Iconic Magician David Copperfield On His Career & The Documentary, "Liberty: Mother of Exiles"

[Music] thanks everybody thank you welcome to build I am your host Ricky Camilleri and our next guest has been described as the most successful magician in history he's earned eleven Guinness World Records has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has 21 Emmys he's a knighthood by the French government he sold more tickets than any solo entertainer in history and has been named a living legend by the rut by the library of US Congress he's kind of a big deal of course I'm talking about David Copperfield who was here to talk to us about his career as well as the time he made the Statue of Liberty disappear which is covered in the new documentary Liberty mother of exiles but first let's take a little look at Copperfield's career [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] everybody please welcome the great David Copperfield let's hear it thank you so much for being here it's good to be here first and foremost what is it like watching that short clip of all of a lot of your work because you've been doing this now for 40 years you know you that was a minute and a half not even of some of your hits do you just watch that go there's a lot missing I'm worn out because by watching that is amazing yeah so you know it's amazing because in my world you know if I was a musician you have a piano that's already invented right in magic you have to invent the piano each time you're inventing the technology for each time you do an illusion every single thing you do you're really starting from scratch especially when you're inventing new things you know and you look at that that material is like lots of trial and error and failure and finally you get to look beautiful you know my idols were people like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and so forth and you know it looks effortless but behind it is so much hard work and so much effort so but hopefully it looks pleasing and also people who completely reinvented the art form for which they decided to focus their lives on they didn't focus that Fred Astaire didn't focus his life on dance and say okay I'm just gonna be a great dancer you completely reinvented it and made it accessible to people who didn't know that they wanted dancing their lives exactly and magically the same thing you know and I came into magic magic was you know not thought I was pretty special or whatever and I wanted you know I love Broadway I loved Sinatra I loved Frank Capra I lived in Orson Welles and all the people that stories I love stories I loved the fact that you could move an audience in some way and I was good at magic but I kind of sucked at everything else but I wanted to use with magic use magic for what I really love to do which was to share thoughts and emotions and everything that happen in music you know music musician tell stories of their life filmmaker tell stories of their life I want to do the same thing with magic and what I'm Caze when it comes to magic what do you get more of a thrill out of and this goes better you said like you know reinventing the piano oftentimes when you do a magic trick for lack of a better word or you do a show you know if you're sawing yourself in half you can go back to the original person who is selling themselves in half and you can sort of rework the idea and think of it in a different way or when you're making the Statue of Liberty disappear that's a completely new thing that you have to start from scratch with which do you prefer doing well you know even the classic idea of sawing somebody in half you know it was always sawing the lady in half and I thought that was really unfair even even before today's times you know I thought it should happen to me but I couldn't make it happen to me in the normal way it wasn't I didn't want to do with a box I wanted to do it out in the open totally exposed where where you saw my body gets split in half but that wasn't enough I wanted to make it a kind of an escape so the song and half part was a surprise so they think I was going to have to escape from the blade the kind of The Perils of Pauline kind of an aspect of it and when I didn't escape then I'd be sawed through and then you'd have a such a much bigger effect you didn't know you wouldn't expect this song that part and then you'd have to put myself back together so he made a reversal of time so putting layers and layers of different ideas reinventing that illusion totally but taking the classic ideas inspiration wouldn't you you know you add a server I wouldn't say early in your career but reach a point where you know you can do as many shows as you want to here right now you're doing about 500 shows in a year or six 46:40 that's incredible do you have a obviously you are the master and the maestro of the show but when you have a new idea or you want a new idea for the show do you have a team of people that you get together with and you say alright let's throw somebody like bass like a TV show let's throw some up ideas up on the board and figure out how we're gonna do this like a TV show or NASA you know or Elon Musk so as it's it's really science and technology and art all put together we're working on something fantastic now which I've it's you'll have to stand by and wait for it's gonna be really I think hopefully world-changing it's an amazing idea taking technology and art and blending them in a special way and affecting how we look at life and what I do like you said I get a group of people who I work with from 20 years or more and and we sit in a room and we throw out ideas and how can you do this what would that look like we make models and mock-ups right now we're in the process of making you know a lot of foam core pieces and cameras moving