Though he spent most of his life in the secret-shrouded world of abracadabra and hocus-pocus, master illusionist David Copperfield, performing Tuesday at Bell Auditorium, doesn't consider himself a magician.
Instead, the man who took a leisurely stroll through the solid rock of the Great Wall of China and made the Statue of Liberty disappear sees himself as a storyteller, an entertainer whose talent is not in rabbit-pulling or card-picking, but in interpreting dreams.
"That's what my show is really about," Mr. Copperfield said in a recent telephone interview. "I take dreams and make them real on stage. I don't think dreams are abstract at all."
Mr. Copperfield said the inspiration for many of the illusions in his show, the aptly-titled Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion, stem from common dreams.
"My grandfather's dream was to win the lottery," Mr. Copperfield said. "So I do a segment that deals with that. Other people dream of being reunited with a loved one, which also happens in this show."
|
|
David Copperfield, who performed at Bell Auditorium in March 2000, returns Tuesday for two shows.
MICHAEL HOLAHAN/FILE |
While many of Mr. Copperfield's startling illusions are the result of months of planning and construction, he said the inspiration usually comes from the simple act of listening to people talk about their hopes and desires.
"That's the secret," he said. "I listen to what people want, to what their dreams are. My inspirations are filmmakers and storytellers, because they travel in that same sort of territory. I just try to do the same thing with magic - make the impossible possible."
Although known as the man who does the big tricks, - Mr. Copperfield began his career with small, sleight-of-hand illusions, an aspect of magic he still incorporates into his act.
"For my whole life, even when I did the television specials, I did small stuff," he said. "The show I'm doing now has a lot of sleight-of-hand. The challenge is to make it fresh, to do it in a new way. So, instead of using cards, coins and foam balls, I'm using a black African scorpion."
Mr. Copperfield said it's important to mix things up, to punctuate a grand illusion with a small piece of close-up magic.
"It's like doing an album of all ballads," he said. "You could do it, and it will sometimes work, but it's tough. Like the Beatles - they always did a lot of Beatle-sounding songs, but on every album there was always an experiment. That's what made them interesting. I want my shows to have that same element of the unexpected, that element of surprise."
ON STAGE
WHAT: David Copperfield's An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion
WHEN: 6 and 9 p.m. Tuesday
WHERE: Bell Auditorium, 712 Telfair St.
ADMISSION: $29-$48. Call 724-2400.
Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.
Have a thought? Go to the 
