"I'm David copperfield and you're about to see a whole lotta of magic" "For me, watching this retrospective is like looking thru a high school yearbook" "It's got some of my best illusions some of the worst haircuts put on film and clothing choices that kept the '70s alive" "At the end, we've added some recent pieces, created for our Broadway show" "So sit back and take a look at 1 5 years of magic" "Well, actually, 20 years of magic" "I started very young" "David" "Okay, go" "I dunno where to begin" "I've been doing magic all my life" "I love magic." "I love magic that's intimate but I also love magic that's spectacular, like the year" "I decided to vanish a train" "I had taken a ride with the Orient Express and I knew I had to do something with it" "Well, it took me a year to find a train car and a year to work out the illusion" "A train car from the Orient Express" "It weights 70 tons" "That's 140,000 pounds" "It's 85 feet of steel and iron" "A million dollars was spent just to restore it" "A train on its tracks set on a floor of solid concrete" "A group of spectators will surround the train" "Holding hands forming a circle around it" "Our camera this shot will never cut away" "No camera edits, no video effects" "You'll see it at home just like you'd see it if you were here with me" "Take a good look 'cause in a few seconds the train we're in right now hopefully won't be here anymore" "Everybody, pick up your ropes" "Cover cloth" "Keep your hands together" "There are no camera tricks?" "No." "All the magic is done live" "What you see at home is exactly what you'd see if you were there with a live audience" "And what's the most dangerous thing you've ever done?" "See these spikes?" "For a year" "I practiced hanging up side down bound and strapped from ropes 10 stories in the air" "Then we set the ropes on fire" "I had two minutes to escape before the ropes burned thru" "But on the night of the T.V. special to make it a bit more interesting, we added these spikes beneath me" "I was up there in the air and I looked down on the spikes and that really freaked me out" "I didn't wanna just do an escape" "I wanna combine it with the ritualistic challenges that took in the jungles of African and the Amazon" "Ceremonially tests of commitment courage" "They'll hoist me 10 stories above the spikes" "I remember looking down and the thought of falling on them didn't make me very happy" "I didn't wanna die that way" "Don't try this at home" "I hate these spikes" "I do 500 show a year and people think I'm crazy" "But I really love it" "What I Love the most is interacting with the audience" "You never know what to expect" "It's different every night and the weirdest thing can happen" "Thank you very, very much" "You know, something really weird has been happening to me" "I keep getting these premonitions" "You know when you think of something and then it comes true later on?" "Well, I've been able to predict graffiti" "Yeah, where it's gonna happen when it's gonna happen and what it's gonna say" "In fact, I brought with me a... brick wall tonight" "I got it from East Berlin" "They weren't using it anymore" "And I've made a prediction inside this envelope here" "It's on a big piece of paper" "It's a big drawing that I made before the show." "Actually it's a painting" "It's got some numbers, some colors a picture" "I'm not gonna show it to you just yet" "I'm gonna leave it sealed inside the envelope" "I'm gonna hang it from this lamp right here" "And I'm not gonna touch it" "I do need to borrow a lady from the audience and I'm gonna do that by throwing these bricks" "Maybe I should just get her myself" "What's your name?" "Tiffany." "Big hand for Tiffany" "Have we ever met before?" "No" "No." "We're gonna try to find some other people we've never met before We're gonna do that with this brick" "It's a rubber brick, so don't worry it's gonna come right at you" "Tiffany, you're gonna throw it into the audience when I tell you to Turn your back to the audience" "If it comes close to you, catch it" "I need a guy to catch this brick so show what a man you really are" "Tiffany, whip it good." "Go for it" "Go for it?" "Yep" "Incredible distance there" "You, sir" "What is your favorite wild animal?" "Not your wife" "A tiger" "A tiger, fine" "Tiffany" "Shake up these cans of paint shake them up real good" "Sir, what's your favorite color?" "Yellow" "Yellow" "What's your favorite color, sir?" "Good choice" "Come with me, Tiffany" "A blue tiger, Tiffany" "Above this line" "Stand up here" "Stand right up here" "Here, I'll take that" "Stand