down and and and just trying different things out at the same time also talking about messaging at the exact same time how to use the words to describe it how what's gonna register with people so it's kind of a little Pixar in nature you know they Pixar well take an idea and keep killing it and building and you know destroying it and then and and finally you end up with some really something really special after you've gone through many different steps what's that I want to talk more about the messaging in just a second but what's the furthest you've gotten along on an idea and then had to scrap it because it just you realize at a certain point I don't think we're gonna be able to make this one work it's happened but luckily you know so much work goes into that one idea that it gets put over here and ten years later we say well remember that thing maybe we can use some of those ideas that were good for this so nothing's really a waste which is really really great you know we're right now reviving a lot of things that we thought were totally useless so you know it's it's it's good to keep records of those ideas and those thoughts because they have value because you spend time on it on those things and we do that all the time and right now a lot of things I'm doing my shower stuff that I thought was was gonna be wasted but you know we kept in the back of our you know catalog of ideas how much do you still love the the old the old tricks you know like there's a moment in this documentary which we'll talk about in a second where it's you sort of making the Statue of Liberty disappear in your hands which is just sort of like it's an it's a magician doing the thing that he's probably known how to do since he was 10 years old how much do you still love being able to do those things well that moment actually you know I knew I was gonna do the documentary so me and my team I've got home early Wed Chris Kenner all these people that have been with me for many many years we said okay make him a small object disappear seems to be an easy thing but we did it in that one camera shot and doing it with this little statue was different than vanishing a coin or vanishing a deck of cards so he kind of has spent a couple days working out that little detail of that little that little gnome they're so and it's real it's not camera tricks there's no blue screen or whatever and so it's fun taking something that looks you know pretty simple and normal and and doing it with a different object that changes everything as far as the difficulty it's pretty good when did you you or what like 10 11 years old when you started doing magic 8 years old 8 years old and what what drew you to it I was a ventriloquist I started by watching the guy named Paul Winchell who was a big star here in Manhattan and across the world whose van trollquest he you know him as the voice of Tigger on the Winnie the Pooh he was amazing and kind of a genius I would say he invented and patented the artificial heart he wasn't just a ventriloquist he actually there was a scientist and a brilliant creative guy but he was a big star in television when I was a kid and I said oh I love this and I my parents want me a dummy and I went to school and I did I did shows in school to dump me and the kids applauded me said I want to do this as a job you know they're getting that reaction from the audience but I kind of sucked at it I was really not very good at all but I went looking for a better dummy and what came to Macy's here in New York and the way you buy a dummy Macy's is the magic counter at Macy's and they had magic and this guy did magic isn't maybe this magic thing is my thing and it became very easy to me you know I was inventing magic very quickly and when I was 12 my inventions were in the big encyclopedia Tarbell an encyclopedia of magic so I was really good at it again sucked at everything else but magic I for some reason that was good and I asked what were your parents thinking when you were getting into magic and ventriloquism were they immediately supportive and got it or were they kind of like you know cocked eyebrow like what's what's going on with our kid here I don't know I think they really gave me support as a kid doing it doing birthday party shows made five bucks for a birthday party made balloon animals they all look like poodles but I called them other animals and they were supportive and then but when I want to do as a job my mother said you know it was really really tough with me and it was a good thing her her her apprehension for me doing this as a job really empowered me to to really work hard and find a way to make it work you know and to make it as I can feed the family I've never had another job but magic I never worked it you know fast-food place never had to is it's a very funny thing I starved a lot but I never had another job what was it like early on when you when you were starving I mean a starving musician I feel like we hear the story all the time a starving painter starving actors starving movie director but we never really hear the story of the starving magician what are the sort of side hustles and things that you're doing before you get to that what is the what is the starving musicians breakthrough um I did Industrial shows I was embarrassed reaiiy lived in Barrow Street with my girlfriend at the time and I knocked on a lot of doors and one of the doors and I thought it was a company that did industrial show so they paid for my illusions for me before that I did a musical comedy in Chicago I sang which I can't sing and I did that magic magic man called because Doug Henning had is gigantic a success here on Broadway and they kind of copied that show even though it was written before in a show in Chicago called the Magic Man and I got to design all my illusions