popular thinking

DAVID COPPERFIELD REVIEWED

The magician has three more performances today, three on Sunday, at the Opera House in Boston.

This is not David Copperfield’s farewell tour.
So why does it sometimes seem as though the master magician has staged his production that way?
“An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion” began a half-hour late. This was the first of his eight Boston shows, and perhaps it took longer than expected to set up illusions in Copperfield’s new surroundings (he previously had sold out the Wang Theatre).
Even so, the show itself would have to wait until another eight minutes of promotional video clips unspooled, reminding you again and again of Copperfield’s ubiquity in pop culture - from political cartoons to references in Friends and Family Guy.
It’s the kind of montage that precedes either a hackneyed stand-up comic, an infomercial, or a lifetime achievement award.
Copperfield wisely included clips of David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno mocking his “impregnation” trick, since their bits were far funnier and more entertaining than the actual trick.
Halfway through the show, Copperfield introduced another clip package, this time chronicling his past TV stunts and his 11 world records. “It’s a little self-serving,” he acknowledged. A little?
What’s most shocking, though, is that Copperfield doesn’t need to resort to any of those tactics to prove himself to the audience.
Everyone already believes he is the greatest magician working today, and everyone leaves his show amazed by his illusions.
“The Lottery,” in particular, could stand out on its own.
Copperfield predicts lottery numbers produced live by audience members, then makes a classic automobile appear above their heads. It’ll twist the most logical person’s brain into a pretzel.
He still deftly handles the more commonplace tricks.
However, “Reunion,” otherwise known as make a person disappear onstage and reappear in Hawaii to see his estranged father, would have been more impressive if the son in question didn’t mysteriously take his seat across the aisle halfway into the show.
But Copperfield’s finale, in which he makes a group of audience members disappear onstage, then reappear on the balcony, proves yet again that the man knows his stuff.
If only he dropped the self-serving material, then his 90-minute show would be downright magical.