David Copperfield on "The Amazing Race" Finale & Advice for Aspiring Magicians

RJ here, hanging out at the Young Hollywood Studio, and we are with one of the most iconic performers of all time, the one and only David Copperfield.

David, how are you?

Welcome, how are you?

It's good to be here.

Good to have you here.

Thanks for coming.

Good to be at your house.

Right, exactly.

It literally is.

It has become our house.

Taken a long time to get you here.

I'm glad we we finally made you appear.

Thank you so much.

So, you know, it it's amazing because you've been doing this a long time, but you you still continue to keep your shows and everything really fresh and and really relevant.

What do you think the key has been to that longevity for all these years?

I love doing what I do, you know.

I I love the audiences.

There's always new and fresh audiences at the MGM.

Um, and uh, constantly come up with new things.

In fact, I I asked you today, the first thing I asked you is, did you see the new thing that I'm doing?

Because you mentioned you were at the show.

Right.

And you said that you were at the show.

I said, well, did you see this?

Right.

Just because I'm trying to say, what's your criticism?

What do you like?

What didn't you like?

How can we make it better?

And, um, that's really the answer to the question.

I'm trying to always make it better and find new and fresh ways of doing what I do and to take it to to new directions.

So, is it like an evolving learning process?

Do you find you're still continuing to learn new things?

I learn every day, you know, and I listen, you know, one of my best qualities is I have, and I've got a lot of bad qualities, but one of the best qualities is is I'm a good listener.

And now, you know, you're known you're always taking your your audience on these amazing journeys.

You know, are there any amazing journeys that just stick out in your mind that that really inspired you, any any places you've been or anything?

I mean, I get inspiration from everything but magic, usually.

You know, the cinema was a big inspiration to me, you know, my idols weren't Houdini and Kellar and so.

My idols were were Victor Fleming and Orson Welles and, um, Walt Disney.

And, uh, I got a lot of inspiration from things, the ways they they took their art form, cinema and and did amazing things with it.

And I try to do the same thing with magic.

And, uh, it worked out good.

Yeah, it definitely did.

You know, and speaking of amazing things, Amazing Race now, something new for you.

You know, it's a little bit different.

What what's that whole experience been like helping with these illusions?

Well, what we're doing is we we created a whole, um, kind of a challenge, uh, for them.

And I I'm I'm sworn to secrecy, and I'm I'm horrible at keeping secrets, you know.

Um, but, um, uh, they they wanted they they came to me and asked me if I could collaborate with them and and design something that would be really exciting for their finale episode.

And, you know, for years I've been doing big escapes and kind of challenges.

This kind of thing is exactly what I I know how to do.

But I would take two years to create each of those, uh, illusions or those, uh, escapes, really.

They weren't really illusions, they were escapes.

And, uh, I had two months before their deadline to do this.

So, and what's really amazing is that it had to be done multiple times.

In other words, there's multiple teams.

Right.

Normally in magic, you do something once and never do it again.

Imagine if I'm my show, I'd repeat the illusion, it would be hard.

Um, you know, when you get a magic kit as a kid, they say, you know, only do the trick once because, you know, it'll get boring and they'll figure it out.

We had to create something that could be done multiple times.

So, uh, what you'll see is pretty exciting, and, uh, uh, it didn't work out exactly as we expected, which makes it even more exciting.

Right.

And, uh, there's a bit of life-threatening thrills to it.

So We were talking about the, uh, the contestants on Amazing Race.

If you were one of those, how how do you think you would do?

I think I'd do good.

Yeah.

I think I'd do good.

I mean, uh, you know,

You'd win it?

I think so.

I think I could, you know, be, uh, definitely in the in the end group, you know.

I I like the whole idea of physical challenges.

And what what do you think's challenged you the most physically because you have, you were talking about a bunch of the things that you've done.

What was the hardest on your body that you were like, oh my goodness, how am I gonna, how am I gonna get through this?

I did a escape from Alcatraz, and it was a

I remember that.

Many many, uh, multi-stage kind of thing.

I had to escape from behind dogs, these guard dogs are barking at me, and I had to get out of a straight jacket in a cell, and and part of it was illusion and part of it was escapes.

Um, but, uh, that was pretty cool.

And and how do you come up with this stuff?

I mean, something like you'll be in the shower one day and you're like, oh my goodness, I have a great idea.

I didn't say that.

Showers a really great place for me for some reason.

Yeah.

Used to be airplanes, but no more.

Shower is a great, uh, source of, uh, you know, I don't know, something about it.

Why did you say shower just then?

I come up with a lot of ideas there, that's why I was thinking.

Yeah, it just seems like that.

And why is it work for you do you think?

Quiet.

You don't have other things going on.

You don't have distractions, and I think you could just sort of

The mantra of the water, and and clean.

Being clean is good.

Yeah.

Being clean is

Clean slate.

Yeah, exactly.

I like that.

A clean slate.

Um, you know, you've got just some amazing things that that you've created outside of magic.