and it lasted a year and I was 18 years old and I was kind of a star in Chicago and I thought oh god my life is gonna be perfect now everything's gonna be easy for me and of course it doesn't work that way I come back here to New York and mode nobody you know gave a damn about me so I knocked on doors you know after the success in Chicago I had nothing so I knocked on doors and sugar in in in New York and I'm not gonna guys named Joe Cates and Joe Cates you know from Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kevin Klein's wife and Katie caves from Fast Times your son hi terrific actress and her father was Joe Cates who gave me my big break he knew that I had a point to view with my magic my magic was always never about fooling people as always about telling stories in a way I would do I wouldn't just vanish a woman I would vanish the girl in the shower scene and do the scene from psycho you know I would do a keystone cop number based on the you know old Keystone cop movies I would do MGM musical dancing with a girl cut and three pieces it's a you know doing as a date with a magician like an MGM musical so it all had kind of context it was never you know just doing magic for magic sake you're an entertainer I don't know I was trying to tell stories I trying to find my way but it was a unique way of doing magic and this Joe Cates saw this you know I think I can do something he put me on TBS and then you know it's a CBS every year but the period between the magic men and doing the the the CBS shows I was doing industrial shows and doing shows for IBM and Pitney Bowes and you know it would be me and Bruce Jenner believe it or not he would be speaking because he was an American Hero and in a way still is you know it was boo he be speaking and I'd be doing producing the executives out of boxes and stuff so forth and it's kind of yeah corporate events with gigantic like two million dollar productions Henry Kissinger would speak and they'd be David this little David Kotkin kid of make executives adhere and stuff trying to inspire them with magic but it paid for my thing before I had television and it was an interesting time who was the most famous executive that you made disappear or appear gosh every president of IBM and president of you know it was like that not I think maybe we had Michael Eisner at the time I would do in ABC industrials and that you know this is when Robert Bob Iger was kind of in the background and in a way you know but it was during that time it was it was it was great and I was constantly learning new things I learned about lighting and staging and so forth from these very expensive industrial shows at the time now one of the things that you hear to talk about is your role with the Statue of Liberty which is covered in this new documentary Liberty mother of exiles a beautiful dock about the history of the Statue of Liberty and really what it means for this country I want to throw to a clip of that documentary then talk about your your work within it can we see that no the Statue of Liberty is an object it's actually hollow [Music] but on the outside is supposed to look very heavy and strong that in itself is an illusion it is magic it is science and art making spectacle [Music] that's the trick that we were just talking about there yeah well first of all Diane von Furstenberg is this amazing woman you know just there's a force of nature magical dreamer and organizer and a persuader of people to do great things so we love her and she's a lovely person she's the executive producer of this one of the producers and the star of this I'm just a minor player at this but she's the thread throughout this you see her journey learning about all the facts of the Statue of Liberty and it's a great documentary you enjoyed it yeah and you learn what did you learn I learned some things even I dealt when I before I did the statue of vanishing not the small with a big one I studied it I went to but went to see all about bartholdi and a ballet all of a sudden I did all that stuff but I learned stuff in this study to know I didn't know that I fo kind of it's a footnote in life all's life I fall designed all the structure inside the statue afterwards he did the Eiffel Tower but it's a little mentioned that he didn't really care that much about his contribution even though jerrycan during Hurricane sandy it stayed up you know because of the Eiffel Tower guy you know it's pretty amazing so it's kind of another genius so the the artists on the outside and the engineer and the inside combined and I that's my life my life is engineering and art for together you know that's what that is amazing and it gets proved to be an amazing thing I had known it was a gift to the United States but and I'm sure this is you know everybody knows us who knows anything about the statue Liberty I had no idea that it was a gift due to the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery it was basically a French abolitionist who right yeah I didn't I didn't 1980 what was at 82 83 that you did this 1890 for you you made the Statue of Liberty disappear and you couldn't really get anybody Parks Department or anybody to really help you you had to go straight to the top you went to Nancy and Ronald Reagan to talk to them about this closely Ronald mostly Ronald what did that conversation go like um well the Park Department did what they should really do if somebody's crazy what they say no you know that's the good they they were smart you know they have to protect this iconic thing you know I was on TV and I was I was pretty famous at that moment and but I think I they said no and I said but I really want to do this for a noble cause I think we take this Liberty thing for granted not even today were realizing how important this idea is and you know so I