Nikola Petrov-Korli

Nikola Petrov was born on 17 August 1945. Public accounts of his childhood and schooling are thin. What is known of his beginnings comes from later interviews and from obituaries published after his death: he entered show business as a circus acrobat, learning balance, timing and the habit of performing in public, before he turned to illusion.

He became known professionally as Korli. By his own account to Impressio in 2017, when he marked his 72nd birthday, about 50 years of stage life already lay behind him.

After his years as a circus acrobat, Korli made illusion his main calling and became one of the recognizable names in Bulgarian variety. During the socialist era he toured outside Bulgaria with his wife, Vyara, who performed with him. The two visited 12 countries over eight years, a period he later remembered as a time when variety artists were in demand.

His work was recognized at home with two Icarus awards from the Union of Bulgarian Actors, in 1997 and 2005, and with the Golden Phenomenon prize in 2005 and 2006. He received the Golden Age medal from the Ministry of Culture and the Honorary Badge of Sofia. Biographical notices also described him as an academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts and as a former adviser on cultural affairs. In 2022 he was given a special award for 60 years of active stage work.

He continued to appear and to speak about the craft into later life. To people who treated an illusionist as a kind of wizard, he replied that everyone remains subject to fate, and that hope and work were the answer he trusted.

Korli's wife and stage partner, Vyara, died of stomach cancer while still young. Their daughter, Denitsa, was six. He later told Impressio that the number 11 had run through that chapter of his life: he and Vyara signed their papers on 11 August at 11 o'clock, and she died on the 11th. After her death he said he would have found it hard to go on without Denitsa's affection.

As a child Denitsa was recognized among the children of performing families as a young fakir. Korli once thought she might follow him into the profession. By 2017 he spoke instead of her musical gifts and of her persistence, and he said he prayed for her health. Later reports said she too turned toward the performing arts.

Years before that interview he suffered a stroke. He told Impressio that a person should not give in to grief, but should discipline themselves in difficult moments.

Nikola Petrov-Korli died on Thursday, 5 November 2026, at the age of 81. The cause of death was not made public. His relatives announced the news on 7 November, and Bulgarian media including bTV, 24 Chasa, Fakti and Flagman reported it the same day.

His funeral was arranged for Tuesday, 10 November 2026. The time and place of the farewell had not been widely published when the first reports appeared.

Korli belonged to the generation of Bulgarian artists who carried illusion from the circus into variety theatre and onto stages abroad. Two Icarus awards, the Golden Phenomenon prizes, the Ministry of Culture's Golden Age medal and the Honorary Badge of Sofia marked a career that, by 2022, had lasted 60 years.

He is also remembered for the partnership with Vyara and for raising their daughter after her death. His remark that a person should discipline themselves in hard moments, rather than give in to grief, was repeated in the notices that followed his own death.