David Copperfield stage show set
Winner of dozens of Emmy Awards for his television specials, Copperfield will perform in Andrew Jackson Hall at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. on his one-day engagement in Nashville.
“David Copperfield is back in town with new illusions for TPAC audiences. Spending an evening with him is great fun for longtime fans and those who are seeing him for the first time. His past performances here have sold out,” said Brent Hyams, TPAC’s director of marketing. “People come back to see him in action because he is a master entertainer. His fast-moving performance is filled with humor along with illusion and slight of hand. David Copperfield is a real crowd pleaser.”
True to its title, “Grand Illusion” is the logical and incredible evolution of this conjurer’s art. Copperfield’s goal in this performance is to take one’s dreams, and maybe a few nightmares, and make then become reality using his state of the art wizardry.
“For magic to be relevant,” explains Copperfield, “it has to evolve so it keeps up with, or even surpasses, the best film and theatre. I want to base my work on what people really dream about. Most of us don’t dream of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. But what affects people is realizing personal dreams, dreams almost everyone shares, that they thought were impossible. In the cinema the audience watches the characters’ dream come true.”
Copperfield adds, “In ‘Grand Illusion,’ the audiences get to watch their dreams come true, before their very eyes and in three dimensions. It’s an interactive experience of wish fulfillment. Nothing like it has been done before. ‘Grand Illusion’ deals with real people who dream of being reunited with a loved one they thought they’d never see again and making it happen, instantly, in front of three or four thousand people who witness the event and see that it’s real.
“Grand Illusion” was partly inspired by an unfulfilled wish of my grandfather’s that a lot of people share: Winning the lottery and finally owning that one special thing you always dreamed of. We call it an intimate evening of grand illusion partly because it’s interactive. In one of the pieces, for example, the audience discovers how to predict lottery numbers that will come up that night. They get to participate in illusions that blur the line between magic and reality,” Copperfield said.
He began performing professionally at age 12 and became the youngest person ever to be admitted to the Society of American Magicians. By 16, 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 three magic in the show, which became the longest running musical in Chicago history.
David Copperfield has revolutionized magic. He has taken it to heights of activity and imagination undreamed of by wizards and audiences of the past, combining spellbinding illusions with extraordinary theatre.