David Copperfield
David Copperfield (born 1956) is an American illusionist and producer whose television specials and live shows transformed grand illusion for a worldwide audience.
Born David Seth Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey, on 16 September 1956, David Copperfield discovered magic while still a child. By twelve he had joined the Society of American Magicians, and as a teenager he taught a course on the art of magic at New York University. A leading role in the Chicago musical The Magic Man gave him the demanding routine of a live performer and helped define the audience-focused style that would become central to his career.
From the late 1970s, his television specials brought large-scale illusion into the living rooms of millions. Copperfield did not treat spectacle as an isolated puzzle: he built stories around it. Productions such as the disappearance of the Statue of Liberty, Walking Through the Great Wall of China, the vanishing of an Orient Express carriage and Flying were presented with music, character and a clear emotional journey.
Alongside touring and television, Copperfield has preserved a major collection of historic books, posters, apparatus and ephemera on magic. He also created Project Magic, a rehabilitation programme that uses simple magic techniques to help patients practise dexterity, coordination and confidence.
Copperfield’s lasting importance lies in his expansion of the scale and language of modern illusion. He combined the intimacy of a magician addressing an audience with the resources of television, theatre and cinematic storytelling, making grand illusion feel personal as well as impossible.