Find Out Why David Copperfield is The World’s Greatest Magician
KiLa's World Magician Biography! David Copperfield
Hello! My name is KiLa, a magician. I was born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1975. Magic has been close to me since I was a child because of my father who loves magic. Once I moved to Tokyo and started working for a company, I left after less than 6 years to become a professional magician. While performing at hotels and magic bars, I would watch videos of famous magicians and taught myself how to do magic tricks, and now, thankfully, I can perform in my own shows. I have been given opportunities to perform in the media as well, such as a special program on Miracle Experience Unbilly Babo on Fuji Television Network.
It has been almost 20 years since I entered the world of magic, but it is a very extensive field, and I am still learning every day.
The magic industry has been hit hard by the new coronavirus. Opportunities to perform, such as dinner shows and performances at magic bars, have been greatly reduced. Even when opportunities are available, contact with customers is strictly limited due to infection control measures.
Under these circumstances, we are trying our best to satisfy our customers as much as possible. Magic shows are entertainment in which satisfaction depends greatly on communication with customers and the world has changed dramatically before Corona.
However, nothing can start if we keep looking down. In this issue of The World of Magicians, I have been given the opportunity to introduce some of the specialists among the magicians from around the world whom I have studied.
Through this series of articles, I hope to spark a little interest in the world of magic and make you want to go see a magic show when you get settled during this coronavirus.
What is the key to success in magic?”
What do you think is important to be a successful magician?
You may think that dexterity or tricks that no one else can come up with are important. I am not wrong, but I think that is only one factor.
What I consider important in magic are direction, acting ability, and the magician’s charm. Simply put, the direction is the context of magic, and acting ability and magician’s charm are the persuasive power to the audience. I pay attention to these three points when I watch a magic show. Great magicians are outstanding in these three points.
In this memorable first installment of the series, I would like to introduce the greatest magician of all time, David Copperfield. You have probably heard of him at least once. Few people would argue that he is the world’s greatest magician.
To briefly introduce his career, in 1968 he made his debut as a professional magician at the age of 12. While still in college, he was selected to play the lead role in the musical “The Magic Man,” and left college to take on everything, including directing. After his success, the show became so popular that it was made into a special (which aired annually for 19 years) on ABC, one of the three major television networks in the United States.
In 1980 and 1986, he won the world’s most prestigious magic award, Magician of the Year. He performs half the year at the MGM Grand, a famous casino hotel in Las Vegas, and is a regular on Forbes Magazine’s Celebrity Longlist, with an estimated annual income of $60 million (about ¥6.7 billion) in 2019 and total assets of $875 million (about ¥95.8 billion).
Copperfield mesmerizes audiences with such large-scale illusions as making jumbo jets and Orient Express trains disappear, escaping from a box falling down Niagara Falls, and flying through the sky over the Grand Canyon.
But the greatest appeal of his magic is the way it moves the viewer. Many of Copperfield’s works are based on his own real-life experiences, and it is not unusual for the songs and stories of his masterpieces, such as Flying, Snow, and GrandPa’s Aces, to bring tears to the audience.
I am one of those who are fascinated by his works, and Snow in particular brings tears to my eyes no matter how many times I see it. In Snow, Copperfield uses magic to make snow fall on the audience by projecting his precious childhood memory of seeing snow for the first time. Besides Copperfield, other magicians around the world make snowfall from their hands or their chief.
What sets him apart from the average magician, however, is that Copperfield’s facial expressions, gestures, and other acting skills, combined with the lighting and music, create a story that is reminiscent of a movie. His unique and one-of-a-kind performance draws the audience into the show and stirs their emotions.
I saw Copperfield’s show live for the first time in Tokyo in 1999. I was lucky enough to see, Flying, which soared through the air, flying around the stage and going through a big circle. What made me so lucky was that this was the last time Flying was performed in Japan.
The Copperfield worldview that I had seen on TV was being played out.
I think it is very important for a magician to have the same level of performance on TV and in a live show. I sometimes see magicians who are great on video but disappoint me when they perform differently in live shows or the studio. I was influenced by seeing Copperfield’s show live, and it became very important for me to make sure that my live shows meet the expectations of the audience.
I saw his show again at the MGM Grand when I visited Las Vegas in 2016, and despite being over 60 years old, the show was greatly revamped and his worldview was more embodied by his charm and acting ability.
As one gains experience, one can become accustomed and less able to absorb new things. Copperfield, already very successful, is still creating new works. His ambition and spirit of exploration remain unabated. I would like to emulate that attitude. Like Copperfield, I create my shows in the hope that I can bring my view of life to the audience through my shows.
The charm of his shows is so wonderful that it is difficult for me to put it into a few words. You can see his past works on film, but I would like you to experience Copperfield’s show live in Las Vegas if you can.
Text by： KiLa
Born in Kumamoto in 1975. Height 190 cm. Self-taught in magic. While appearing in various media, she also directs and produces magic products. His magic show is a participatory magic show in which the audience themselves experience the magic in a realistic way, and the audience cannot take their eyes off the magic from the opening to the ending of each performance.
