Beyond Magic Essay Research Paper David Copperfield

Beyond Magic Essay, Research Paper

David Copperfield: Beyond Magic

Only David Copperfield, the greatest magician alive and of all time, can put on a show and influence peoples perspective on how things are viewed and seen. Copperfield being named one of 10 outstanding men in American U.S. Jaycees is just one of many achievements Copperfield is proud of. Although people view Copperfield as an illusionist and that is it, Copperfield actually uses his magic in other ways that just in his shows, but most people look at the trick itself and not the entire performance. Although there is more than just the trick to the show, there are certain aspects Copperfield uses in all of his performances.

Lights. The lights dim down. The curtain rolls open with thunder. Music. An open elevator is seen up above the stage while fog and rock n roll fill the auditorium. The empty elevator is closed and shown empty with light shining through a screen. Magic. Suddenly, a shadow appears and the elevator is now opened to reveal the star of the show, David Copperfield! Even though the spectators mouths have dropped and some are already on there feet applauding, the show has just begun. Lights, music, and magic are all parts of a spectacular show: a spectacular show that David Copperfield performs over five hundred times a year!

Copperfield is considered the master of disappearing acts. (Dawes and Seterington 55). There are not too many things Copperfield hasn t made disappear. He has made everything vanish from assistants to motorcycles to a jet airliner, which was the highlight of the 1981 TV special (Gubernick, Newcomb).

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On autumn of 1983, Copperfield took his vanishing act a step higher once again by attempting to vanish the Statue of Liberty. It will be known as the most famous object vanished, known by millions of people and by David Copperfield (Current Biography 92 ed. 135). That evening Copperfield temporarily removed the 450,000-pound symbol off freedom form plain view. Proving that the statue had actually vanished, there were radar monitors and instamatic cameras that were recording that suddenly went completely blank, along with the vision of twenty randomly picked spectators. And to finally prove his spectacular feat, a helicopter swooped down into the empty space were the statue used to be. Moments later the empty space was covered then revealed the statue in its original foundation moments later (Current Biography 92 ed. 135).

David Copperfield is also known for more than just vanishing objects. He is also one of the biggest known escape artist around. In 1987 he escaped from the most secure and protected places around, The Alcatraz prison! In 1987, Copperfield survived a building implosion. He was chained up and put into a steal safe that was then chained up and locked by two security guards. After the building was cleared, the building was blown up by hundreds of pounds of dynamite. Suddenly out pops up David Copperfield. In 1990, Copperfield was shackled up onto a burning raft and sent over the Niagara Falls which moments later Copperfield is seen high above underneath a helicopter holding on by a rope. In one of his death defying acts, Copperfield is hung upside down 13 stories high in a straight jacket by a burning rope. If that was not enough, he then has to free himself before the burning rope snaps and falls down onto the burning spikes beneath. This was the highlight special of his 1993 TV performance.

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This man has done more than the impossible throughout the years. This incredible man just did not pop up out of nowhere. Like any other performer, they have to start out somewhere.

David Kotkin (known as David Copperfield) was born on September 16, 1956 in Metuchen, New Jersey. Copperfield was awfully shy as a child and had trouble making friends. He mostly used magic as a way of making friends and fitting in (Current Biography 92 ed. 135). His interest in magic came from the desire to impress girls (Polanski).

When Copperfield was just twelve years old, he was already in high demands for parents throwing birthday parties, that he was now able to charge five dollars. His young magician name Davino, the boy magician also impressed S.A.M. (Society of American Magicians), which asked him to become a member that same year (Current Biography 92 ed. 135). Copperfield would no be the youngest person ever to be inducted to S.A.M.

It was just two years later that Copperfield would be a professor and teaching a semester course in magic at the New York University (Magic of Copperfield). When Copperfield was still in High School, he would go from New York to New Jersey everyday just so he could sneak into Broadway shows. During intermission, he would sneak into theaters bathroom and wait after intermission when everyone else was seated and then watch the second half (Polanski).

In 1977, ABC-TV asked Copperfield to star in The Magic of ABC. The next year he co hosted with Orson Welles with a different company to have a television special,

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The Magic of David Copperfield. That special would be the first of fourteen to date by CBS. From Copperfields first TV special, it was fame and success from then on.

It seems like every year David Copperfield is rewarded for something. His achievements grow and grow every year and do not stop (s