The Random Ramblings of Samm Diep

David Copperfield - The DISIllusionist

The following is a letter I wrote and have been attempting to post on the David Copperfield "On Tour & Show Reviews" Message Board. I have posted it twice with the subject line "2 Years Later - Same Show, Same Jokes" and it has been removed twice. Maybe they don't want to hear what I have to say. There are a few other postings with my same thoughts but their subject lines were just "The show from May 30" or "The Show." Maybe my subject line shouldn't be so telling. Anyway, here it is:

My Fiancée and I went to see the David Copperfield show at the MGM a few weeks ago, June 2006. We had seen him at the MGM two years prior during the summer of 2004. We loved the show so much two years ago that we were very excited to see him again. We were concerned that there might be many of the same illusions but since the posters and ads all read "Super New Illusions" we thought we would be safe. Boy, were we wrong!

I should've seen the signs. Before the show started, a crew member brought a little boy and his parents to the seats behind us and gave him about 15 minutes of instructions on what his role was to be. He was to stay seated, David would walk by him and then walk by him again, he had these red binoculars he was to wear and not remove, he was to say his name was "Kenny" when asked, and he was to run back up to the front of the stage when queued. Well, I guess even if I hadn't known he was part of the show, I would've known later from his terrible acting job. I can understand that some of the participants are a part of the show, but I felt the way he was instructed RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME was incredibly unprofessional and gave me a very bad impression right off the bat.

The next indication would be that David continuously walked into the audience and hand-picked on the most attractive ladies (with the most minimal clothing) to be volunteers. Of course he didn't do this for all the tricks. For the other ones, he would just throw this floppy frisbee into the audience, aiming it at a specific audience member. When it did not reach that person, he would tell the person who caught it to give it to them. Yeah, real subtle. At least two years ago, he selected audience members by a more (seemingly) random method of bouncing these silver beach balls throughout the audience until the music stopped. The bearers of those balls would then come up to participate.

My next complaint would be the self-righteous videos we were forced to watch. Don't get me wrong. It was cool to see the David Copperfield references in our pop culture and it's commendable that he has been recognized in so many ways but seriously, enough was enough. I felt it was overdone. I found myself bored after the first five minutes of the introduction video. Then, we had to watch another one in the middle of the show. It’s just not attractive for an established, successful man of his age and stature to feel he needs to constantly remind us of his accomplishments like that. In fact, it comes off a bit insecure. Just my $.02.

Lastly, the jokes have got to get updated! I couldn’t believe that after two years later even the jokes were identical, down to the delivery. It made me feel sorry for the staff that had to listen to them night after night after night. Many of them are pretty cheesy too. I guess it works in a crowd like Vegas where a lot of the audience is foreign and may not know the difference anyway, but David could seriously use some consulting in this area.

One more thing - the people he brought on stage never showed any signs of surprise or amazement when they were handed a deadly scorpion or the "random" number they chose appeared in a locked box. So, either they just didn't realize what was going on or they were horrible actors. In which case, it added to the already bad experience of the show.

I don't know if anyone from David Copperfield will read this or even care. I'm not trying to get anything out of it other than a better show that I could come back to someday.

My advice to anyone wanting to see a David Copperfield show: ONLY GO SEE HIM ONCE. You’ll love it that way!

posted by Samm @ 6/28/2006 01:59:00 PM