got no no you can't do it and then finally I went I did many shows at Ford's Theater for many presents and the Reagan's were very nice to me and and I said please can I can you help me with this and he said ok go ahead and do it help you do it that's okay that's nice of you and so I got all the cooperation I lived there I lived inside the base for a month Wow I slept inside there not in the houses but inside on cots and so forth it was great you know because I didn't want to take the ferry ride back and forth but it was it was just an amazing who gets to do that I mean that's such an amazing experience crawling up into the torch at night you know and I standing a majesty I'm just like looking at that incorrectly and no one got permission to be in the torch except the workers and Frank Sinatra me and Frank Sinatra he got this thing New York New York violent urge for a special and they gave me permission to me in that art stuff pretty good and where did you I mean I feel like at this point or maybe I'm wrong is when you really start thinking about messaging and what your magic the story your magic can stories your magic can tell and how important those stories can be is that true or did it start before that as well no no I was only doing always doing story stuff always yeah but one special I did all these stories which I really cared about and I made a plane disappear at the end no story made plain and the people went crazy for this plane disappearing and I said you like that you leave the big thing disappearing that you know I what about all these things like really cared about like we're Americans like the big thing make the big thing happen it was a real you know revelation to me the idea of the big idea the simple idea really communicated and you know I had to be reminded of that believe it or not and I said what am I gonna do to follow that up and when the Statue idea came along I said well this could have meaning I can really do something with this so I went to Frank Capra I found Frank Capra towards the end in the winter of his ears and I said mr. Capra he for those of you kids out there it's a wonderful life mr. Smith goes to Washington all this stuff he all the movies his classic movies he had a movie studio called Liberty films and one of the great directors of all time and I sat with Frank Capra and I said will you help me write the dialogue for this thing will you help me write my speech when it disappears I want to talk about how we take freedom for granted would you write this Frank Capra said to me okay I'll help you but you're gonna try to do it and you're gonna fail so do you mean so well you're gonna go you can do the whole special you're gonna try to do it and the statues not gonna disappear and I said mr. Capra I don't think CBS will like this idea I think you have to do it the pones vaults or something yes it would be like a thing against it no I freedom of Liberty you cannot make Liberty disappear so four hours later I convinced them finally after that and I saw this amazing fighter guy he was just short you know at this time 80 it's like seven and he was always notoriously you know cantankerous fighter and you saw you know at the time his his executive producer of his thing was Harry Cohen he's video so who was a tough you know if legendary tough guy and so you saw I got to see Frank Capra how he fought against Harry Cohn I could experience that which is an amazing experience to watch sudden this guy in his eighties really deal with me like that is if I was the Harry Cohen in that thing I was the bad guy fighting with him but finally he said yes and we got into kind of collaborate and that's my speech that I do in the staff to make it appear I talk about how we take funeral granted how important our freedom is and I would have meant to my mother at me you know she was a kid I you know I gotta ask as a you know deep came Frank hopper a fan when you're getting yelled at by Frank Capra is it hard to not just smile and be delighted by the fact that Frank Capra is yelling it says I wasn't smiling but inside of me this is a cool moment in my life is afraid I'm living I'm going back in time and experiencing guy who was passionate you know and it reminded me that all great artists are really passionate if that's the people who I admire and I saw this guy's passion you know and I reminded me to be passionate to and ever you've got a little bit complacent which isn't often you know to be passion really carrot have the courage of your convictions about things you know another ceremony that you recently did and I think it ties into this one a little bit which is that instead of making something disappear you made something up here right at a new at a ceremony for people getting new citizenship new citizens can you talk about this sure um this Flag Day this past flag by we went to the Smithsonian I've got a wonderful relationship with the amazing smart innovative people at the Smithsonian and the star-spangled banner is this giant you know you've heard of it it's not just a song as an actual flag it's what Francis Scott Key saw waving in doing the you know when the bombs bursting in air and then all that stuff that we sing about that flag exists in the Smithsonian's a giant this is it's literally as big as this room the flag it's missing a star is missing pieces of it because it was given a souvenir it's a little piece that we given away but the star itself one of the stars 15 stars is missing I when I heard about that I said okay this is what kind of world I'm gonna make that start reappear that's what I'm gonna do so I did an illusion there's pretty 10 pretty good where I make that star reappear for the the 15th emitting star Wichita's we kind of in symbolic to the fact that those stars represent states of the union there was 