Well, his magic almost worked.
Hundreds of people braved the Hellgate wind Thursday night, waiting for the Adams Center doors to open while Copperfield's crew finished assembling the stage for his show. Although the show started about half an hour late, the audience warmed up quickly.
In Missoula, he made a Lincoln convertible appear on stage over the heads of several audience members.
He's also kept up his close-up magic chops. Thursday's show featured a slight-of-hand routine in which he held a poisonous black scorpion that picked a woman's card from a deck.
Copperfield was making his second visit to Missoula. He was last here about 20 years ago. This time, he put on two shows back-to-back Thursday. The tour also touched down in Great Falls Wednesday and will be in Bozeman on Friday.
His career as a professional magician extends even further back. Born in 1956, Copperfield said he started performing when he was 12 years old.
He's spent most of the rest of his career on the road, touring around the world. While other magicians have taken up residence on long-running stage shows, such as Penn and Teller in New York or Lance Burton in Las Vegas, Copperfield has kept his semi-loads of tricks rolling. His current tour is hitting 500 dates a year.
Before his Missoula appearance, Copperfield answered some questions for the Missoulian. To wit:
Q: There are instructions for magic tricks written in hieroglyphs on Egyptian papyrus scrolls. How do you keep magic fresh after 4,600 years? How do we stay out of the rut of "Magic's Greatest Hits"?
A: I don't read Egyptian. I have to invent my own stuff. I love the process of inventing new things. Since I was 12 years old, I've been taking magic to new levels. You have to do some greatest hits in the show, which I'm doing. I did a show five years ago on Broadway with Francis Ford Coppola. His title was "Dreams and Nightmares." His idea was to make all the magic based on my personal dreams or my personal nightmares. I took that idea and expanded it to other people's dreams and nightmares. The whole show's based on that. It's about making cars appear or traveling around the world, being reunited with a loved one or winning the lottery. My grandfather's dream was about winning the lottery, I solved two problems at once - made things right with my grandfather and satisfied people's curiosity.
Q: You acquired a three-year exchange of letters between Harry Houdini and Harry Kellar. Who do you talk with to cook up new ideas?
A: I start with people on the street, people that I meet. I find out what their dreams are. Then I have a group that travels with me, that I work with to create things.
Q: How has the popularity of wizards like Harry Potter and Gandalf affected the stage magic world?
A: The interest has grown. I think fantasy and that whole world is pretty cool. It's OK to dream and that's what we do. It's just the costumes that are different. Ignoring Mother Nature is the same no matter how you slice it.
Q: If you could master one of Harry Potter's magical talents, what would it be?
A: I'd probably be playing Quiddich right now.
Q: Your performance style has tended toward the serious, sometimes scary edge of the spectrum. Would you consider yourself a dark wizard?
A: This show is pretty funny. You'll laugh your butt off in the show. There are some pretty romantic pieces, too. But pretty much, you'll be cracking up. You must be referring to my photographs, which tend to be pretty serious. But you've never seen me in a tuxedo. I'm the guy in the jacket riding the Harley. All through the years, we've changed and keep evolving.
Q: Special-effects movies like "The Matrix" have made real-life impossibilities commonplace. How do you keep ahead of the "Wow" curve?
A: They're seeing what I'm doing live, in three dimensions, using objects that people can relate to. I'm using lots of big settings, but they're nothing people can relate to: cars, motorcycles, being on stage. They can feel the magic. They can see they're being treated fairly. And that's pretty cool.
Q: How much gear do you travel with?
A: Four trucks and 50 people. We bring it all ourselves.
Q: You tour internationally. How do you keep the customs inspectors from discovering all your secrets at the border?
A: We've got our ways. They wouldn't know where to find the gimmicks. We won't talk about that.
Q: Missoula's audience excepted, have you found a part of the world that has the strongest affinity for magic? Are there places where you can't or don't wish to perform?
A: I haven't found that place. In South America, for example, they really really embrace what I'm doing. In China, they believe it's real to a certain degree. Here (in the United States), it's a lot of fun. It's not about magic. It's about the performer - about what you're doing with it. I enjoy taking magic to different places, changing it and altering it. I keep making it different when they come, and they keep coming back, thank God.
Q: You started performing professionally when you were 12. What three illusions should every 12-year-old magician master?
A: For a 12 year old, I think you should go to the library and take out all the books of magic and see what style you enjoy and what you like to perform and develop what you're doing. And do a lot of shows. That's what I'd do.
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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