Background

An only child, David was born on September 16, 1956 as David Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey. David Copperfield, born as David Seth Kotkin, is a world famous magician who has created 11 Guinness World Records so far. Credited to be the world’s most commercially successful magician, he began weaving his magic from a young age. A shy child, he found solace in creating illusions and performing magic tricks. He was just 12 years old when he was invited to join the Society of American Magicians, becoming the youngest ever to join the society. He had perfected the art of magic at such a young age that he was chosen to teach a class on magic at the New York University. A prolific performer, he could perform four live shows a day and over 500 shows in a year. He has the honour of being the only solo entertainer who has sold over 40 million tickets.

Education

But after just a week he was cast as the lead in "The Magic Man", a new musical comedy created by the producers of Grease (1978), Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and written by mystery author Barbara Steketee with her husband Anthony D'Amato. So after three weeks David left Fordham to play in this show.

Career

By age 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University and performing under the name David Copperfield, after the popular Charles Dickens novel. David appeared on television for the first time on May 26th, 1976, in Magic at the Roxy (1976), a TV special dedicated to magic and filmed at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, on October 9th, 1975, then he made an "official" debut on September 7th, 1977, as illusionist conductor of The Magic of ABC (1977). Thanks to this ABC variety TV special he achieved top ratings and shared his unique style of magic with millions of viewers. Immediately the producer Joseph Cates put David under contract for a series of yearly TV specials titled "The Magic of David Copperfield", broadcasted on CBS starting with The Magic of David Copperfield (1978), the first official Copperfield TV special. On television between 1976 and 2001 he has performed over 150 different illusions, covering practically all kinds of them.

Achievements

• In 1982, Copperfield established Project Magic, a rehabilitation program that uses sleight-of-hand magic as a method of physical therapy. The program is accredited by the American Occupational Therapy Association and is used in hospitals across the globe.
  
  Copperfield also opened the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is dedicated to preserving the history and art of magic, and holds the world's largest magical artifact collection (among the artifacts housed at the museum are Orson Welles's Buzz Saw illusion and Houdini's water torture cell).
  
  One of his most famous tricks was to make the Statue of Liberty vanish. In the trick he raised a giant curtain on the Liberty Island and lowered it after a few seconds to reveal that the statue had now disappeared.
  
  The illusion ‘Walking through the Great Wall of China’ was performed by him only once. While performing the trick, he appears to enter the wall from one side and emerges through the other side with live audiences being present on both sides of the wall.

Works

• illusianist

  • Dreams and Nightmares

Religion

Copperfield is Jewish and likens his illusions to the Jewish spirit. He was grew up in an immigrant Jewish family, and despite his own penchant for conjuring miracles, he still believes in God’s ability to do the same.

Politics

He is silent on his political beliefs.

Membership

• Society of American Magicians

  1968

Interests

• Its favourite movies - the Citizen Kane (1941) and the Wizard of the country Oz (1939). In David Copperfield's Magic by III: A raising of Ferrari (1980), during "illusion" of the Prediction of the Musical album he tells audiences this is Dambo (1941)(1941)

Connections

Currently, he is in a relationship with French model Chloe Gosselin. He has one daughter with her.

Father:

Hyman Kotkin

His father, Hyman Kotkin, son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, owned and operated in Korby's, a clothing/tailor shop for men and boys on Metuchen's Main Street.

Mother:

Rebecca Kotkin

His mother, Rebecca Kotkin, a Jewish immigrant born in Jerusalem, Israel, worked in the insurance business.

girlfriend:

Chloe Gosselin

Gosselin, who has a 3-year-old daughter named Sky with her fiancé, is smitten as well. "I'm so lucky to have found David," she said. "There are very few people in the world like him. He's spent more than 30 years at the top of his profession. He's achieved some extraordinary things."