(Shanghai Daily news)
Guo Feifei hangs out with David Copperfield, the Magic Man and finds a funny, down-to-earth guy with larger than life inspirations -- and maybe some interesting plans for the Pearl Tower...
He picks up my MP3 on the table and checks. ``A recorder?'' he asks. ``But where's the microphone?'' ``Oh, you can talk into the earphones,'' I tell him. ``To the earphones?'' he looks again into the earphones, curiously.
David Copperfield is a global legend, but get next to him, and he comes across as an easygoing, lighthearted kind of a guy. In 1986, when Copperfield made his unprecedented walk through China's Great Wall, he dazzled China with his skills -- and his good looks. He's looking as good as ever today, in a black leather jacket and blue jeans. The man does know fashion. The late Giovanni Versace has designed his shows while Yoji Yamamoto designed his clothes, (to say nothing of his romance with supermodel Claudia Schiffer) yet Copperfield -- like many style icons -- still prefers casual wear. ``I like a casual approach in life because I want my magic to be close to life,'' he explains, showing off his Levi's jeans and Prada casual shoes. Like his fashion attitude, Copperfield's shows are always full of casual, often humorous interactions with the audience. At his Shanghai premiere on May 10, he broke the crowd up by asking a male audience member, ``what's the last time you got busy (made love)?'' The man paused five seconds before responding: ``in 2003.'' Copperfield quickly dubbed him ``one year ago guy.'' ``Yes, I have a lot of fun on stage and people enjoy it themselves,'' he smiles. ``I like making myself a joke, making fun of myself.'' His great humor always serves to relax the audience during his thrilling illusions. ``Copperfield is very good at spicing up the atmosphere,'' comments Gu Hongqin, a Shanghai audience member. ``His magic is exciting, and full of fun.'' Yet the magician's career did not happen like magic -- it took a lot of hard work, says Copperfield. At 12, he became the youngest person ever admitted to the Society of American Magicians. ``When I was a child, my grandfather taught me a card trick, but he really didn't want me to do that as a career,'' he says. ``He wanted to me to be a doctor or a lawyer.'' His grandfather showed young Copperfield the door to the magic kingdom, and his inspiration came from two others -- neither one a magician. ``I got real inspiration from people like film director Orson Welles, who directed the movie `Citizen Kane,' and Walt Disney.'' It was their ability to take an art form to the ultimate degree that Copperfield so admires, he says, and emulates. ``I try to do the same thing with magic that Walt Disney did with animation,'' he says, his eyes glittering. And many would say that he has. In 1980, he became the youngest magician ever to be awarded ``Magician of the Year'' by the Academy of Magical Arts. He followed this up by vanishing a 7-ton jet plane, the Statue of Liberty and the Orient Express. ``I have to keep fresh all the time. Sometimes I thought I would be beaten,'' he confesses. ``But I keep going, and it really works.'' His unremitting efforts have won him numerous awards, including Emmy Awards, ``Entertainer of the Year'' from the American Guild of Variety Artists, an honorary wax figure at Madame Tussaud's, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ``Well, awards can work against me,'' he says. ``But after you get a lot of awards, you stop caring so much.'' What he cares about most, much more than awards, is his audience. ``I do this for the audience response, to please people who come to the show, to take them on journeys,'' he says, sounding almost poetic. ``I love what I do. To generate a response from audience, to fill them full of wonders and dreams, that's what I try to do.'' With these words, Copperfield grows more passionate. ``Awards are cool, but I can't really take them very seriously,'' he shrugs. ``What I take seriously is my audience. They are really my boss.'' He gives a slight but definite nod. The audience is the boss, and if the boss happens to discover the secret to his magic like what happened in one of his recent shows in Beijing, Copperfield says that will not recoil, but simply soldier on. ``Anything exposed in the show is not a problem for us,'' he smiles cunningly. ``I have many plans for them. The most important thing for me is that I keep magic alive, keep the wonder alive. I will do the same thing in a different way, simply changing the techniques.'' Whether on not they know how it's done, Copperfield's fans remain fascinated. High school student Peng Jiayi watched Copperfield's show two years ago in Shanghai, and is thrilled to get a second opportunity to see her idol again. ``His show is so amazing,'' she exclaims. ``I'm wondering whether I can be his apprentice.'' But the answer is a ``Sorry.'' ``Well I won't take an apprentice,'' Copperfield shakes his head. ``I like to inspire people do different thing, not just copy me. They should do their own thing, have their own inspiration.'' One of Copperfield's own inspirations is Project Magic, a therapy to increase the dexterity of disabled people. The idea came to him more than 20 years ago when he met another magician. That magician showed him a picture of a disabled man who had suffered a stroke. ``That was me,'' he told Copperfield. ``But with magic, I feel much better about myself.'' Copperfield was amazed that magic could have that kind of healing effect -- and Project Magic was born. ``This is my greatest work,'' he emphasizes. ``Because it doesn't entertain people, but is a therapy that really helps people.'' Now Project Magic has finally has come to China: It is a great success in Beijing, and has been recently launched in Shanghai . In addition to fans, Copperfield's China tour has also attracted many Chinese magicians. ``He is a master,'' says Zhou Liangtie, a magician from the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. ``His illusions are a perfect combination of high tech and unique style.'' This time, Copperfield brings with him a few tips for young Chinese magicians. ``Listen to people's dreams,'' he says. ``Then use the inspiration to create them.'' Copperfield himself is impressed with Chinese magicians:``When I came to China for my walk through the Great Wall, I was so impressed with their originality that I put them on my TV shows,'' he says. As for the city of Shanghai, he doesn't hold back his praise, either. ``It's great to be here,'' he smiles. ``It's like New York.'' Any plans for vanishing something in the city, like the Oriental Pearl TV and Broadcasting Tower? ``The TV tower?'' he asks playfully. ``I have to look at it. You never know ...''
