Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-9 of 9
- This is the 13th CBS Copperfield TV special, introduced by the host Jane Seymour, and the third and last one in which David Copperfield enters the scene on his Harley Davidson. The location is not a stage but a train station, in which Copperfield will perform both the first and the last illusion. So, the illusions performed are: "Motorcycle To Women" (aka "Motorcycle Metamorphosis"), "Torn Card On Train Window", "Head Mover", "Cut And Restored Rope", "Brazilian Water Levitation", "Card In Balloon", "Floating Rose", "Big Black Box", "Touch The Magic - Train Cards" (aka "Interactive Train Effect") and then "Train Car Vanish". This is a TV special in which 2 illusions have been performed on a train, the Orient Express, and the second of them, "Touch The Magic - Train Cards", is an interactive game conceived for an active participation of the TV audience. The last illusion, filmed in long take and no more repeated, is the levitation and the disappearance in midair of a 25,9 meters (or 85 feet) of steel and iron Orient Express dining car, 70 tonnes heavy. This illusion shares some similarities with "Floating Ferrari", the one performed in 1980 in the third TV special, in which the object levitated and vanished in midair was a Ferrari, and also with "Lear Jet Vanish", performed in 1981 in the 4th TV special, which also had a ring of spectators who surrounded a big object at 360 degrees.
- This is the 15th CBS Copperfield TV special, introduced from Caesars Palace by David Copperfield himself, who describes an escapology number which would be performed in this location as the last feat of the special and is inspired by an illusionist of the past, Harry Houdini. Two assistants put a strait jacket on Copperfield and then wire his feet on some ropes fixed to a round platform which in turn is fixed to three ropes which will raise all in air, so Copperfield will come to be upside down, dangling in the air at 10 stories (or 33 meters, or 108 feet) on the stage. At this point the assistants set fire to the platform and to the three ropes. In addition, on the stage they place exactly under Copperfield two rectangular frames which support vertically dozens of steel and sharp spears, and then they also set fire to them. Copperfield has about two minutes to free himself and to grab a lifeline before the fire breaks the three ropes and drops him on the spears. So, the illusions performed are: "Flying Entrance", "Cocoon" (aka "Passion's Prison"), "Air Coppers" (aka "Ring Flight"), "Blueprint For Mystery", "$500,000 Challenge" (aka "Torn And Restored Baseball Card"), "After Hours" (aka "Vertical Asrah"), "Shot Through The Heart", "Touch The Magic - A Miracle In Your Home" (the third and penultimate of the interactive games performed in four specials) and then "Amazon Ritual" (aka "Burning Rope Escape" and "Fires Of Passion"). The "$500,000 Challenge" illusion is the first and only one that Copperfield has performed, with his host Wayne Gretzky, in a pre-recorded video set in his own Magic Warehouse and that he showed to the spectators in the theater via a monitor. Instead "Amazon Ritual" is an escape filmed at Caesars Palace and is one of the few escapes no more repeated.
- This is the 9th CBS Copperfield TV special, introduced by the host Ann Jillian after a short presentation by David Copperfield himself from the Alcatraz prison's beacon. It is the first one to include officially in the title the name of the last illusion, that is "Escape From Alcatraz". Copperfield has chosen just this prison because of its reputation: Alcatraz, nicknamed "The Rock" or also "The Bastion", was opened on August 11th, 1934, as a maximum security federal prison, and has operated for 29 years, until the close of March 21th, 1963, caused by the high costs of maintenance and use. Then, in 1972, it was reopened as a tourist attraction. However, its reputation mainly comes from two reasons: it has held some of the most notorious criminals in American history, as Al Capone or George Kelly, and of the 14 escape attempts only the one of June 11th, 1962, has still not evidence of failure, after decades of FBI investigation. And Copperfield is the only illusionist that has performed his attempt, that is also one of the few escapes no more repeated. So, the illusions performed are: "Table Of Death", "Death Defying Duck", "On The Edge", "Dream Vision", "Duck-O-Matic", "Kid-O-Matic", "Reverse Duck/Kid-O-Matic" and then "Escape From Alcatraz". In addition to this feat, during this special's closing credits he performs a gag that somehow represents an opposite challenge: he can't get into his car because it is locked and the problem is that the same key is inserted in the dashboard's lock. He tries different ways to force the door but fails... This special is the first one produced by the Copperfield's first production company, and no more by the previous one, The Cates Brothers Company.
