Copperfield enchants audiences with
thrilling magic tricks
by Jennifer Conlee, co-associate editor
Imagine a man who can walk through brick walls, impregnate
women without touching them, and transport people to another
continent in mere seconds.
Impossible, you think? Not for David
Copperfield, whose $57 million empire makes him the 10th
richest celebrity in the world.
Copperfield has made quite a name for
himself in the past 30 years, causing the Statue of Liberty
and the 70-ton Orient Express to disappear in midair. His
illusions have drawn people from all over who wonder how he
performs these impossible feats.
So it’s not surprising that he was able
to show off his abilities to a nearly full house during two
performances at the Lubbock Municipal Auditorium on March 8.
Copperfield’s spectacles boggle the
mind, even one so analytical as mine, which tries to give
reasoning to each of the tricks that seem so impossible to
accomplish. I marveled at how he seemed to come through a
sheet of steel, how he had audience members reveal numbers
and information he had previously written down and sealed in
a locked box, and as a deadly scorpion, affectionately named
Anthrax, selected a card that an audience member had chosen.
I laughed at his one-liners and the
duck that kept waddling on to the stage…the duck that he
made disappear and reappear in a bucket halfway across
stage.
His last stunt was the most
impressive. Taking an audience member who had been
pre-selected, he ascended a platform that hung over the
audience. Within seconds, he and the girl had disappeared,
and they reappeared on the video shown above the stage, in
Perth, Australia. A few minutes later, Copperfield
reappeared in the back of the audience, his hand full of
sand from the beach.
Despite comments from some audience
members that the show was very similar to the one he did in
August, 2005, I was still enthralled, as were the audience
members who had not seen him before. I won’t even try to
guess how the tricks were done. Knowing the secrets would
take the thrill out of the magic.
“Close your eyes and imagine,” said
Copperfield as he came on stage. “Imagine that you could be
anywhere on earth in a matter of seconds.”
I think, by the way the audience sat
enthralled by his tricks and the sweeping music, everyone
was in a different place all together.
As my mother said when we left the much
too-short show, “I’ve always liked the guy, but now I think
I’m a fan.”
