Do You Believe In Magic? David Copperfield Will Try To Convince You With His Act

Pack an overnight bag if you are attending any of magician David Copperfield’s shows in Pullman or Spokane.

You may end up on some other continent.

In his new “Unknown Dimension” stage show, “13 members of the audience, chosen at random, vanish in a fiery blast,” according to the show’s press material.

“Some reappear miles away,” says the release. “Some don’t come back at all.”

Wow. Better make sure your baby sitter can stay late, or maybe forever.

And that’s only one of Copperfield’s many tricks in this new show, which he’s bringing to Pullman for two performances tonight and to Spokane for two more on Monday night.

The show will include another segment in which Copperfield takes one audience member on an instant-travel excursion to wherever in the world that person wants to go.

“Within seconds, travel is complete, and they are seen on a live satellite uplink at their chosen destination,” says the release.

“There’s an element of wish fulfillment,” Copperfield says on his Web site (www.dcopperfield.com). “We had an audience member who vanished and then wound up on a soccer field in Buenos Aires, face to face with his favorite soccer player. The people who disappear materialize in places they would never expect.”

It’s also the ultimate modern fantasy - traveling without having to put up with airline food.

Copperfield, the best known-name in magic for two decades, said he designed this show to provide a quality of ambiguity that is rarely provided by magic acts.

“Resolution - the tidy ending - is the tradition in magic,” Copperfield was quoted as saying. “Someone disappears, he reappears. The ambiguity in contemporary film and literature had been missing from magic. It’s time for magic’s postmodern period.”

OK, as long as we get grandma back sometime before Christmas.

“Unknown Dimension” will also include more low-tech tricks, including a segment Copperfield calls “Unplugged” which features old-fashioned sleight-of-hand magic.

He is also unveiling another new segment on this tour, “Test Conditions,” which is a bare-bones illusion performed on a stage “stripped to its essentials.”

Copperfield will also perform his signature flying trick. He takes off into air, drops down to pick up a female audience member and then takes off again with the woman in his arms.

In this trick, they touch down right back on stage, as opposed to in, maybe, Argentina.

And how are all of these spectacular feats accomplished? Suffice to say that if you knew how it was done, it would no longer be magical.

By the way, for those who know Copperfield less for magic and more as a gossip-column regular, here’s an update: He and supermodel Claudia Schiffer split up more than a year ago.

“We had six happy years together,” Copperfield says on his Web site. “Claudia and I just didn’t cross the finish line.”

As for the rumor that he and Schiffer had a “sham” engagement, he adds: “Anybody who believes this is missing the gene for common sense.”

That rumor was started by Paris Match magazine, which later admitted the story was false. Copperfield won damages and a retraction.

This sidebar appeared with the story: ON STAGE David Copperfield

Tonight, 6 and 9 p.m., Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum in Pullman. Tickets: $39.50 and $29.50 ($10 discount for WSU students with ID), through the coliseum box office and G&B (325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com). Also Monday, 6 and 9 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House; tickets range from $24.50 to $42.50, through G&B.