Hadji Ali

This article is about the Egyptian performance artist. For the camel driver, see Hi Jolly. For the Ottoman voivode of Athens, see Hadji Ali Haseki.
"The Human Aquarium" redirects here. For the French performance artist, see Mac Norton.

Hadji Ali
حاج علي
Artist painting of dark-skinned man in turban in side profile; his head is thrown back and four streams of liquid are fountaining from his mouth
Ali demonstrating his skills, c. 1927
Bornc. 1888–1892
Khedivate of Egypt
DiedNovember 5, 1937 (aged 45–49)
Wolverhampton, England
Resting placeKensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York
Other names
  • The Great Egyptian Miracle Man
  • The Amazing Regurgitator
  • The Egyptian Enigma
  • The Human Volcano
  • The Human Aquarium
  • The 9th Wonder of the Scientific World
OccupationVaudeville performance artist

Hadji Ali (Arabic: حاج علي; c. 1888–1892 – November 5, 1937)[note 1] was a vaudeville performance artist, thought to be of Egyptian descent, who was famous for acts of controlled regurgitation. His best-known feats included water spouting, smoke swallowing, and swallowing nuts and handkerchiefs before disgorging them in an order chosen by the audience. Ali's most famous stunt, and the highlight of his act, was drinking copious amounts of water followed by kerosene, and then acting by turns as a human flamethrower and fire extinguisher as he expelled the two liquids onto a theatrical prop. While these stunts were performed, a panel of audience members was invited to watch the show up close to verify that no trickery was employed.

Although he never gained wide fame, Ali had a dedicated following on the vaudeville circuit in the United States. He performed for heads of state including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Judy Garland named him her favorite vaudevillian and David Blaine identified Ali as his favorite magician. Portions of his act were captured in the short film Strange as It Seems (1930) and in Politiquerias (1931), the Spanish-language version of Laurel and Hardy's Chickens Come Home. Two documentaries contain footage of Ali taken from Politiquerias: 1977's Gizmo!, and 1999's Vaudeville. Ali's unusual gastric abilities led to rumors that the Rockefeller Institute had offered a large sum of money to obtain his stomach post-mortem. After he died in England, his body was offered to Johns Hopkins University for study, though the offer was declined.