|  He
has walked through the Great Wall of China, levitated himself
across the Grand Canyon, escaped from Alcatraz and gone over
Niagara Falls inside a locked box chained to a burning pontoon
boat. But when master illusionist David Copperfield appears
from August 16-September 19 in the Hollywood Theatre at the
MGM Grand in his show “An Evening of Grand Illusion”
he will be going farther than he has ever gone before –
all the way to a deserted island on the other side of the
world.
Not only will it be a grand illusion in which
the magician will once again be stepping into brand new magical
territory but, at the same time, he will also be proving that
he can indeed fool Mother Nature.
“The things that people have responded
to in my shows have been based on dreams,” Copperfield
explains. “Like flying (he means without a plane), which
I did in my last show and was really based on my dream of
flying. A lot of people share that dream. The next step up
from that is another dream that people have that I attempt
to realize every night on stage, which is finding a person’s
perfect place, that secret place someone thinks about or dreams
about when he or she is trying to escape from life’s
problems. My perfect place is a beach with the sand and the
ocean.”
“I have a satellite crew with a camera
and a satellite dish on a deserted island during each of my
shows,” he continues. “The crew is waiting for
us and we can see them on the beach and they can see us via
a live broadcast into the MGM theater. I disappear, then reappear
on the island with somebody from the audience, complete with
signatures and proof of credit cards that we bring along.
This is the first time anything like this has ever been done
– this piece doesn’t exist in the history of magic
on any level. It’s epic in nature – it deals with
more than one continent, it deals with travel and I take somebody
with me. We’ve really pushed the envelope this time.”
And he doesn’t even need a stamp to
get it where’s he’s going. His unique method of
travel only bears more witness to the fact that there is no
doubt that Copperfield, who has actually vanished on national
TV such objects as a seven-ton jet and the Statue of Liberty,
is a very tough act to follow. And that is exactly his intent.
Copperfield
performs 500 shows a year all over the world in places such
as the United States, Africa, Europe, South America and Japan.
In this country, it takes four trucks to transport all of
his equipment; to get it all overseas requires two 747 jets.
Regardless of the mode of transportation, it is carrying very
precious cargo. Forget what you may have heard about there
being only seven principles of magic, such as transformation,
transference, levitation, etc. etc, etc., etc. Copperfield,
who has a museum library with about 80,000 things in it pertaining
to magic, says that the basis for his illusions are principles
he is developing that simply do not exist in the history of
magic or anywhere else for that matter.
 “What
are traditionally called principles of magic are really not
the principles of magic,” he explains. “I don’t
use those rules. They are just the laws of Mother Nature that
I work with. For example, gravity -- you go against gravity
when you levitate something. Mother Nature says that you can’t
fly or make things disappear and reappear or separate your
body into many sections, then come back together again. The
latter is another piece I’ve done in the show. It’s
not a sawing in half – I’m actually being split
in two by a laser – without a box or anything –
and my body parts go walking around the stage.”
Despite that, Copperfield always knows what
his other half is doing and that is not only trying to create
new principles but new technology as well. He does title his
new principles but says that the names are a secret. He will
only volunteer that the technology has never been used before,
either, and that he does have his illusions patented under
different names and purposes so that people can’t find
them. For example, one of his devices might be listed under
“Farm Equipment” or some other false purpose.
He and his staff build a lot of the illusions themselves though
there are parts and pieces built by others. He notes that
stealing is prevalent in the industry and he finds that very
sad.
 “I
used to do a TV special every year but now I’m being
a little more careful because of all the copying that has
existed in the past,” Copperfield relates. “It’s
not a real concern but it’s disappointing. You just
have to make sure that you don’t look like a copy of
yourself.”
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Copperfield says that his inspiration for
his work can come while he is on an airplane, walking down
the street or from listening to music. He says that a lot
of times just hearing a certain piece of music will take what
he is doing in a new direction. He is very open to new inspiration
and likens himself to a director or a screenwriter or a songwriter
who looks for it everywhere. Once he comes up with an idea,
it can take him three or four years to follow it through to
fruition.
One has to wonder what the illusionist’s
challenges are today. “I’ve taken every single
mode of magic, whether it be ghosts and spirits or mentalism
or poetic kind of magic or magic that can be done romantically,
and I’ve tried to really change each form and add something
to it, do something different to it,” Copperfield responds.