- This is the 14th CBS Copperfield TV special, introduced by the host James Earl Jones, who talks about the "flying dream" while David Copperfield is sitting at a large desk in a room where the window illuminates only the desk itself. The illusions performed are: "Heaven On The Seventh Floor" (aka "Elevator"), "Interlude", "Graffiti Wall", "Squeeze Box", "Mind Control", "Orson Welles From Beyond", "Touch The Magic - Destinations Of Flight" (the second of the interactive games performed in four specials), "Flying" and then "Flying Outside Of The Theater". "Flying" is an illusion for which Copperfield had worked for seven years, much more than any other one. Before performing it, he invites a part of the audience to go on stage to see the illusion close up, and makes them sit to the left of the stage itself, then asks two people to examine a plexiglas container. So, he sits on stage and begins to tell that he dreamed to fly since he was a child, a child who felt lonely. At the end of his story he shows a black and white short montage in which other people in the past shared his dream but failed. Then, while he is lying on stage, a falcon named Icarus that is standing on his left hand starts flying. So, Copperfield begins his own performance, flying freely for several minutes and also flying into the plexiglas container, and then flying again freely but with a girl held on to his arms. Before the beginning of this special's closing credits Copperfield exits the theater among the audience and at this point in front of a camera he performs the last illusion, "Flying Outside Of The Theater", toward the night sky. Immediately after that, the falcon does the same thing from a branch.
- This is the 16th and penultimate CBS Copperfield TV special, which six years later will be followed by the 17th and last one, Copperfield: Tornado of Fire (2001). The special is introduced by a voice offstage who talks about Barclay House, the set of the penultimate illusion of the special. The illusion in question is composed by four phases and the first of them consists in turn of four parts. All the phases regard the presence and manifestation of ghosts and spirits remained in the upper room which somehow escaped the destruction of a house that burned down because of a lightning during a storm. The room has a pentagonal shape and has been rebuilt on the stage, on which David Copperfield brings two boys and a girl from the audience. Then he asks the boys to tie his hands, back and neck, and then the ankles to the legs of a chair inserted into the room. This condition serves to prevent Copperfield from moving himself into the room itself and manipulating objects within it. Meantime an assistant put into the room a jacket and a box containing various objects including newspapers and a bell. The four parts of the first phase consist in the interaction of the ghosts and spirits with the objects placed in the room. In the second phase Copperfield asks the three spectators to enter the room and to blindfold themselves. At this point the two frontal walls of the room close themselves to hide the interior and then spark everywhere. At last, all five walls open themselves to show that the three spectators have disappeared from the stage. After a few seconds the room turns to ash because of several consecutive explosions from its interior. In the third phase five sheets that come from the stage begin to float in the theater going into the most different routes over the heads of the audience, until the lights go out, leaving everything in complete darkness for a few seconds. In the four and last phase, there is the reappearance on the stage of the three spectators: a table and a scaffolding are placed on the stage, on the scaffolding four sheets have been hung to hide the four sides of the space above the table, and when three shadows appear on the front sheet, the latter is dropped to show the three spectators standing on the table, still blindfolded. So the illusions performed are: "The Fan", "Vanishing Egg", "Floating Table", "The Blade", "Grandpa's Four Aces", "Touch The Magic - The Clock" (aka "Interactive Clock Illusion", the 4th and last of the interactive games performed beginning with the 13th special), "Barclay House" and then "Snow". At the end of this last illusion all the snow produced by the Copperfield's hands spreads in all the hall of the theater.
- This is the 8th CBS Copperfield TV special, introduced by the host Ben Vereen and is the first and only one filmed outside USA, and set entirely in China, to allow David Copperfield to perform the last illusion. Not coincidentally it is officially titled "The Magic of DAVID COPPERFIELD - CHINA", even though it is better known as "The Magic of David Copperfield VIII: Walking Through the Great Wall of China", in which "Walking Through the Great Wall of China" is a reference to the last illusion, given that never before an illusionist has been able to perform a similar feat. So, the illusions performed are: "Crystal Smoke Chamber", "Chinese Coin In Orange", "Broken And Restored Thread", "Pearl Production", "Boy Levitation", "Seeing Through A Woman", "Levitating A Woman", "Mr. Roger's Bandana Trick" (aka "Banana Bandana"), "Restoring A Bicycle", "Crazy Man's Handcuffs", "Chopstick Through Coin" and then "Walking Through The Great Wall Of China". Just like some of his previous illusions, this last one has been filmed in long take, on September 1985, and is one of the few illusions no more repeated. This special is also the last one produced by The Cates Brothers Company, that has produced all the earlier ones.
- Disney presents a dazzling show from The First Lady of Magic, Melinda
- This is the 7th CBS Copperfield TV special, introduced by the host Angie Dickinson. It is officially titled "The Magic Of David Copperfield VII" but is better known as "The Magic of David Copperfield VII: Familiares". The illusions performed are: "Video To Life (Part 1)", "Webster The Mind-Reading Duck", "The Painter" (aka "Paintings To Life"), "Run Duck Run", "Psycho Shower Scene", "Let's Burn A Deal", "Father And Son" and "Video To Life (Part 2)". In both parts of "Video To Life" a video is projected onto the front of an empty box, raised from the ground, and David Copperfield is able to interact laterally with the video through an opening in the right side of the box, taking objects from it and putting other things in there. In the process various people visible through the video also come out from this opening and then return into it, but each time that the projected video is suspended and the front side is open the box is always empty. "Part 1" ends with an elephant appearing into the box, while in "Part 2" it is the host Angie Dickinson herself to appear inside the box, on a motorcycle, ready to take Copperfield offstage with herself, an action visible through the video projected on the screen as soon as the box is closed.