Where’s the Magic?

April 3, 2001

I flipped on CBS just in time to watch David Copperfield stand in a Tornado of Fire! This might have been the most boring little stunt I’ve seen from Copperfield in years. I say stunt because there seemed to be very little “illusion” in it. He stood there, they set the tornado on fire and Copperfield tried to stay in the eye of the tornado to avoid being burnt to a crisp. The swirling wall of flame was only lit for a few seconds (two times) and then Copperfield fell to his knees yelling “I’m HOT, waving for men with fire extinguishers. All narrated by a banal Carson Daly.

That’s it. When did the art of illusion switch into tests of human endurance? Between the tornado of fire and David Blaine’s Ice Age simulation, it seems like the flair is gone. No music, no dancing and sadly, no magic.

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