David Copperfield show is on right now. He just put 2 folks from the audience on a love seat and levitated them. After lifting them well above the stage (did I mention, its theater in the round?) a clear box was wheeled on stage, love seat lowered into it, lid put on, more floating within the box. The box had a floor too. They also showed tape of the trick being done outside (loveseat and passengers only, no box).
How the hell did they do that?
OK — how’d the Hawaii trick work???
I have no idea, but we saw him live last year and he did both of those tricks. He’s here again in a couple weeks and I want to go. If you think he’s good on TV, see him in person. It is totally worth the price of admission!
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Ah yes. The LATE, great David Copperfield. (Did I emphasize the word “Late” enough?)
I went and saw him live twice. Both times he was over an hour late starting the show. I’m sure it’s still the same.
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One thing I noticed is that the box used for the couch levitation was the same box he used in his “flying” illusion.
I also think that working in a round theater gave him MORE control over what could be seen by the audience. Think about it: He got to control what parts of the crowd could see the stage directly and what parts had to use the monitor… and not all of his illusions could be viewed from all 360 degrees.
Personally, I enjoyed the show and thought that the goldfish production was simply astounding!
Just in case you’re interested, I posted my take on David Copperfield’s show here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=1238038
Am I the only person who’s going to say that I’m generally unimpressed by Copperfield? He takes way too much time to set up his tricks, and it isn’t hard to figure out how most of them are done – a lot of showmanship surrounding a relatively small illusion. Anyone else agree, or is it just me?
Now, Penn and Teller, on the other hand, never fails to entertain me, make me laugh, and leave me scratching my head…
On Usenet, in alt.magic.secrets they talk about him a lot, here are some quote, not full messages from that newsgroup:
It is terrible. I have a friend over watching it, and we are just laughing.
David has fallen very far. I never found him that “outstanding,” but now he
is just coming across as some wannabe Jay Leno stand up comedian or
something. He is about to perform his final illusion as I type this.
I don’t know why he decided to do it
“surrounded”. Was it to symbolize the tornado or was it
because of Blaine influence. To the extent there was
“cheating” I thought it was a bad idea. Diluted the
otherwise fantastic magic.
The leg separation is for real. I’ve seen it twice live.
(I’m skeptical about whether it was really performed
surrounded though when it was recorded for the Special
without revealing the secret.) In the live show he
separates and goes down the steps just like on TV. There
was no trick photography or bluescreen.
Unfortunately, based on what I’ve seen, Copperfield is changing his style.
His Tornado of Fire special, while interesting, can’t hold a candle (no pun
intended) to his earlier work. For some reason, I got the impression he was
trying to be more hip, more street savvy. His decision to perform on a
surrounded platform was unique, but on the overall, it felt more like
watching a circus performance then a grand illusionist. He seemed to rush
through his illusions, and his dialogue and jokes were forced. There was no
dancing, no interesting lighting effects (which have been a hallmark of his
shows), and the effects he performed were targeted at an older audience.
(Pieces like the panties swap and the lesbian-themed Voyeur are excellent
illusions, and fun to watch when you’re on a date or in a similar situation,
but I don’t think they constitute family magic). It was also painfully
obvious that everyone he pulled on stage was a shill. (He’s done that
before, but it has never jumped out).
Everyone he pulls out of the audience is a “plant” or it’s been set up ahead of time, I know this because I was one. I don’t know if he still does it or not but he used to do an illusion with a woman from the audience’s handbag. His people come out before the show and pick people from the audience and take them backstage to go through the stuff with them (sending me back out with a prop handbag). David knows where the “volunteers” are sitting so that walking around looking is just routine.
That said, I’ve seen him perform several times and I love his shows. My daughter thought he was the absolute coolest thing when she was younger because the first one I took her to was the year he was riding the levitating motorcycle over the audience.
I don’t know if everyone Copperfield pulls out of the audience is a plant. There are some tricks where people just check things out, stand there for something, or help with a trick that you wouldn’t need a plant for.
But Copperfield definitely uses plants (as you yourself know) if he’s borrowing something from the audience. Also, even if it isn’t a prepared person, his people most likely scout the audience for him beforehand (so he knows where to find the lovely ladies).
I think Copperfield uses more plants for his television specials, though. Even things that seem spontaneous on them are set-up. Remember the baby crying and all of his witty banter about it during his one special? It’s funny how you could hear the baby of the PA system.
Also, Copperfield’s definitely not above using camera tricks. If he says he doesn’t, then he’s probably not, but there are certain tricks where he conveniently forgets to mention it. Remember that tearing/restoration of the Ty Cobb baseball card? Let’s just say that there are still a few stacks of high quality printings of that card lying around.
I thought that as well; however, I can’t figure out how he pulls a plant from the audience using the ball or frisbee or some other random message. I caught that ball at one of his shows and threw it as far back as I could.
No, not everyone is a plant or arranged ahead of time. The ones that he himself selects (like the two girls for the panty swap) are, but the ones he uses random selection means for don’t have to be. This was mostly the crowd for the teleportation trick. Notice none of them went with him, they just did things like draw a picture or initials, and pose for the picture. This supports my contention that at least part of the video feed is from a studio below the stage. That way he can pull any picture, initials, people in photo, etc he wants, and it can be different every time. Add some pretaped footage of arrival, water, etc, and you have a good mix.
I think he is generally a great illusionist, though perhaps his staging (i.e. the jokes, the long set ups, etc) isn’t the best for everyone. I thought the two outdoor gags were his homage to Blaine. The sawed in half bit wasn’t that impressive to me, and doing it outdoors was unnecessary - it didn’t make it more convincing. (It might look better on stage than close up or on TV). However, the outdoors levitation adds an air of believability. If you buy that the two people aren’t plants and he just has a crane right off camera.