David Copperfield at The MGM Grand

When I was 8, I saw a special on A&E about David Copperfield. I was appropriately mesmerized. HOW HOW HOW DID HE DO THAT WITH THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!? This was pre-Internet, so my only resources were adults. I asked everyone if they remembered what happened in 1983. Imagine my insane delight when I found a biography on my grandfather's shelf labeled with my new obsession's name. Written by an author I recognized! Charles Dickens! Cut to me, quite disappointed.

Friday night I saw the posters, and I just sort of knew I couldn't leave Vegas without seeing the man, the myth. Tickets were expensive, so I kind of waffled. Ultimately, I sprung for discounted decent seats at around 4 PM, and I was genuinely excited for the next five hours. DREAMS COMIN' TRUE!

Some Thoughts:

-He's charming, but in a way I didn't anticipate I would find distasteful. I recognize he does the same show three times a day for globs of potentially drunken often non-English speaking slack-jaws, but, come on, SOME of us have been waiting 16 years for you, David. Be cool. #Smug

-Every illusion was so intricate that it actually didn't impress me? It's hard to describe, but...everything was so huge and big that you just KNEW like 60 people were all over making the magic happen. Yeah, there was a trick that involved getting strangers to give numbers to David, and then he opened a locked box that had been on stage to reveal license plates of those numbers...but, all that shows to ME is he has enough production money to have people sweating like mad backstage imprinting metal and shooting it through trap doors. And my bleeding heart liberal side gets concerned with how much gas having a motorcycle appear onstage wastes.

-It's really hard to be impressed these days. This is not David's fault. I literally saw him snap a car into existence, and it took me half a minute to clap. Movies make everything look easy. It's not, but I have to remind myself that.

-Each trick took so much longer than it should have because of the great lengths every set-up involving an audience volunteer takes. David has to spend 50% of his time proving he's interacting with a stranger. Annoyin', but I get it.

-The big man himself was sick. Sneezed, had to blow his nose, rushed through an emotional monologue about his grandfather. It sucks to perform sick, and that might be why he was more glib than I had hoped (I'll tell myself that), but when you perform every single time, you must remember there is someone out there who needs the performance more than how crappy you feel.

-Some racist jokes. Eek.

-Despite all this, I genuinely enjoyed the show. I am extremely happy I got to realize an elementary school fantasy. Life, you know! Life.

Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart?
How the music can free her, whenever it starts?
And it's magic, if the music is groovy.
It makes you feel happy like an old-time movie.