right up there and draw a blue tiger" "Charles Darwin would be proud" "Take that brick and throw it behind you as far as you can" "Whip it good" "Nearest adult guy" "Gentleman with the beard what are your initials?" "D.G." "D.G. What's your favorite color?" "Red" "Great." "Red D.G." "Hold on to this, Tiffany." "Come with me" "I do the easy ones" "D.G., where are you?" "Yes." "What's your phone number?" "Just the first three digits" "661 ." "OK." "Now the last four digits" "9737" "Take that brick throw it behind you as far as you can" "Whip it good" "Nearest adult guy." "Who is got it?" "You, sir, what's your name?" "I'm sorry?" "Richard" "What?" "Richard" "Richard" "How do you spell that?" "R-I-C-H-A-R-D" "Richard" "Tiffany, how are you?" "Richard, the man next to you in the glasses." "What's your name?" "Harvey" "Harvey" "Shouldn't it be..." "Harvay?" "Richard" "Just a joke, Richard" "Who is the lady nearest to you?" "Judy" "He's nodding his head yes" "I hope you've got call waiting" "Maybe it's because of the spray paint" "Put them on that table and wait for me over there" "Tiger man, where are you?" "Where is the tiger man?" "There you are" "Now, we didn't prearrange this, did we?" "No, we didn't" "Tiffany, have we ever met before?" "No" "D.G., where are you?" "Raise your hand" "Dick, Harvey, Judy, I mean, Richard" "Have we met before?" "In unison" "No" "Look up unison" "Come over here" "Stand right over here" "This envelope has been hanging in full view the entire time" "I haven't touched it" "If the picture I made before the show matches the picture we made" "That will be a miracle" "Tiffany, hold on to this corner right there." "Hold it up high" "A blue tiger." "Check it out" "Does this not impress you?" "It's even new" "Hold on that corner there." "Hold it up" "Hold it up nice and high." "D.G. 661 -9737" "You chose the color red." "Check it out" "And Dick Loves Judy" "Sorry, Harvey" "This place is amazing" "It's filled with magical mystery" "What do you mean?" "Look inside that trunk" "That's Houdini's trunk" "When I got it I looked inside and I found a piece of paper with Houdini's own instructions on how he was gonna do the illusion that night" "It's a classic of magic called Metamorphosis" "Houdini would tie up his wife, Bess" "Lock her inside the trunk and very quickly they changed places" "I've always wanna do an illusion like that" "It's taken me 1 4 years to find a way to make my own" "When I look back over the past 15 years" "I realize I spent most of that time creating new illusions" "I grew up in New Jersey" "My mom was in insurance" "My dad owned a men's clothing store" "Before I was in my teens" "I thought it would be cool to become a ventriloquist" "It turned out this place that sold props for ventriloquist is also a magic shop" "So instead walking out with a new dummy" "I ended up with a bag of tricks" "I started doing little shows in my home town" "When I was 1 8, I got this part in a musical called "The Magic Man"" "I got to do my own illusions and sing" "And the longer the play ran the more illusions I performed and the less songs they wanted me to do" "So I guess I wasn't cut out to be a singer" "When the show closed" "I starved in New York for a year and my dad would slip me a few bucks to pay the heating bill" "I sat in my apartment, inventing magic finding the right music and staging the routines" "I knocked on a lotta doors and sent out a lotta videotapes" "One day I got a phone call to host a T.V. show" "I was 19 and I couldn't believe it" "My first few specials were to music by Gershwin" "My inspirations were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire" "I thought I was really cool" "I wore big collars, shiny jackets and a bad haircut" "On my fourth special, I wanna go beyond what had been done before" "So I took that shiny jacket and that bad haircut and made an airplane disappear" "A seven ton jet aircraft surrounded by scaffolding 12 feet high" "This runway is a solid karmlock base" "The plane can't go down, can't go up" "This switch controls the lights at the back of the enclosure" "When the translucent front wall is up the lights will back up the plane, casting its silhouette on the wall" "So you can see the plane right up to the moment it vanishes" "The plane is locked into place" "It will be surrounded by a human chain 50 spectators linked together" "The spectators are being blindfolded to protect the secret of the illusion" "Hold hands till I say let go" "Let's do it" "This shot won't cut away" "You'll see it as if you were there with absolutely no