DAVID COPPERFIELD
David Copperfield has been hailed by audiences and critics
alike as the greatest magician in the world. In addition to decades of
network television events, worldwide tours, and “Dreams and Nightmares,"
the critically acclaimed Broadway show that set box-office records, he has been
featured on the cover of Forbes, Architectural Digest and Esquire and is the
seventh highest paid entertainer in the world.
Copperfield has elevated the ancient art of magic to new heights and redefined
it along the way. He has vanished the Statue of Liberty, walked through the
Great Wall of China, flown through the air and made audience members
disappear and reappear in places they would never expect.
Witty, engaging and supremely entertaining, Copperfield's approach to his
venerable art has transformed the way the world looks at magic. His celebrated
feats and sense of theater have won “The Magic of David Copperfield” dozens
of Emmy Awards and twice led him to be named “Entertainer of the Year.” His
tours have set box-office records across Europe, Asia and North and South
America. He has been honored with a wax likeness in Madame Toussaud’s in
London, and is the only living illusionist to receive a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame. He was knighted by the French government, receiving the
“Chevalier of Arts and Letters” and was recently given an honorary doctorate
of Humane Letters from Fordham University.
Even as a kid, Copperfield was performing illusions in his home town of
Metuchen, New Jersey. He began performing professionally at age 12, and became
the youngest person ever to be admitted to the Society of American Magicians. By
sixteen, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University
During his first week of college, he was cast as the lead in the Chicago musical,
“The Magic Man” He acted, sang and created all the magic in the show, which
became the longest running musical in Chicago history As a result, he was chosen
to host and star in “The Magic of ABC.” His performance was so successful
that CBS signed Copperfield for a series of specials, beginning with “The
Magic of David Copperfield.” With each new special, Copperfield created and
performed even more mind boggling feats before a live audience, without the aid
of camera tricks or visual effects.
Of all his accomplishments, Copperfield insists that his greatest work to date
is "Project Magic,” a rehabilitative program established in March 1982
to strengthen dexterity and motor skills in disabled patients, using
sleight-of-hand magic as a method of therapy. “Project Magic” has been
accredited by the American Occupational Therapy Association and currently
implemented in 1,100 hospitals and in 30 countries world-wide.
Recently, Copperfield joined forces with Dean Koontz, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray
Bradbury and others for “David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible,” an
anthology of original fiction set in the world of magic and illusion. This
collections was so well received that a second volume was published, “David
Copperfield's Beyond Imagination.”
In addition to performing, Copperfield has a passion for preserving the art of
magic for future generations. His International Museum and Library of the
Conjuring Arts is a safe and permanent home for antiquarian props, books and
other historical ephemera related conjuring. The museum houses the world's
premiere collection of historical documentation and artifacts pertaining to
magic, illusion, and the allied arts.
David Copperfield has revolutionized magic. He taken it to heights of artistry
and imagination undreamed of by wizards and audiences of the past, combining
spellbinding illusions with extraordinary theatre
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