that he first discovered his talent as a small boy swimming in the Nile river.
But some later reports question his background.
“Because he billed himself as The Egyptian Enigma, an alliteration easy to remember, it is speculated that his birthplace was Egypt,” wrote Cullen in his 2006 book. “His name was likely one adopted, or at least simplified for the stage, and he may have been born in Syria or any of a dozen Middle Eastern states.”
A particular highlight of Ali's career was his appearance in the 1931 Laurel and Hardy film Politiquerias. It was likely this appearance that introduced him to a wider audience – including David Blaine.
In his 2013 television programme, David Blaine: Real or Magic, the illusionist shows the lengths he went to in order to emulate his hero.
"I have been obsessed with this clip since I was a kid," Blaine said of Ali's performance in Politiquerias. "This is Hadji Ali and he is putting a deadly amount of water into his stomach. Then he drinks a bottle of kerosene that floats on top of the water. Then he brings the kerosene back up creating enormous flames. Finally, he extinguishes the fire with the remaining water. Within a few short years this act killed him and he took his secrets to the grave."
Ali died in Wolverhampton, England, in 1931 while on tour. After his death, reports said his body was offered to Johns Hopkins University for examination but the hospital declined the offer. It is not clear where he is buried.
For years, Ali’s trick was the one that got away for Blaine. “I spent over 20 years trying to figure this out,” he said.
But then a YouTube video surfaced of a young-looking man performing the same regurgitation “trick”, cheered on in what looked like a rundown neighbourhood somewhere in Africa.
Blaine and his team spotted some numbers on the side of a house in the background and used the identification markers to establish the video was shot in Liberia.
Blaine spent the next three years trying to track the man down.
“Finding him wasn’t simple. We put ads on the radio and newspaper and posted flyers in all the market places. Finally after three years someone recognised him from the flyer so I immediately travelled to Africa to meet him.”
The man, 35-year-old security guard Winston Carter, told Blaine he learnt to “spout” because of a scarcity of clean water when he was a child. It had nothing to do with entertainment.
“He shared his secret with me and for the first time in my life I did it. Sort of,” Blaine said. After a lot of practice, Blaine went on to perform the trick for Woody Allen, only this time he swallowed and regurgitated goldfish as well as the water.
• David Blaine will perform David Blaine: Real or Illusion at the Emirates Palace Theatre, Abu Dhabi, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Visit www.thinkflash.ae for tickets.
Mitya Underwood is a senior features writer for The National.