camera tricks" "If you can hear me, raise your hand" "Now" "Take your blinds off." "We did it" "I couldn't believe it If I had been sitting at home" "I could think of some way to get outta it" "But I was right here, and there was no way that plane could've left" "It's just amazing" "What happened to the airplane?" "I dunno." "It went" "It went" "Thrilling, it was shocking" "You had chills" "What did you think when you when they...they drop it and you took down your blindfold and it was gone?" "It's emphatical" "We put together a brand new illusion" "We're auctioning off a brand new illusion" "The pieces I'm most proud of" "The Airplane." "The Train" "The Flying." "The Great Wall" "The Burning Rope Escape and one other is the Death Saw" "Give me an example of how you try to make your magic different" "Well, there's a sensual side to magic that hadn't really been touched" "To me, it wasn't just about doing tricks" "It was about taking the audience to another place" "A special place so they could really suspend their disbelief" "It was about relationships" "Moving the audience as well as amazing them" "It was about sharing a feeling" "Sometimes romantic, sometimes funny" "Sometimes grand and spectacular" "Sometimes daring" "And sometimes sensual" "Dave when the audience applauds like that you have to say something, like..." "Very endearing back to them." "OK" "Repeat after me." "I have never felt..." "Never felt" "OK, a little softer now" "I have never felt..." "I have never felt..." "So, so much Love" "So much Love" "In one room before" "You're a regular Wayne Newton..." "Dave" "It's very good" "You Love your audience." "I like that" "The Statue Of Liberty" "Standing 305 feet high and weighing 450,000 pounds" "I was gonna make her disappear" "We constructed two scaffolding towers on Liberty Island in front of the statue" "And had a helicopter to give an aerial view of the illusion" "The audience on Liberty Island was seated here 200 feet in front of the statue" "A circle of lights surrounds the statue and shines upon it" "A curtain would be raised between the towers to hide the statue from view" "If I successfully vanish the statue" "Searchlights would pass thru the empty space that was occupied just moments before" "We even had radar to show the statue's position" "In front of a live audience on Liberty Island the disappearance of The Statue Of Liberty" "There's that jacket again" "Right about now I'm thinking" "I hope this works" "Entire thing." "It just disappeared" "What happened, where it was gone I have no idea" "No idea where it went to" "It was fascinating to watch it" "I tell you." "If I was home watching T.V" "I'd be a little skeptical" "But I was here." "I knew it was there now it's not there" "I dunno what happened to it" "When that curtain went down and there was nothing there I just couldn't believe it" "Your reaction?" "I was amazed" "I don't see it" "It was there and it's not there anymore" "I've never seen a Statue" "Of Liberty disappear the way this one did" "And as the audience watched" "I brought her back" "So David, what surprises you?" "Well, I spend months of time and energy working on these huge illusions, but sometimes it's the small stuff, the pure slight of hand the audience really relates to" "I need to borrow a gentleman from the audience" "Let me see what I can find here" "Yeah, really" "Oh, boy!" "He can make the Statue of Liberty disappear but he can't walk down a set of steps" "What about the people you work with?" "It's weird, but the culture of my craft is sometimes strange" "For centuries, magicians have been taking their assistants and sticking swords thru them or cutting them in half" "It's as much a part of magic history as pulling a rabbit outta hat" "But I always try to remember my partner on stage could also be a romantic partner" "Right now we're gonna do something really cool" "You and I are gonna do it together" "So far you've been watching David do magic before a live audience" "Now it's your turn to participate" "In a moment, all you have to do is simply touch your T.V. screen" "As unbelievable as it sounds" "David will try to make the magic happen right in your own home" "That's right." "Tonight you've seen me choose people from the audience." "Now I'm choosing you" "It's important because if you don't play along in the next few minutes, it'll be totally meaningless" "Here's the plan" "If there are several of you in the room choose one person to participate" "Right now stand up and come close to your T.V." "Close enough to actually touch your screen" "Do it now