David Copperfield: how the son of immigrants from Ukraine became the richest illusionist in the world

In the 1990s, his name thundered all over the world, he amazed the audience with such large-scale tricks that no one had done before. That is the disappearance of the symbol of New York - the Statue of Liberty. He gave 50 performances a month and became the richest illusionist in the world. However, almost nothing has been heard about him lately. Where did the one who made the Statue of Liberty, the plane and the car of the Orient Express disappear? "CULTUROLOGY" on "Yandex.Zen".

His real name is David Seth Kotkin, and Copperfield is a stage name borrowed from the work of Charles Dickens. He was born in New Jersey to a Jewish immigrant family from Odessa. You can read about how a grandfather from Odessa instilled in David a love of illusion in our material.

From early childhood, David was fond of magic tricks and staged his first performances in front of the parishioners of the local synagogue. David's first teacher was his grandfather, who often entertained his grandson with card tricks. By the age of 12, he had enough tricks in his arsenal to be accepted into the American Society of Magicians.

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For the first time, David appeared on stage in the mid-1970s - then he was entrusted with one of the main roles in the musical "The Magician". Due to his busyness in theatrical production, he even dropped out of university.

A few years later, he began working in television, where he hosted the ABC Magic program and produced the author's program The Magic of David Copperfield.

In the 1980s, David Copperfield began work on creating large-scale illusions that were striking in their scope and made the whole world hold their breath in front of screens. He developed a spectacular trick with the disappearance of the plane, in front of the audience, he effectively “dissolved” the Statue of Liberty in the air, flew over the Grand Canyon, passed through the Great Wall of China, made the Orient Express carriage disappear, and prepared about 100 different tricks. A team of 300 people worked on his performances, including about 80 engineers.

In the early 1990s, the illusionist gave 50 performances a month, and as a result was recognized as one of the most popular people in the world, got into the Guinness Book of Records as an artist who sold the largest number of tickets for his solo performances and received about 4 billion for this. dollars, and was named the richest illusionist of all time.

Copperfield was able to surprise the audience not only with the help of tricks. In the mid-1990s, his name made headlines again with an affair with supermodel Claudia Schiffer. For 6 years, they appeared everywhere together and willingly posed in front of photographers' lenses, until in the late 1990s the text of the agreement regulating the stellar "romance" was published in the press: according to this document, the supermodel had to portray Copperfield's bride in public, for which received a solid reward every year.

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Thanks to this high-profile "novel" interest in his person increased, and his shows gained great popularity in Western Europe. Although the couple claimed that the document was fake, in 1999 they announced their engagement was terminated.

At the beginning of the new century, it suddenly turned out that the famous illusionist had nothing more to surprise the public with. The secrets of many of the most famous tricks were revealed: the debunkers of the "magic of Copperfield" vied with each other about how the great hoaxer misled the gullible public. For example, the Statue of Liberty, of course, did not disappear anywhere, and the trick was done solely thanks to the correct lighting: in the dark, all the light around the statue was turned off and the searchlights were directed towards the audience. The miracles of levitation were explained by the presence of very thin and strong cables on which the illusionist floated in the air.

A series of revelations and the absence of new large-scale spectacular shows seriously hit the reputation and popularity of David Copperfield, and in the new century they gradually began to forget about him. His name periodically reappeared in the press, but only in connection with the next high-profile exposure or trial. One of the participants in his stunt with the disappearance of 13 volunteers from the hall in 2016 filed a lawsuit against the illusionist due to the fact that he was injured while performing the stunt. In the course of the trial, Copperfield had to reveal the focus technology: the volunteers did not disappear - they, accompanied by assistants, were led down a special dark corridor to the kitchen, and then returned to the hall. During this transition, one of them was injured, having stumbled in the dark, for which he decided to call the illusionist to account.

However, this had little effect on the financial condition of Copperfield - his main sources of income have long been from performances. He made some good investments and became the owner of a collection of antiques and luxury real estate on the tropical islands, which he rents out. In addition, David has published several books in collaboration with popular writers, and also opened his own museum of illusion.

Copperfield carefully hides his personal life from the public. It is only known that he is dating model Chloe Gosselin, who is 31 years younger than him, and in 2011 they had a daughter - however, this fact was not confirmed or denied by the illusionist himself.

He owns a four-story penthouse in downtown New York, but spends most of the time with his family on his own island in the Bahamas. The illusionist continues to perform today - he gives performances in Las Vegas and from time to time appears on television talk shows.