Illusions or No, It’s Magic for the Masses : David Copperfield Brings His Smoke and Mirrors to O.C. for 10 Shows

More people see David Copperfield perform each year than any other entertainer in the world. He does 500 shows per year and tours year-round. In fact, his agent said he’s so busy that he conducts most interviews these days via fax machine, composing answers on his laptop computer from 2 to 4 a.m. on the bus between shows.

“It’s true; this is an exception,” Copperfield, 39, said by phone last week from Chicago, where he’d just awakened from a nap backstage. “I’m Mr. Internet.”

Mr. Internet appears in Costa Mesa beginning today for 10 shows in five days. This year’s act is called “The Magic Is Back.”

In fact, it’s never left. His European tour two years ago broke box-office records previously held by Pink Floyd. In 1983, the rock group played seven shows at the Westfallenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, which is Europe’s largest venue; in 1993, Copperfield played 16 sold-out shows in the same hall in six days. Forbes magazine this year rated him No. 4 on the Top 10 highest-grossing entertainers, ahead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jackson and the Grateful Dead.

He’s enjoying success on other fronts as well.

Copperfield’s engagement in 1994 to German model Claudia Schiffer worked magic for his public visibility; he said they’d be spending the holidays together, with their families.

Also last year, he won an injunction against Herbert Becker, a writer who threatened to reveal Copperfield’s secrets in a book on magic that ultimately was never published. And a suit against the magician involving his use of an Orson Welles film clip in one of his shows was settled confidentially; he now has license to use the clip.

This year marks his 17th annual television special on CBS; in previous years, he’s made the Statue of Liberty and a jumbo jet disappear for TV audiences, walked through the Great Wall of China, and in 1991, he introduced interactive tricks.

For most people, it’s one thing to see an illusion on stage, “before your very eyes,” but it’s entirely another to see one on television or in the movies, where so much of what we see is an illusion.

To Copperfield, however, it’s not so different.

“When I do a television special, there’s always a live audience,” Copperfield said. “There’s no great difference to me whether or not it’s on the stage, because for me, the performance is the same. Obviously it’s more stressful, because I’m very involved with the direction of the show and the fact that those moments on videotape or film are going to last past my lifetime.”

Copperfield, who was born David Kotkin in Metuchen, N.J., has a special appreciation for those who believe the TV audience is in cahoots with him:

“They come to see my live show just to see whether I’m full of it or not,” he explained. “They find out that they really are seeing it live, that I really can fly . . . that the morphing you now see in the movies, like ‘Terminator,’ I’ve been doing on stage for years. Instantly, I transform into a girl!”

Also new this year is “David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible” (Harper Collins), an anthology of original stories dealing with magic and illusion by authors including Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury and Copperfield himself.

Now that he’s breaking into writing, perhaps he’s given some thought to the nature of magic. Does magic, for instance, occupy some middle ground between sorcery and entertainment?

“I do get asked a lot about what is real and what is not,” Copperfield said, “whether there are a lot of charlatans out there, if the guy bending spoons is actually a conjurer or real source of supernatural power.

“I’ve never seen anything real, [any magic] that shows a physical result,” he said. “I’ve seen many things that show a mental result or a feeling result, based on what you’ve been led to believe.

“But never have I seen cancer cured by using the intestines of a baby lamb, or by sleight of hand. And I think it’s very disappointing behavior to foster belief in that kind of supernatural skill.”

On the other hand, he said, he would welcome manifestations of real supernatural power.

“I spend so much of my time creating similar things,” he said. “My magic is my medium, my art form. After all the technology and the technique that went into flying, for instance, after I technically hit my mark, as an actor I have to believe what I’m doing. If I could see somebody that really does it, it would verify if I’m doing it right or not. I’d know if I was believing right or not.”

Flying, an illusion that took Copperfield seven years to perfect, provided the finale for last year’s TV special. “The Magic Is Back” stage show features spirits, floating tables and a startling sequence involving a house of ill repute that burned down in 1930, now haunted of course. Copperfield said that the show remains a “roller-coaster” of moods including comedy, romance and sensuality.

Indeed, the promos do seem pretty sensual. . . . Is this a kid’s show or an adult show?

He laughed and suggested that kids are exposed to plenty worse these days.

“Do you ever watch that TV set in your house?” he asked. “Leave me alone--don’t single me out!”

* David Copperfield presents “The Magic Is Back” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Show times are today at 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday through Thursday at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. and Friday at 2, 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.. $8 to $39.50. (714) 556-2787.