and touch my finger" "That wasn't the cool part you can let go off the screen now" "But don't move away because in a moment by touching the screen" "You and I are gonna do something really amazing" "Now take a good look at these destinations of flight and listen carefully" "Here's the idea." "Tonight you're gonna put your finger here and fly from place to place around the circle and I'm gonna find you" "The amazing thing is even though you're at home and I'm here" "I'll know exactly where you are" "There are many places to fly to" "A star, the clouds, a moon and so on" "I want you to think a secret number between 5 and 15" "Any number between 5 and 15" "It's your choice" "I have no idea what number you're thinking of" "In a moment you're gonna move your finger the same number of times as your secret number" "For example, if your secret number was nine, you'd move nine times" "1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9," "Bringing you to the island." "If it were 6 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6," "There are a lotta possibilities" "This is your last chance to participate so come real close to your T.V. so you can touch it" "Stand over here so everyone can see" "Right now put your finger here and get ready to move the amount equal to your secret number" "Move as I count." "Ready?" "1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on" "When you reach your secret number stop and keep your finger there" "Good" "Now get ready to move in the other direction" "The same number you just moved" "The amount equivalent to your secret number" "Move in this direction as I count" "Ready?" "1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, so on" "When you finish leave your finger on the final place you've touched" "Now I know you're not on the rainbow so we'll take it away" "And I know you're not in the castle so I remove it" "I know you're not in the mountains so I take that away" "And I know you're not in the pyramids either, so I move them, too" "In a moment I'll ask you to move four times" "Either in this direction or that direction" "Whichever direction you want" "Move four times." "Ready?" "1 , 2, 3, 4," "And keep your finger there" "I know you're not in the Eiffel Tower" "Now I know you're not in the clouds and I know you're not in the city either" "Keep your finger touching the screen" "I'm gonna take this arrow and put it right" "Here" "Remember you chose your own secret number and you flew at random around the screen" "But believe it or not even though you're at home and I'm here" "I'm gonna find you" "Keep touching and watch" "You're on the moon" "Now comes the part of the show where I get somebody outta the audience and make them into a magician" "Sit back" "Relax" "Shut that kid up" "I'm just kidding" "Shut him up" "You've done so many different things where do you get your ideas?" "My library when I look thru magical history" "The recurring theme is for people to pass thru objects or walk thru walls" "A friend of mine suggested that if you're gonna walk thru a wall why not walk thru The Great Wall of China" "I think she was joking but..." "I took her seriously" "The Great Wall of China 3,000 miles long" "The only man made object visible from the moon" "Built to keep armies from getting thru" "Well, I was determined to walk thru it" "This remote control camera will never cut away" "It'll start on one side of the wall see me enter the wall" "Without cutting away the camera will travel over the wall and hopefully see me emerge from the other side" "Walking thru The Great Wall of China" "They even monitored my heart" "I've read somewhere that magic sometimes is based on misdirection" "What does that mean?" "I'll give you an example" "One year I told the powers that" "I wanna do a version of..." "buried alive" "Where I'd be locked into a container" "Covered with tons of earth and I have to make my escape" "Well, they hated the idea" "They thought it was morbid" "They wanna have nothing to do with it" "So I took the same idea and put it into a bulling that was about to implode" "You know explode?" "And they loved it" "I don't think they ever realized that" "It was the same idea that they said no to in the first place" "That's misdirection" "In a few hours the same thing will be happening" "to that bulling behind me" "The only difference is I'll be inside locked in a safe, trying to escape" "This is a sheet of polished stainless steel" "It's one inch thick" "It'll play a very important part in what we're about to do" "I'll have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to