Magic Man: David Copperfield

[highlight_text] His meticulous attention to detail is perfectly embodied in the wake up call in all the guest suites. [/highlight_text]

David Copperfield has made magic on the stage for years. Now he’s turned to a different medium. Enter Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay, Copperfield’s magic-infused secluded vacation destination, a creation all his own.

With a $35 million renovation, Copperfield transformed what otherwise would have been simply a breathtaking chain of islands and turned them into a magical experience. Want to see a movie? Visit Dave’s Drive-in, a state of the art theater that magically appears on the beach. In the mood for pool? Play on a table that once belonged to Houdini. Want a secluded beach all to yourself? The 40 beaches sprinkled amongst the 11 private islands can speak to that.

If you’re in the mood for an adventure, The Treasure of Copperfield Bay takes you on a bona fide treasure hunt, created by ‘The Unknown Pirate,’ otherwise known as Copperfield and his creative team. Relaxation takes the form of massages, lying on the sugar sand beaches soaking up the sun or even hitting the tennis courts.

Copperfield used his own experiences staying at varying hotels and resorts during his nine world tours to oversee the recent renovations, which created a fantastical tropical escape.

“I was a customer of those kind of places for years and years and years,” he said. “I remember thinking of what set those places apart.” And what set them apart were, quite simply, the attention to detail.

“The way the hangers were made was important, the way the amenities were displayed in the bathroom and the type of amenities – what you felt when you smelled what you saw around you, how you were hugged and embraced architecturally when you entered was important, the towels and how the towels would absorb water after a shower was important,” he said. “Having looked at all that, I paid close attention to the graphics and every single thing.”

His meticulous attention to detail is perfectly embodied in the wake up call in all the guest suites. Iconic Trinidadian actor Geoffrey Holder – perhaps most well known for being the voice of 7 Up in the 1970s – exuberantly rouses visitors, beckoning them to awake and embark upon their own tropical adventure.

The 700 lush acres that make up the Islands of Copperfield Bay are located in the Bahamas, and could be called one of the most secluded locales on the planet – after all, only 24 guests are at the resort at any given time.

Copperfield hopes the guest of the Islands of Copperfield Bay have the same drop-jawed reaction they often have during his magic performances when they visit.

“I enjoy watching the audience with their jaws hanging out,” he said. “Feeling that feeling of discovery,  discovery of something new – that’s my show. Everything else I do has to have that same exact feeling, where people know they’re seeing something they’ve never seen before. As long as I do that, I’m doing the right thing.”

While this island venture is Copperfield’s latest endeavor, he is more well known for his magic on stage. Named the most successful magician in history by Forbes, Copperfield recently celebrated his 10th anniversary of performing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

But for him, it’s always been about the craft.

“For me it’s always been about the work,” he said. “I don’t know if you ever meet somebody who has a lasting career who is focused on just winning awards. It has to be about doing, the ingredients of what you’re saying to people or if you have something to say that’s real.”

What sets Copperfield apart in terms of performance is his emphasis on storytelling while on stage.

[highlight_text] His aptitude for magic emerged early. At age 12, he was admitted to The Society of American Magicians, their youngest member ever. [/highlight_text]

“It’s about telling a story so the magic has an emotional point of view,” he said. “I really wanted to get the same effect and speak the same language as a person writing music. When they write music and [it’s performed] you say, ‘Wow I understand that person. I like what they’re singing.’”

He also makes every attempt to relate to his audience in a very real way.

“Vanishing an airplane, vanishing the Statue of Liberty, walking through the Great Wall of China, [I] make an illusion that people can relate to and claim the object,” he said. Copperfield has in fact done all of those things.

As far as his stage presence versus his real personality, he maintains there’s not much of a divide.

“I’m pretty much the same,” he said. “If you see my show, I go back and forth between doing things that are spectacular and intimate but I also make fun of myself. I take my work seriously but I certainly don’t take myself very seriously. I think that’s probably what makes me authentic.” The synonymous nature of his onstage and offstage personas didn’t happen by accident.

“I think what’s on stage has to also be something that’s authentic,” he said. “You can’t pretend you know, you can’t pretend to become. Eventually you get caught, and you’re just pretending.”

But Copperfield wasn’t always the magical legend he is today. His first foray into performing was an obsession with ventriloquism as a child. He later made the leap to magic, mainly in an attempt to fit in with his peers.

“I started taking magic books out of the library,” he said. “I took a piece of paper, wrote down how I thought you would do the trick without reading the explanations. Most of the time, my solutions were pretty close to those in the books.”

His aptitude for magic emerged early. At age 12, he was admitted to The Society of American Magicians, their youngest member ever. He taught magic in the theatre department at NYU at age 16, taking the bus from his home in New Jersey to Washington Square Park.

And he hasn’t slowed down. Since his very early beginnings in the industry, Copperfield has accumulated a laundry list of accomplishments – 11 Guinness World Records, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and 21 Emmys and 38 nominations. He was even knighted by the French government and named a Living Legend by the U.S. Library of Congress. Recently, he was crowned “King of Magic and named “Magician of the Century” by The Society of American Magicians, the oldest and most prestigious magic organization in the world.

He’s even created a philanthropic cause, Project Magic, which began with a correspondence with a young fan 30 years ago.

“I was getting letters from a young magician, asking me for advice, the normal kind of letters,” he said. “We’d corresponded and then he sent me a picture [of himself] from the local newspaper and he was in a wheelchair. I thought ‘He never told me he was disabled.’ I never  knew that he had any physical challenge and he would advertise himself as a magician, never revealing in the phone book or the newspaper ad for his magic that he was wheelchair-bound. And I asked him, ‘Hey how come you never told me you have any kind of physical challenge? What do you do when people have hired you as a performer and you show up in a wheelchair?’ And he said, ‘Well that was their problem.’ So his image of himself was not as a disabled person or a person with any challenges, but as a person who was just doing what he did. And I thought it was great.”

[highlight_text] On a personal level, Copperfield just underwent a magical transformation himself. His daughter, Sky, is now 19 months old. [/highlight_text]

For Copperfield, it was strangely reminiscent of how he had used magic to fit in as a child – “I think we are all a bit socially disabled, all searching for what makes us feel special,” he said. This was the spark that ignited Project Magic, a nonprofit in which magicians and occupational therapists work together to use magic and sleight of hand to work with physically disabled patients to improve their dexterity and help them rehabilitate.

“I came to a point where I realized its not just self esteem, I could help people feel better, to be healed, to help them exercise their cognitive skills, their dexterity, memory, planning, sequencing,” he said. “All those things through magic you could actually learn.”

The American Occupational Therapy Association even accredited the program as a legitimate form of therapy. “It’s in thousands of hospitals in 30 countries around the world,” Copperfield said. “So it works.”

On a personal level, Copperfield just underwent a magical transformation himself. His daughter, Sky, is now 19 months old.

“I have a new family now, which is a pretty amazing experience,” he said. “You learn a lot [by being a father.] You have to balance family. But living again through your children’s eyes also is a whole different perspective. Experiencing their discovery of the world can inform decisions you make and make you a complete person.” And does Sky appreciate magic? Well, they’re not quite sure yet. “A child does not have the concepts or precepts that magicians use,” he said. “We use this knowledge and information to amaze you. A child doesn’t have those concepts.” Maybe in a few years, she’ll appreciate her father’s trade. As for what’s next for Copperfield? He’s got another idea up his sleeve. But in true magician form, he’s not telling until the big reveal.