Where has David Copperfield been lately? Not that I find him entertaining…his tricks are so grandeous, they are to the point of the ridiculous. (I’d rather ponder over more modest illusions deserving of thought, not lighting smoke and mirrors.) But, is the guy still around and kicking? Or, did he himself disappear? 
Hi Jinx!
(I bet you get that all the time)
(Got it again)
(And that’s movie reference, anyone know from which movie?)
To answer your question, DC is alive and well and working hard. For many years he had his own annual TV special which gave him a very high media profile, as did his engagement to Claudia Schiffer.
He used this high profile to build up a fantastic stage show schedule, performing something like 300 shows a year around the world. Even given that he can do 2 shows a day, that’s still a LOT of big magic shows.
Then the ‘1 hour magic special’ became a bit of a cliche, every Vegas stage performer seemed to have one, so DC left it alone for a while, but still maintained the punishing live show schedule.
Last year (or year before, can’t recall) he came back to TV with the ‘Tornado of Fire’ show, which was a good advert for his latest stage show featuring the amazing ‘Teleportation’ illusion, one of the greatest and most ambitious *new]/i] illusions ever devised. He toured this show around Europe as well as the States (although sadly for me never brought it to the UK).
So he’s still around, and still at the top of his game. Amount of TV exposure isn’t necessarily the most accurate gauge of how busy or successful a performer is. Blaine gets plenty of TV exposure and attention, but how many live gigs does he do? Virtually none, because he can’t. He doesn’t have an act. That’s not meant as a criticism of Blaine, by the way. I’m just pointing out the difference.
DC’s website will tell you more.
Most “real” magicians hate David Blaine because he uses camera tricks (I happen to hate him because he reminds me of Vin Diesel.) What do those same guys think of Copperfield for using camera tricks? Is he respected at all in the biz or is he considered a hack with a pretty face like Blaine?
I think that DC is the so called ‘masked magician’ they use in all those “Uncovering the Secrets Behind Magic” specials they’ve been having.shrugs
IDBB
If you’re talking about the ones on Fox, nope, it wasn’t DC. On one show he unmasked, and it was some guy I’d never heard of.
I loved that point - se, he took off his mask, and said, “It is I, [some name here]!”
And I was thinking, “Who? Should I know this freak?”
I did like that show. Informative and with just the right amount of flash and pepper behind it. It helped that many magicians publicly accused the “Masked Magician” of betraying thw magic of the world, etc.
I think that, for the scale that David Copperfield performs his illusions at, he is using the camera tricks as a tool, as opposed to a cheat, to perform them. They’re part of his art, not a betrayal of it.
If I recall correctly, the masked magician was… “Rudolpho” or something like that. He was a two-bit magician that performed in Vegas. They were interesting shows, but bandit is right, other magicians got pretty dang ticked off at him.
His name is Valentino.
With the exception of guys like the Amazing Jonathan or Penn & Teller who add humor to the mix magic is lame.
TyrC!
I saw that stage show live. I knew a couple of the illusions, but he still presented them well and it was a very good show. The Teleportation illusion was really great. I have ideas about how it was done, but I really don’t know. It was well worth going to see.
Yeah, right, as if you’d know. These boards are about fighting ignorance, not displaying yours for public view. If you must post at all, why not stick to subjects you know about (assuming there are any)?
Posts like yours fill a much-needed gap.
Ooh, I love the Masked Magician guy. Personally, I think finding out how they do the trick is more interesting than the actual tricks themselves.
You’re in a minority there. Most people, in my experience, just think they want to know, and then when they find out it isn’t nearly as interesting as they thought it might be.
A friend of mine was at my house and picked up one of my Darwin Ortiz card books and was all excited because she’d get to read about “the secrets”. Be my guest, I told her. She was bored to tears within about five minutes.
Then again, some people really do find the secrets interesting. Some of us then go on to be magicians.
The presentation is at least as important as the illusions themselves.
Mrs. Six and I saw a competent, but dull magician at SFMM last week. He did six, count them, six, variations of the same illusion. Wheel a box or a platform out on stage. Show that the box is empty. Someone gets in and disappears, or the box is closed and someone appears. None of the illusions was themed.
I saw the David Copperfield “Anywhere in the World” stage show live. One of the illusions (Voyuer) was a disappearing/reappearing person illusion. Potentially dull, no doubt. But what a presentation. Any magician who themes an illusion around a peeping Tom spying on a pair of lesbians knows how to frame an illusion.
Hey! Trick photography! Gee, Why didn’t Houdini think of that?
I’m not a huge fan of the ‘shiny suit’ school of magic (Copperfield and Lance Burton etc.) but you can’t help be impressed at the tricks…
The recent ‘fad’ of giving-away tricks has gotten a bit too ‘heavy’ really tho.
P&T did it with ‘style’ and entertained people at the same time but all the ‘masked magician’ stuff was too ‘idiots guide’ for me.
I’m all for people not milking the same illusion for years-on-end - but the amount of ‘how it’s done’ programmes has diluted the enjoyment of magic for many people.
End-of-the-day I prefer close-up magic - sleight-of-hand etc. because you KNOW how it’s done but the skilled practitioner will still amaze.
There was a Lance Burton ‘special’ on recently and he had this 18-year-old who did sleight-of-hand/wire and hanky stuff with CDs and Laserdiscs (WAY tougher than cards!!) and he was stunning - no elephants, no smoke and mirrors - just talent.
Also - in the UK there’s a guy on TV a lot at the mo called Derren Brown. He started-out as a magician but his act is more ‘mentalist’ or ‘cold reader’ now and he’s VERY VERY good - well worth watching 
As for Blaine - he’s a VERY good practitioner and yet he resorts to camera tricks which is SHAMEFUL. I get a ‘wow’ out of the levitation trick at the odd party WITHOUT the crane and body-double
TTFN
JP
Derren Brown is extremely good.
Blaine earned my eternal disrespect with his ridiculous “The Eye is protecting me” routine he did on a daytime TV interview in the UK. I always thought he was annoying up until I saw that.
As it happens, DC is performing here in Jacksonville in 2 days. The flashy commercials have been on TV for a couple of weeks. Not my idea of a good time, but each to his own.
Personally, I enjoy the behind-the-scenes look at how the tricks are done. I find that much more interesting than guys in shiny tight pants and women in sequins.
As people above have pointed out, DC is still alive and performing his socks off. I saw him in Vegas last year and actually participated in one of his illusions. He seems like a nice enough fellow in real life. And I thought I saw him in a cameo on “Scrubs” recently. He emoted the “Oh look, this guy’s performing magic for me! Dork.” quite well. That said, he does need to have new acts. Most of the tricks he did during the show were ones I’d seen in previous acts/TV specials.
I don’t really consider David Blaine a magician because I’ve never really seen him do any “magic”. He’s more like a highly-paid Fear Factor contestant w/ his own TV special. That, and he reminds me of Vin Diesel. Good call, Cisco!
Hi, ** ianzin **!
One of the SDMB wife of magicians checking in!
Mr. Singular and I had the pleasure of catching Valentino’s act in a casino in Biloxi, MS about a year before he took on the heinous persona of the Masked Magician. He actually put on a very good show and seems quite talented-we were appalled that he took this path, as he was more than capable of a successful magic career. David Copperfield is corny, yes, but a consumate performer and one of the best technicians in the biz.