free myself from the safe inside the building and get to this X that we're placing on the steel plate" "From inside the building to this X" "Before the building blows up" "We're inside the building which is competed wired with explosives" "This safe was provided by The First Security Safe" "The walls are 4 inches thick" "We've installed a remote control camera so that you at home and the people outside can keep an eye on the safe at all times" "How you doing?" "The committee outside is checking once again to make sure that the steel plate is solid" "and that the X is in place" "This timer controls the detonation of the explosives" "It'll count down to 2 minutes and 30 seconds and then you know what" "These officers are here to ensure everything is on the up and up" "Gentlemen, you examined the safe?" "Yes, we have" "And you searched me thoroughly?" "Yes, we did" "Thank you very much" "Just keep in mind that our T.V. audience and our live audience are seeing the exact same thing" "You at home will see what the people are seeing right here" "We'll simultaneously show our remote controlled camera outside the safe and our handheld camera so you'll see everything" "Gentlemen?" "Guys, just one minute" "I always wanna fly on stage" "Not just float but really fly live" "Right in front of people" "Without wings, strings, or camera tricks" "Well, it took 7 years to finally live that dream" "And to make it really believable" "I wanted people from the audience on stage with me" "Hello, you come with me, please" "Stand over here" "This gentleman right here, come with me stand right over here" "You can keep going back stage" "What, what's your name?" "Bambi" "I'm sorry?" "Bambi" "Bambi" "Your name is Bambi?" "Are you serious?" "I'm serious" "And you must be thumper" "Yes. fine" "Bambi, your name is really Bambi?" "Yeah" "I like that." "It's fun to say" "See, I'm in this big Plexiglas box" "Picture it solid gold on the back you can examine the backside" "Mitch, you examine the front" "I do wanna go home with some of these props" "Examine this side, go for it" "You sure you're not thumper?" "Come over here" "I want you to examine the lid" "Yeah, me, too" "This is the lid of the box" "Make sure it's solid" "Nice, nice and strong." "Lift it up" "Over your head" "I'm just kidding come over here" "Have a seat right here" "Mitch" "Bambi, you too" "Before you do I'm just curious" "Have you ever had any dreams where you fly?" "No" "Perfect." "Good" "Have a seat right here, Bambi" "Even when you were a kid you never dreamed you could fly?" "When you were a little kid." "Good" "Mitch, your job is to keep an eye on this Plexiglas box" "Make sure nobody tampers with it, OK?" "Bambi your job is to keep an eye on Mitch" "Make sure he doesn't break the box" "Our committee from the audience is sitting behind the curtain?" "Good" "Did you ever just sit around and dream?" "I do all the time" "When I was a kid I didn't think I fit in at all" "I was an only child and I lived in these apartments where there weren't any other kids my own age" "So I'd sit outside by myself and I'd dream so I wouldn't feel so alone" "You know my best dream?" "My best dream was to fly" "Not in a balloon or an airplane" "But to push against the air" "Ride the wind and fly" "You ever fly in your dreams?" "Even today when I feel lonely or insecure, I go back to that dream" "And it helps me leave my problems and insecurities behind" "All the answers were up there" "Well, a lotta people have dreams and they don't do anything about them" "Sometimes I'm afraid that's gonna happen to me" "See" "I've been trying to fly for a long time" "I guess if like I was trying" "I haven't lost" "That was great." "I was gonna..." "This way" "A lotta people think of me in terms of grand illusion" "But in my opinion the most powerful magic happens in the performer's hands" "It's the purest form of the art" "So now take a look at a light of hand sequence" "That features a little tribute to my first magical influence" "I want to... show you a home movie" "That's me and that's my grandfather" "He's the first person to ever teach me magic" "I was about 10 years old and he taught me a card trick with 4 aces" "And the aces would appear and disappear it was really cool" "And since I was 10 years old it took me many months to master it" "After I did" "I showed it to everybody and I decided to make magic my life" "Everybody thought I was crazy except my grandfather who always gave me encouragement" "I promised him if I ever had any success that I'd do his card trick in my show" "Well, my