David Copperfield rose to international fame as a magician by making things vanish, but no one could have predicted that it would save his life. But did you know he was able to escape a robbery with the help of his illusions?
David Copperfield was once robbed at gunpoint, but he used an illusion to fool the robbers into thinking his pockets were empty when they weren’t.
Magic Saving Life
Copperfield and two employees, Cathy Daly and Mia Volmut, returned to their tour bus in Palm Beach, Florida, after dinner on April 23, 2006, when a black car pulled up beside them. Two people exited, but Copperfield assumed they were autograph seekers.
They told us to give them our money and our stuff. At that point we realized that there were guns in our face.
David Copperfield, Magician
Daly and Volmut gave the robbers a purse containing 200 euros, $100 dollars, plane tickets, a cell phone, a passport, and $400 in pocket money. The robbers then turned to Copperfield. The magician told the men he had nothing on him and even turned his pockets inside out to demonstrate this. They had no idea Copperfield was performing a magic trick.
Copperfield used a sleight of hand to make his pockets appear empty even though they were full of cell phones, his wallet, and his passport. “I call it reverse pickpocketing,” the magician later reflected.
When the robbers fled, Copperfield and his staff recorded the license plate and contacted police, who quickly located the vehicle and charged four teenagers with armed robbery. Fortunately, Daly and Volmut’s belongings were also found. (Source: The Abra Cadabra)
The Life of David Copperfield
Copperfield was born David Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey in 1956. As a shy child, magic helped him overcome his insecurities, and he quickly became a skilled magician. At the age of 12, he became the Society of American Magicians’ youngest member. Copperfield was 16 when he began teaching “the Art of Magic” as an adjunct professor at New York University.
At the age of 18, he landed his first show, a musical comedy called “The Magic Man.” The show premiered in Chicago and went on to become the city’s longest-running musical. Copperfield quickly honed his skill for captivating audiences with incredible illusions by performing in front of an audience 500 times a year.
As a magician, Copperfield rose to prominence as one of the greatest illusionists of all time. His insane and mind-bending tricks frequently include making massive objects vanish. Copperfield has magically made things disappear and reappear before our very eyes, whether it’s a large group of people, a train car, or the Statue of Liberty.
Copperfield has performed strange disappearances, levitated over the Grand Canyon, walked through the Great Wall of China, and successfully escaped from Alcatraz Prison. With all of these incredible tricks at his disposal, fooling a couple of teenage robbers came naturally to Copperfield.
Copperfield founded Project Magic in 1982 with the goal of regaining dexterity in disabled patients through the use of sleight of hand magic as a physical therapy method. The American Occupational Therapy Associations accredited the program, which is still in use today. (Source: The Abra Cadabra)