“I think it keeps changing – after I’ve
done all that stuff, a lot of people do the same thing now.
So I’ve had to find a way to touch people and keep the
magic relevant, keep it current, so that they can relate to
it. I’ve done that by having the inspiration be based
on dreams, on people’s desires and making them happen.”
The self-taught Copperfield started performing
magic when he was 8 -- he quips that his first great illusion
was making his teacher disappear. He stayed with magic because
he received a lot of approval and respect from his family
though, as a teenager, he really wanted to be a rock ‘n’
roll musician. But magic was the vehicle that enabled him
to work (he had also tried a short stint as a ventriloquist
but failed miserably).
He soon discovered that he could use rock ‘n’
roll, great choreography and wonderful scenery to develop
anything he wanted to perform his illusions. His stature as
a magician grew rapidly and he became the youngest person
to be admitted to the prestigious Society of American Magicians.
By his late teens, Copperfield was teaching magic at New York
University.
“My idols were never magicians,”
he admits. “As a child, I admired Fred Astaire and Gene
Kelly because what they did with dance, I wanted to do with
magic. They took dancing beyond the back roads of the stage
and brought it to the forefront. Magic had long before dwindled
to a sort of sideshow. It never came forward into modern day
entertainment.”
While
Copperfield considers himself fortunate that nothing has ever
really gone wrong while he has been on stage, his search for
the ultimate challenge has on occasion proved more painful
than glamorous. In a 1984 TV special, “The Magic of
David Copperfield,” Copperfield tempted fate with the
“Escape From Death.” While chained, shackled and
handcuffed in a tank of water, he had to escape before a 500-pound
spike fell on him. Prior to the show, the illusionist was
injured in rehearsal while trying to extricate himself from
the tank. He spent weeks in a wheelchair before successfully
performing the escape in front of a live audience. It wasn’t
until his 1987 attempt to “Escape from Alcatraz”
that he was once again willing to take on such a risky and
deadly challenge.
Today, Copperfield admits that he just keeps pushing that
envelope more and more forward. “I was working on another
piece where I walk into a tornado – a real tornado --
and survive,” he acknowledges. “But I had problems
with it that were of real concern -- people have gotten really
badly hurt doing this with me so it’s on hold now. It’s
extremely dangerous and extremely life-threatening but tornadoes
have always fascinated me. They’re something I’ve
really committed myself to doing something with.”
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Copperfield likes what he does and considers
himself very lucky because he knew what he wanted to do as
a kid. He admits that it is stressful at times and that he
tries to compete with himself as much as he can to try to
do things differently and in a special way. Still, while he
takes his work seriously, he says that he doesn’t take
himself seriously and that he likes to have fun with his audiences,
using his wonderful sense of humor in his shows. He also says
that his craft has indeed affected the way he looks at life
in general.
“I’m more of a believer now in
the fact that things that are supposed to happen, happen,”
he notes. “Still dreams can come true if you work very
hard at them, visualize them and make them happen. I’m
in that category. For so many years, my feet were planted
very firmly on the ground and it allowed me to create fantasy
because I was really based in reality in everything I did.
I was a cynic. But now I’m 50 and I act like I’m
17. I’m becoming more and more of a dreamer.”
As to whether he has found contentment, Copperfield
admits that he is still on the journey. “We all search,”
he says. “I think once we find it, it’s all over,
isn’t it? You have to just make it a pleasant journey,
one that has surprises you can learn from that are challenging.
I’ve got a good deal, I think.”
Is there ever anything he wanted to do in his life that he
couldn’t? “Singing,” he laughs. “I’d
love to be a singer and do Buddy Greco songs.”
In
the long run, the illusionist says that he is looking for
a balance of longevity, productivity and peace in his life.
He also says that he would like to get married and have children
someday. However, when it comes to the legacy he would like
to leave to the world, he modestly admits that he hasn’t
figured that out yet.
“I’m pretty proud of the flying
piece and the island piece,” he reveals. “But
I’m afraid that if I look at my overall contribution,
I won’t create anymore. I don’t know what I want
to be remembered for – I’m still trying to get
it right. On my grave, it will probably say, ‘Still
Flying.’
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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Life
is an Illusion, 