grandfather passed away before I ever did a big show" "But grandpa... if you're listening tonight I'm gonna keep my promise" "Ghosts used to be a standard theme in magic theater illusionists loved the idea of invoking the other side" "Personally I was never big on it" "I never got into ghost stories as a kid" "I thought it was weird and caspers really creeped me out" "Way too friendly" "Then I heard about an old house of ill repute" "Said to be haunted by the ghosts of the ladies who made it infamous" "I need some people from the audience to verify what we're about to do" "Two guys and a girl" "One of the guys needs to be wearing a jacket that I can borrow and the girl needs to be wearing... clothes" "I'm gonna show you an old newsreel" "Back in 1927, the old Barkley House was sold at auction to a stranger a lady from out of state" "Soon the whole town realized the house became home to a number of working girls who were entertaining gentlemen callers in the evening" "Barkley House became the local scandal and none of the townsfolk ever spoke it except to curse it" "As if their dreams came true a storm swept thru the state and lightening struck the Barkley House" "And the house and all the ladies of the night perished in the fire" "All that was left was one piece of the structure" "The upper room somehow escaped the destruction" "I was able to get the remains of that room and reconstruct it here on stage with us tonight" "Just so we could see if anything else... survived" "We took the actual wood from the Barkley House and built a room that could be opened and closed for examination" "And that's just what we're about to do" "Our folks in the audience step right over here" "What's your name?" "I'm sorry Daniele" "Daniele, come with me" "I want you to examine the inside" "In New York, this would be a one bedroom" "Right this way." "I want you to check out the inside make sure there's nothing tricky about it" "Just a bunch of walls that open and close and nothing more." "OK?" "All right gentlemen step right over here" "This gentleman would you mind standing over here?" "The other gentleman can I borrow your jacket please" "If you could examine these ropes" "If there's anything in this jacket you'd like to keep" "Now is the time to take it out" "You see, there are no material object in the spirit world" "So we have to provide the spirits with objects so they can show their presence" "The jacket, these newspapers" "A bell, some personal items" "Some very personal items" "All these things get placed inside our empty room" "Are the ropes OK?" "Excellent." "Good" "I want you to hold on to these two" "You take these two and you're gonna tie them around my wrists" "The ends go around my wrists" "Very tight with a double knot" "Very, very good" "Yes, yes, yes" "You take this" "And you take this and cross behind me, please" "Tie them in double knot very tight on my back" "Yes, that's tight" "Tonight, I'm gonna be the medium" "The go-between between the spirit world and our world" "So if anything should take place inside our room," "I want you to be sure it's the spirits and not me using any trickery" "It's important that I can't move" "The ropes go around my neck" "I want you to tie them very tight around my neck, in a double knot" "Not quite as tight as you tied around my wrists" "This is the Madonna starter kit" "You examined the room?" "Is it free of any trickery?" "Fine" "Why don't you stand over there" "And gentlemen join me inside the room" "I want you to step up here" "They're gonna hang you some ropes" "Take those ropes and tie my ankles to the bottom of the chair" "The ropes go around my ankles and the chair with a double knot at the bottom" "As quickly as you can, two knots" "And after you've done that check the knots in my back and my neck" "Make sure they're still secure and once you're satisfied stand outside the room so you can see around the sides and behind making it impossible for anyone to enter or leave the room" "No self-respecting spirit would show themselves in the light so we're gonna create a little darkness with this curtain and see if we can make the spirits manifest themselves inside the room" "Our next demonstration we're gonna use a gentleman's jacket and show you something you will not believe" "Spirits, spirits" "Take the coat" "Gentlemen, step inside." "Check my arms are actually thru the sleeves" "Ropes tied tightly at the wrists ropes extending out the back tied in a double knot" "Thank you very much" "Ladies, it's time" "Spirits. spirits" "Remove the coat" "Now is the time we invite