Marie Antoinette Riana Graharani’s 10 Craziest Illusions On TV

Marie Antoinette Riana Graharani, or Sacred Riana, is an illusionist from Indonesia, known for her spooky sleight-of-hand magic acts. Her character is a disturbed girl, who jerks her head terrifyingly while carrying a creepy doll. Sacred Riana’s rise to fame has been through her appearances on The Next Mentalist, and the Got Talent franchise across the globe.  The name Sacred Riana was created because she believes that magic can be a spiritual experience for some people.

A movie, titled, Sacred Riana: The Beginning, made by filmmaker Billy Christian, is being released on March the 14th in Indonesia. Here are Sacred Riana’s ten craziest magic illusions on TV!

10 Conjuring The Dead

Sacred Riana’s conjuring the dead illusion appeared on Asia’s Got Talent 2017. An empty box sat onstage raised off the floor on legs. (i.e. no one can crawl into the box without us seeing.) Sacred Riana opened the box and showed the audience it is empty. Suddenly upon her command, a zombie bride crawled out of the box, followed by three undead, who squirmed across the stage.

This was the vanish/disappear box trick but with a spooky approach. The act is complemented by a mass of zombies swarming in from offstage and haunting the judges.

9 My Imaginary Friend

On America’s Got Talent 2018, a small model of an abandoned house sat onstage. Sacred Riana picked up an old leather book and showed us the pages are empty. She wrote, “Do you want to play?” on the front of the book in crayon and placed it inside the small house, closing and locking the doors after her.

Sacred Riana then opened the house and retrieved the book. Displaying the book, she showed us the pages are covered in desperate blood handprints and crayon drawings. The message, “I want to play with Mel B” is scrawled in blood.

8 The Voodoo Doll

With the words “you can’t hide” plastered across the set on America’s Got Talent 2018, Sacred Riana eerily prophesied that “she is coming!” Opening a box, she revealed a voodoo doll and a photograph of the four judges. She placed the doll back into the box and folded and reopened the photograph.

Mel B’s face had been torn off the photograph, seemingly by magic. The lid of the box sprung open and Sacred Riana retrieved the voodoo doll. The torn face of Mel B was now attached to the Voodoo doll’s face.

7 Burned Alive

On The Next Mentalist, Sacred Riana lay in a white cloth sack. A red-hooded figure came onto the stage with a fiery torch and bent down to set the white sack on fire. The sack started to thrash about and rose up out of the fire. It fell down to reveal an unscathed Sacred Riana standing in the fire.

The trick was an illusion, with a wall of fire in front of a raised platform that had the sack that Riana was inside. It looked like the sack was on fire but there was a safe distance between Riana and the fire.

6 The Satanic Star

Sacred Riana took judge Anggun’s hands during Asia’s Got Talent 2017 and placed a small drawing of a satanic star in her left hand.

She then took the star back and set it on fire by lighting it with a candle. Sacred Riana placed the burning star in a bowl of ash. Taking Anggun’s hands again, Sacred Riana started to chant a sacred magical spell as she sprinkled ash on her right hand and rubbed it into the skin. Suddenly, on Anggun’s hand, there was a drawing of a satanic star.

5 The John Hill Murders

Sacred Riana introduced the murderer John Hill in Britain’s Got Talent 2019. She asked judge Amanda Holden to tell the audience the name of Hill’s last victim. Holden selected Tom. Sacred Riana then asked her to select a page from an ancient book and to tear it out. Sacred Riana then set the torn page on fire.

Pouring the ash over the ancient book, she asked Holden to open the book to where the page was torn. The name Tom is sprawled inside in ash.

4 The Wardrobe

At the Malam Box Office Movie Awards in Indonesia, Sacred Riana got members of the audience to sit around a table. She then showed large cards with different characters on them. Each card was numbered and she had the guests pick one and place their hands on the card. Sacred Riana then rolled a dice, and number 3 was selected. She pinned the number 3 card onto the wardrobe, opened it and placed her creepy doll inside before closing the door.

Upon opening the wardrobe again, she used a rope to conjure look-a-like Riana’s, with 13 emerging from the very small wardrobe. A bell rang and red hooded figures emerged and dismantled the wardrobe, revealing six more look-a-like Riana’s and a scary tall and long-haired figure, whose image was on the number 3 card.

3 Suicide Victim

A camera, a box, and a glass bowl were on the judge’s table on America’s Got Talent 2018. Sacred Riana opened the box and revealed cards with old-fashioned photographs of people and their names and a newspaper article with the headline, “12 people died in building blaze: suicide victim to blame.”

Sacred Riana pointed at judge Mel B and asked her to pick a card. Mel picked the character, Bob. Sacred Riana then took a photo of Mel. Unfolding the newspaper, she revealed Bob as the suicide victim, and the photograph of Mel had the ghost of Bob standing next to her. Creepy!

2 Candle And String

On an Indonesian talent show finale, called KDI Final, Sacred Riana used a candle to burn string into many separate threads. She then rolled the threads into a small ball. The illusion was then completed by unraveling the small ball into one long piece of string.

Sacred Riana managed to rejoin the string back together. This is an old magic trick performed around the world, known as the Cut and Restore trick. Traditionally this trick is done with rope and scissors, with Sacred Riana using a candle to cut fine string instead.

1 The Ouija Board

In Asia’s Got Talent 2017, Sacred Riana had 5 audience members and judge Jay Park sit at a table. They each had to put their hands on the table. Sacred Riana then revealed an Ouija board on the table. Acting as a medium and summoning the dead, the table rose up off the ground and floated around the stage, to the surprise and delight of the audience.

Sacred Riana then had Jay Park reveal his deepest fear, which is unhappiness. Frighteningly, the word unhappiness was sprawled across the bottom of the Ouija board. Jay Park was equally scared and amazed.

About The Author