The Magic of David Copperfield: China
For David Coopperfield's 9th TV special he travelled to China to perform one of his most iconic illusions to date - walking through the Great Wall of China. Although this was not a new illusion, it had certainly never been performed on such a large scale before (and certainly it would be hard to find a bigger wall). Although the format and pacing of the show is very much as we had come to expect from a David Copperfield special, a lot more time is given over to outside locations with many illusions and tricks being filmed as almost mini films.
Highlights include the opening Crystal Smoke Chamber from which Copperfield magically appears, the comedy Bandana routine (eeek - how many times have I seen this routine imitated?) and of course the actual walk through which is wrapped up in so much showmanship and extra beats that for once, the routine as a whole is even better than the basic (genius) concept.
Watching the show again, some of the set pieces are possibly a little too contrived as Copperfield tries to emulate blockbuster movies (complete with a heavy dose of John Williams' Temple of Doom score) with magic replacing special effects. Watching him randomly pull a coin out of an orange and create a pearl necklace out of thin air before stunned 'locals' looks completely set up and the less said about the largest, puffiest Jacket ever worn while levitating the tiny child, the better.
Despite these niggles, I still love this show and the final China wall section still holds up today and truly does fool even the sharpest audiences - even today.
The Magic of David Copperfield Additional Links
- David Copperfield
- The Magic of David Copperfield
The apparent secret of walking through a wall was exposed by 'The Masked Magician' on the Fox Television Show, Breaking The Magician's Code. In this rather lame programme the Masked Magician was revealed to quickly run around the wall when the camera was not looking while the patronising voice over told us that "this is just how it is done"! Really? He just ran around the wall while we was not looking? Getting over the stupididy of the entire audience simply nturning away and not looking while the magician does the 'secret bit' - I think that the exposers forgot that the Greal Wall of China was a hundred miles in each direction!!! Let see you run round that you clever Masked Magician!
Copyright © 2008 Justin M. Monehen