I saw DC's show twice today in Boston. (It's been three years since he's been in Boston so I decided to splurge.) During both shows I had great seats - third and fourth row. In both shows the crowds went wild (double standing ovations), but he definitely seemed more "on" during the second show. (Perhaps he was happy because it was the last of his eight shows in Boston.) I think we sometimes forget how much the general public, particularly those who are willing to spend a good deal of money for tickets to his shows, really is amazed by magic. In most cases, they don't even know the most basic of principles of magic, so they can get swept up in the true "magic" of the illusions.

Something unexpected happened during the second show. He was having trouble getting the scorpion to "select" the card during Anthrax. When it finally did, the scorpion dropped the card before the audience could see it. It wasn't planned. David then dropped the rest of the cards as well. Not sure if he did that on purpose. David looked confused for a few seconds and very embarrassed. He then stooped down, paused for a second, made a self-deprecating remark, and recovered. He gathered the cards - pointing out that they were now completely mixed up, some even facing the wrong way. He fanned the cards into a circle, clipped them again and Anthrax picked the right card. I was so impressed!

It was clear to me that he was using the same technique to "select" the card the second time. However, he managed to still hide it from the audience. At the same time, he won the audience over by deftly recovering from what could have been a ruined illusion.

The Portal vanish blew me away, as did Lottery (both the prediction and car appearance) and "13". I do wish that he would retire the squeeze box. He's been doing it for years (it also seems to be his illusion of choice for tv appearances - I've seen it a dozen times on various shows), and definitely seemed to just be going through the motions. It didn't really get a big response from the audience either. I'd suggest replacing it with the Death Saw or The Fan or Cocoon - three of his classic older illusions that have a much bigger payoff. Or go small with some sleight of hand routine. Just my opinion...

When he was in Indy last year he had problems with the scorpion effect as well. I could be wrong, but it seems like I remember him accidentally flashing the gimmick to one of his many live broadcast cameras.

Jared

Apparently, that's David's way to cover that error when doing the trick with the scorpion because he did the exactly same thing when he performed in Knoxville two weeks ago. The scorpion dropped the card and he dropped the deck, acted flustered and then finished the trick. That must be his out.

Michael

Another lesson learned from the Master! Always have an out. He pulled it off brilliantly. He gained the audience's sympathy and impressed them even more than the original illusion would have had it gone correctly. The tension in the huge theater was palpable!

When I saw him a few years ago (Four nights in a row!) He had some serious problems with portal and there were stagehands running around and whispering things in his ear. You could see him thinking on his feet. But again, he must have and "out" for this as well because he changed the effect slightly and still pulled it off! (So only really noticeable to those of us who know every move of how it is meant to go.)

For that reason I check and double check all my illusions and when I build them, I try to build it in such a way that something can't possibly catch or lock up mechanically.

Whilst that brings some piece of mind, nothing can ever be 100% guaranteed - I try to think of what I would do if "something" that was meant to happen, didn't, but you can't plan for everything!

Chris.

I saw him once when the "Death Saw" had problems. He covered the delay with "Dinamo" and "Torn and Restored Traffic Ticket" (rather poorly I might add. He turned and walked upstage during the restoration of the ticket. Of course, he probably hadn't done it in years, and it was fun to see someone of his stature do "Dinamo"!) When he finally performed the trick, the timer was messed up and froze at 20 seconds, but I didn't notice any other flaws in the presentation. But, he was ready for delays, and since then I always carry a few tricks in case I need to stall.

I saw him to Dinamo about 10 years ago at the old "Great Woods" outdoor theater in Massachusetts. He wasn't exceptionally smooth with it, but it was cool to see him using a prop that had been in my show. Unfortunately, it was clear that he was looking at the back of the card longer than he should have had to look. If you're going to have a back-up trick, it should be one you can do smoothly.

Poor guy, but then he's only human like the rest of us(hard to believe when he has walked thru walls and achieved human flight!). Showed true performing class in his recovery.

When is saw his show he have some problems with scorpion and portal. But making magic is risky think... don't say me that you never had problems with trick. no matter how long you train there always could be "suprise". And there is (almost) always way to end trick sucesfull.
So DC is great beacuse he hide his mistakes very good...

When you do no less then 300 shows a year... I am sure things will go wrong... I have had things go wrong in my show a few times... BUT cover is great and sometimes it comes out better then planned.....

Copperfiled is a master of the craft... Never a bad a show....

I once heard Copperfield say that he always has a Plan B and sometimes a Plan C. However, this does not always pan out..as with the infamous Ferrari falling early on in his career...
Mark

There are always some unpredicitble things...
I agree with Curtis Copperfield is a master of the craft...

The same thing happened in his Branson show. I thought it was a clever "out" to throw all the cards on the floor.

I saw him in Raleigh a few weeks ago and when he did Anthrax the scorpion dropped the card but he still held on to the rest of the deck

To me, dropping the cards during ANTRAX and STILL finishing the trick successfully, impresses me very much because you know that was not planned as it happens very rarely. David is truly a master of magic and performance!

AmazingA, just from the my experience and from people I have spoken to it seems to be a semi-frequent occurrence. I have even heard reports of him dropping the cards 3 times in the same performance.

Nick Fox