İlkay Özdemir (born 1981) is a Turkish

stage magician Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

Early years

In 2001, during her study of Economics at the university, she jobbed for

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

Dr. Selim Başarır. Her employer, an experienced amateur magician, inspired her in stage magic. She amazed her friends with card tricks she learned from Başarır. She improved her

repertoire A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform. Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a l ...

of card tricks with more tricks her mentor taught her. Some time later, he encouraged her to participate at international competitions. She won a first place in the card tricks category. In 2009, Selim Başarır would be honored with the

Merlin Award The International Magicians Society (IMS) is a magic (illusion), magic society created by Tony Hassini to "help promote and preserve the art of magic and provide a format where magicians could share their secrets and ideas." The society gives its o ...

of ''Best Magic Mentor''. Although earned success in many magic competitions, she hesitated a while to continue with a professional magician career because she felt she drew no sufficient attention in public. However, she abandoned the idea to pursue her mother's profession in

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

, and decided to devote herself wholly to stage magic.

Career

İlkay Özdemir began her professional career in 2004. She took part in the

Sinan Çetin Sinan Çetin (born March 1, 1953) is a Turkish film director, actor, and producer. He won the best director award at the 12th Dhaka International Film Festival. Çetin was born as one of the eight children of a customs officer. He is of matern ...

's television show with magician Uri Geller. She regrets her participation because the illusion show of spoon bending by Uri Geller turned into a supposed psychic effect. She won the first prize at the 2004

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

magic competition with the trick "Flames and Birds", which brought her the 2011 Merlin Award in the category "Best Female Magician of the Year", a prize given to a woman in the USA and Asia only. During a ceremony at the

Turkish Patent Institute The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office ( tr, Türk Patent ve Marka Kurumu or TÜRKPATENT) (TURKPATENT) is an intellectual property organization with a special budget being attached to the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Republic of T ...

in November 2006, she amazed then Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

with her magic performance of cards, banknotes and doves. In December 2013, she performed an under-water escape show, in which she freed her chained hands and feet, and escaped in one minute and three seconds from a cage in a huge tank full of sharks at Istanbul Aquarium. The show was held in order to draw public attention to the endangered fish stock through pollution in the Marmara Sea. İlkay Özdemir is Turkey's first and the only female illusionist. Özdemir is considered the best performer of card tricks in Turkey. She used to perform magic shows every two weeks in a bar in İstiklal Avenue,

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozdemir, Ilkay 1981 births People from Amasya Turkish women in business Turkish businesspeople Female magicians Turkish magicians Escapologists Living people