Uh, you know, obviously Copperfield Bay now, a Misha K's, you know, sounds spectacular.

Take us through that.

If someone were to to go there, what what would the experience be like?

It's just an amazing, amazing place that, um, we decided, well, if you were me, what would you do with a resort?

You know, uh, you'd have treasure hunts that were like movies, you know.

So we have pirates and, uh, people can choose to do this.

They can do nothing, or they can choose to have, you know, actors, pirates who are actors or some real pirates, and that's it.

So, uh, and there's music playing out of the trees, and, uh, you levitate as part of the clues on the beach in the full sunlight, um, the treasure appears.

Uh, and you go from island to island on this huge treasure.

And I I spent so much of my time finding the artifacts to put as the puzzles.

I would go to antique stores and swap meets and find old artifacts and built them into the the puzzles and the clues.

And, you know, you're talking about movies is is a lot of inspiration, and, you know, every movie's been done, but new filmmakers, Tarantinos and what not, figure out a way to sort of do a fresh take on on film.

Is there a trick in particular, because a lot of magic tricks have been done, but you sort of make it your own variation.

Is there one that really stands out that you did a fresh take to?

Well, right now, I mean, the real, I'm working really hard on this this thing that, uh, you'll see in the show.

So, I'm testing out in front of audiences all the time, and it's it's okay.

It's pretty good, but it's not where I wanted it to be.

So, it's uh, I'm in the middle of the journey now.

So we're slowly kind of, uh, evolving the show and finding new ways of doing it and, uh, hopefully inspire people in the process.

That's cool.

And and talking about movies, now you see me, something you were involved in.

What what's that like now when it's the big screen and and you're even looking at producing some projects of of your own now?

So that goes back to just the the childhood, the Orson Welles and it it's it closed the circle where I, you know, get all my inspiration from where it started.

So it's kind of makes really good sense that, um, you know, and I I love it, you know, the experience with Now You See Me and also Burt Wonderstone, being involved with all those magic movies and stuff like this, is is great for us because it's our way of giving back the inspiration that we we got from from from all those, uh, that whole medium.

And, you know, I've got a big museum.

I was just gonna talk to you about that.

Yeah.

What in the what in the museum is is the most sentimental to you, of all all the I'm sure there are a lot, but is there one that?

Tons of stuff in there.

It's like automatons, which are just incredible.

There's Houdini's water torture cell, uh, the gun that shot Chang Ling Su, uh, and killed him, unfortunately.

Um, uh, there's, um, just all the writings of Robert Houdin, all his, um, manuscripts and his notes.

It's just an incredible.

It's like the Smithsonian of Magic.

So what advice is there for someone that's, you know, an aspiring magician?

How how does one even do it?

Uh, one of my secrets is, uh, you know, three words.

It's passion, preparation, uh, and persistence.

You know, you have to be really passionate about something, and you have to be a lot of preparation, obviously, to learn what you're doing and do it well, and be persistent, because it's constant.

Those even to this day.

You know, and another thing you've really been good about embracing like technology and and social media, and you're always, you know, one step forward, even like the iPhone, how you incorporate that in your show now.

I was telling some of your crew that the first person to show me text messaging was Francis Ford Coppola.

Really? Yeah. Because we were working on a Broadway show and and he said, David, you know, I got something. It's called text messaging. And I and he shows it to me, H E L L O. Hello. So you send it, and it works. I said, this is that took you so long to do that. You just say hello. It's ridiculous. He said, no, no, it's good. I said, no, it's never gonna work. Of course, of course, uh, I was wrong. Right. And so now it's a part of my show, you know, I I incorporate all those things in my show, and try to embrace all of the technology and use it to amaze people even with that.

You've been interviewed a ton, you know, people are always asking you questions. Just curious if if you were interviewing yourself, what would be the question you would wanna sort of ask yourself?

I think, you know, you know, what makes you happy? What makes you happy? You know, and the answer is is is is, you know, this is two things, and that's, you know, family and doing what you love. You know, and that's that's it.

When other magicians perform, Yes. what what qualities do you look for? What what makes somebody a good magician?

You know, I think it's a particular point of view. If they have a particular point of view that's different, then it becomes interesting a little bit. You know, Penn and Teller, very different from me. Um, and have a very distinct point of view. David Blaine, very different from me. Very, you know, different point of view, and, uh, a unique style. And so I think it's having an approach that really sets them apart. And, uh, and then there's tons of people that kind of copy, you know, and that's and and that's

That's gotta be frustrating.

It's frustrating because it takes so long for each thing that you do.

And what do you see the future of magic going?

I think it's gonna go in many different directions. It's gonna take all this technology like what we're doing in our show and and moving it forward, inventing new technology. I want to use magic to inspire people to, uh, to become future scientists and future creators of of of things that'll help the world. I'd like to create magic that'll inspire the six-year-old today to invent something amazing, for real, you know.

Thank you for, uh, for coming down to hang out with us. Thank you so much. Congratulations for us.

Thank you.

Good to see you, David. I appreciate it.