someone to join me inside the room" "What's your name?" "Jonathan" "Jonathan" "Come over here Jonathan and have a seat" "We' don't want you to be scared so we're gonna blindfold you" "Take your left hand and put it on my shoulder and your right hand on my arm" "That's not my arm" "May be I should be the one that's scared" "Once again we'll try to make the spirits manifest themselves" "Inside the room" "What happened to your pants?" "What happened to your shoes?" "Nice pumps, John" "Give Jonathan a big round of applause" "Cut me loose" "Everybody step down here" "Check the ropes in my back" "Make sure they're nice and tight" "Make sure the knots are still firmly in place" "Then cut me free, please" "Take the scissors and cut the ropes" "Right thru, please" "Gentlemen, I need you to check the knots around my wrists" "You're enjoying this too much" "I'm just kidding" "Everybody give our gentlemen" "A big round of applause" "I need you to stand over there and both of you to step over there" "Make sure nothing enters or leaves that room" "Our next experiment is very strange" "We found that if you close the doors to the empty room and listen carefully you can hear sounds from inside" "Very strange sounds it's as if the ladies of the house aren't aware that they're dead" "Their spirits have been trapped inside all these years" "Now they're crying to be free" "Let me show you what I mean" "Shall we?" "Everyone be still" "No" "Open it" "Open it now" "Open the back" "Need all of you to come down, please" "Step down here." "Exactly" "Because now's the time I invite all of you to join me inside the room" "You look really thrilled about this whole thing" "This is for you." "Step right inside" "This is a blindfold for you." "Step inside" "And this is a parting gift for you" "Step right inside" "Once you're inside put on your blindfolds, please" "Because we're gonna add one more element" "These curtains were taken from the house before the fire" "They're an item the spirits are familiar with" "We're gonna use them to enclose ourselves inside the room" "Hold up your hands." "We're gonna hand you the curtains." "Very good" "We're gonna lift the curtains and try to arouse the spirits" "Lift the curtains" "A few years ago" "I realized a lifelong dream" "I got to appear on Broadway in my own show," ""Dreams and Nightmares"" "Francis Ford Coppola was our collaborator" "Working with him was another dream come true" "Although he wanted me to stuff my cheeks with cotton and speak with a Sicilian accent" "The illusions were based on my own dreams and nightmares" "We decided to end it with a sequence that involved a strong childhood memory" "And so from the ending of the Broadway show" "Take a look at a dream within a dream" "You've been terrific" "I got one last thing I'd like to show you" "I hope you like it" "I hope it works" "It's kinda cool" "That's it" "Maybe this side of the audience will like it better" "Thank you" "You see I never saw snow when I was a kid" "I mean I saw it on T.V. and in the movies" "But I never saw snow for myself when I was a little kid" "I grew up in New Jersey but every winter, my parents and" "I would drive to Florida to visit my aunt" "I never got a chance to really experience winter or snow for myself when I was growing up" "When I was about 8 years old" "I begged my mom and dad to stay in New Jersey for the winter" "Just so I could see snow for the first time" "And they agreed" "And that was the year there was no snow" "Everyday I'd pray for it to snow" "No snow" "I'd sit outside waiting for it to snow" "It got closer and closer to Christmas" "Still no snow" "On Christmas Eve I was up in my window still in my room praying for it to snow and I fell asleep at the window" "My father came and carried me to bed" "A few hours later in the middle of the night there was a knock on my bedroom door" "It was my mother" "She said, David wake up and I woke up" "She said, David look out the window" "I looked out the window and it was snowing" "I couldn't believe it and I ran outside and I laughed and I cried as the snow hit my face and my hands" "That was the first magic I ever saw" "When spring came and the snow stopped" "I cut up little pieces of paper and threw them in the air to try to... recreate the feeling I felt when I saw snow for the first time" "There was paper all over my house" "But it was my way of keeping the magic alive all year long" "Even today I realize how important it is to keep that sense of wonder" "That childlike hope knowing if you believe and you want it enough nothing is impossible"