At the time, the Naum family owned a piece of land where the Çiçek Pasaji (formerly known as Cité de Pera) stands today. Finagling a decree from Sultan Abdülmecid in 1840, Bosco built a theatre here to hold 500-600 people, and performances commenced.
Bosco, who spent two years in Istanbul, mentions a curious incident in his memoirs. As the magician describes it, there was a particular trick that he performed frequently in his show. He took two rabbits, one black, one white, and cut off their heads. He then placed the head of the white rabbit on the black one and vice versa and brought them back to life. When Bosco performed this trick for Abdülmecid, the sultan said: ‘Try this trick on an Ethiopian concubine and a blond Circassian from the harem!’ Put in a difficult position, Bosco asked leave of the Sultan and eventually left Istanbul for Russia. It is certain that he reached Russia although there is some doubt surrounding the incident. Let me hasten to add however that David Copperfield, one of the leading magicians of our own day, has performed this trick successfully on a chicken and a goose on television.