The success story of David Copperfield: how grandfather from Odessa instilled in his grandson a love for illusion

The disappearance of the Statue of Liberty, the jump to Niagara Falls, levitation in a glass box - these are the few world famous tricks of illusionist David Copperfield. And the ascent of the most charismatic magician in the world to Olympus illusion began with a simple card focus, which he repeated after his grandfather at the age of six, writes 2queens.

Few know that Copperfield is the pseudonym of David Seth Kotkin, and he took it on behalf of the main character of the novel by Charles Dickens, The Life of David Copperfield. David was born 16 September 1956 in the Jewish family of insurance agent Rebecca, who immigrated to the United States from Jerusalem, and the owner of a clothing store Hyman. It happened in the town of Methenchen, New Jersey. But David's paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Ukraine.

Copperfield's parents and grandfather came from Odessa, and emigrated to the United States from Germany.

As the illusionist himself recalls, it was his grandfather who once had a great influence on his career. The fact is that during the study of the Torah, four-year-old David was often bored, and therefore his grandfather constantly entertained him with card tricks. Such simple machinations with cards seemed to the little boy to be real miracles, and therefore he always asked his grandfather to show tricks again and again, and soon began to repeat some tricks after his grandfather.

Biographers say that David had a wonderful memory since childhood, repeated all his simple card tricks after the grandfather and immediately came up with his own, surprising their parents and the public in the synagogue.

The passion of the baby was supported by the family, and by the time of 7 the young genius organized independent performances. The boy was so gifted that in 12 years he was accepted into the American community of magicians, and in 16 he already taught students the art of illusions at New York University.

Way to glory

But teaching David was not enough, he dreamed of a stage. Instead of the unpretentious pseudonym "Devino", under which he has performed until now, he takes the famous literary surname Copperfield and already with her in 1974, plays in the musical "The Magician" in Chicago. Each trick performed by him on the stage was turned into a unique show, reflecting the individuality of the wizard. There, David received an invaluable experience - communication with the audience, who appreciated his ability to naturally stand on the stage and speak wittyly.

Soon the young Copperfield is invited to host the show “Magic on the ABC channel, the host - David Copperfield”. Here the illusionist adds amazing rock music to the scenarios of his shows. Magic is going on accompanied by the works of Phil Collins and Peter Gabriela.

The next stage of the creative magic of Copperfield, with which our viewer is more familiar, was a project on the CBC channel. As part of this project, Copperfield created 15 of stunning large-scale illusion programs, including the disappearance of an airplane, the Statue of Liberty, a flight through the Grand Canyon, passing through the Great Wall of China, escaping from the ultrareliable Alcatraz prison, a trip to the Bermuda Triangle, falling from Niagara Falls, disappearing from the East an express train and, finally, a stunning flight of David Copperfield himself over the stage with a girl in her arms.

David told me that he was very shy and unsociable; tricks helped him to integrate into society, and later - to impress girls.

Personal life

According to Woman.ru, Copperfield does not distribute information about privacy. At various times, super-models Claudia Schiffer and Ambre Friske were considered his passions. There is an opinion that in fact these novels were started exclusively for the sake of PR. Today they are writing that he is engaged to a French supermodel and clothing designer Chloe Gosselin, with whom they have one daughter, Skye.

Real estate

In 2013 year Forbes estimated Copperfield at $ 800 million. In addition, Copperfield owns the world's largest collection of magic props. Its private international museum and library of illusionist arts include 150 000 exhibits and antiquarian books. The artist managed to collect under one roof objects that Harry Houdini, Georges Melies and Jean-Eugene Robert-Uden used in their tricks and films. The collection covers an area of ​​3700 square. m. in a warehouse in downtown Las Vegas. True, it is not open to everyone. The Copperfield Museum is allowed to visit only its colleagues in the illusionist workshop, historians and scholars, actors, friends, family members, and sometimes journalists. The owner of the collection regularly organizes exhibitions and public lectures with the presentation of individual lots.

The next important part of the artist's condition is real estate. In Las Vegas, he lives in a luxury penthouse Skyloft, owned by MGM Grand, and removes the estate at a distance from the center of the gambling capital. In this case, the illusionist owns 11 islands in the Bahamas and a spacious penthouse in New York.

The private archipelago is located in the Exuma region, consisting of more than 350 islands. The plot on which the illusionist possessions are located in the Bahamas is called Copperfield Bay. The artist has been buying up local real estate since the beginning of 2000, when he designed control over the largest and most developed island in the district, Musha-Kay. This place Copperfield, he said, chose largely by chance. He just made lines on a globe - from Easter Island to British Stonehenge and from the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico to the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt - and at the intersection he discovered Musha-Kay.

The island with an area of ​​61 ha cost the buyer $ 55 million. The deal began in 2006 and lasted four years because of litigation with the previous owner, Blockbuster Video investor John Melk. Gradually, the 10 of neighboring, smaller islands became the property of Copperfield. As a result, the artist spent about $ 40 million more, and it took him five years to bring the property in order.

Now all Copperfield Islands serve 30 employees. Trained parrots clean the beaches, a cinema for motorists has opened on the shore, and furniture has been brought to the main estate from all over the world (there is here, for example, Houdini’s billiard table). In the absence of a host, Mush Kay and other islands are rented by billionaires like Bill Gates and Sergey Brin. For each night spent in Copperfield Bay, participants in the Forbes rating are willing to pay $ 37 500.

Copperfield's New York Penthouse is located in Manhattan, next to Central Park. Four-floor apartments include more than 900 square. m of living space and about 550 square. m of roof garden and terraces. In 1997, the illusionist paid $ 7,4 million for this asset.

Copperfield's Seven Most Famous Tricks

In seventh place, writes Radius, focus with viewers who are directly involved in this action. You guess the number, and David, in turn, guesses it. Makes an indelible impression on any person.

Sixth place It takes a famous levitation trick. Live Copperfield hovered a few minutes in front of the audience. According to David himself, this trick was prepared for seven years.

In fifth place we put the focus with the great wall of china. The trick is that in front of a huge audience, David passed through the Chinese stronghold through and through.

In fourth place is one of the most dangerous tricks Copperfield. He is locked in a safe that lies inside the building. All anything, but after 2 minutes the building will fly up into the air.

On the third place settled no less dangerous trick with a waterfall. David is locked in a drawer that moves in the direction of falling water. The video shows that the magician does not have time to get out of it.

In second place The oldest circular saw trick. It is considered a classic of illusionism. It was not Copperfield who invented it, but it was he who managed to be the first to show it on the TV screens.

Top. The Disappearance of the Statue of Liberty. It is considered one of the brightest trophies of the great magician. Better to see once than hear a hundred times.

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