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.

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.

He explained in response to audience questions at a performance held at St. Mary's Hospital in Niagara Falls, New York, in May 1926, that while swimming in the Nile as a ten-year-old boy, he naturally discovered that he could swallow a large amount of water and blow it out like a whale spouting.

[2] They performed together at fairs, carnivals and in vaudeville,[3] sometimes advertised under the collective name, "Hadji Ali & Co."[6] Almina played the part of assistant in her father's act, billed in his shows as "The Princess".

"[11] Although Ali spoke a number of languages[5] and became a naturalized U.S. citizen,[12] it was reported that Almina acted as his interpreter in the United States and other places, as he did not speak English and was illiterate.

[13] Although he developed a significant following, even being named Judy Garland's favorite vaudevillian,[14] Ali "remained more a sideshow curiosity than a true vaudeville headliner" according to at least one source.

[3][20][21][22][23] In another standard performance segment, he placed eight or more lit cigarettes in his mouth but instead of inhaling, he swallowed the smoke and, after a significant time had passed, issued it forth in a steady stream like an erupting volcano.

[15] A prop was then produced, typically a model castle or house made of metal set on a table,[22] within which a small flame burned.

One can always see Walter Hampden or Ethel Barrymore giving their superb renditions of Shakespeare, or if one's fancy turns to box, or wrestling he can visit the new Madison Square Garden ... [but] with all due respect to the art of John McCormick, Harold Lloyd or Jack Dempsey none of them can swallow three gallons of water, or fifty hazelnuts and one almond nut and return the almond at any number called between one and fifty.

At some performances, a panel or "jury" from the audience was invited on stage to verify that no trick mechanism was being employed—that he was actually swallowing the items in question and delivering them back through acts of regurgitation.

[3] Famed escapologist and magician Harry Houdini remarked in his 1920 work Miracle Mongers and Their Methods that water spouting was a "performance that could not fail to disgust a modern audience.

X-ray experiments have been made during his exhibition without a plausible explanation forthcoming that satisfies the critical, in fact, the profession of surgery has thrown up its hands in amazement over this human ostrich.

"[15][note 5] No verbal description can quite encompass the act's rich absurdity, not to mention Hadji Ali's virtuosic esophageal control.

Ali's act was captured in two films: the 1930 short Strange as It Seems, and Politiquerias (1931), the expanded Spanish-language version of Laurel and Hardy's Chickens Come Home.

[3] Ali also had a bit part as the "Turkish landlord" in Warner Bros.' 1932 film Scarlet Dawn starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Nancy Carroll.

[2][30] According to a November 29, 1937 article in the New York Post, upon their arrival, Almina offered her father's body to Maryland's Johns Hopkins University for investigation by surgeons, after which it would be transported to Egypt for interment in a mausoleum.