15 states at the time you know the strength that we get from being United you know that whole idea and it was in the same day that we naturalized 15 citizens which was awesome so I'm making the star appear into this star-spangled banner and naturalizing 15 citizens on that same day so that was a great honor for me it was a lot of fun um a couple chief questions excuse me uh what has been the hardest trick you've ever you've ever done always the newest one always the newest one you know the Statue of Liberty was hard I fly in my show I fly pretty good in my show that was hard I don't do it anymore but I did for 20 years I was flying why don't you do it anymore you know you have to do new stuff old hit that's you know I'm so I'm the new stuff I'm working on now I have a thing in my show with a spaceship a spaceship it's literally the size of this room that appears magically spoiler alert I've got an alien alien animatronic alien character that's new for me because when I was a kid it goes back to when I was a kid I watched ed Sullivan Show The Ed Sullivan Show they had a puppet called Topo Gigio there was a little character Italian Mouse and as a kid I went wow I wish I had a little friend like that could talk to me so I have an alien friend that talks to me that kind of reunited with my father my father passed away a few years ago so I I make that and a lot of people relate to the fact that you know you have things missing in your life so this character kind of gets me back with him with a lot of amazing magic all invented all brand-new technology and so forth and I've got dinosaurs in the show and spaceships so the language is totally new and that keeps it fresh for me it's not reinvent the old magic it's really brand new stuff when did you find that you could explore things in your personal life and things that had personal meaning to you within these shows because I think very rarely does anyone think of a magic show or a David Copperfield show if they haven't been to it as something that is more than the magic but it sounds to me like a couple years ago your father passed away and one of the ways that you may be dealt with it was finding a way to incorporate it in the show yeah well it's jealousy of music you know everybody you know Taylor Swift breaks up with somebody it's a song you know Frank Sinatra maybe didn't write this song but he'll sing it you know the lines in his face you'll see all the stuff that you've learned about his life you know and the cigarette and it was you know you'll see that it was jealousy of that you know of movies that you know moved be able to express thoughts or poets I was good at magic I wasn't the poet I wasn't you know a musician you know but I was good at magic I said how am I gonna use this thing I'm good at to do what they do because that's the stuff that moved me I'm moved by those that music and that movie and Seth how do I do that so it was the combination of that a fight for that had that infused everything I did and you know people don't think of that when they think of me they think of you know airplanes and statues disappearing and you know flying or they think of that but I think they I've lasted you know lasting is the best illusion that I've ever have you know you know I've lasted because there is that truth at the core of it you know and it's where does it come from they answer your questions it was jealous of an envious of every single artist that has been in this seat you know I've watched some of some of the these shows that to research you and you know and and found that you know these people are doing you know the reason they're valuable is because there's something true you know how does it person that is doing things that are not real illusions be true the subject matter has to be based on something that we care about do you ever feel misunderstood as an artist you have you know an incredible amount of success as you said the greatest illusion that you've done is is lasting you've done a lot more than last but do you ever feel sometimes slightly misunderstood as an artist and then in the way that just a few minutes ago you said people like the plane disappearing or you know the train disappearing but yet you are engaging in your art on a very personal level yeah I mean I think every artist if you ask that question to would say you know they want a little bit more they want a little more respect they want that person to like them or you know what you know for me every show I do is a lady you know there's leading the front row people are going crazy everywhere is Lady good I only care about one person that lady you know at that point like I said never heed the bad reviews we only yeah and that we take that to sleep with to bed with us you know the batteries and you because there's an effort to make a bit I'm not there where I I'm so proud of you know all the stuff I've done I'm just it's that one lady in the front row that you know I didn't get you know if you were so proud of in that way of everything you've done you wouldn't keep going you wouldn't do six and something shows a year you're clearly still doing it because you love doing it well there's something to learn you know there's something to - I learned every night I learned from the audience every night and I tweak and change things in the show and you know I make mistakes and I find things and you know I have different you know I've toured the world ten times I've done ten ten world tours pretty amazing you know and playing arenas everywhere so my audience in the MGM em gym Hotel Las Vegas Nevada [Music] at the MGM we have shows and some shows it's all Chinese people some shows all people's Brazil all people you know and I they hear me speak in Chinese reading off the stage and you know phonetically they expect me to speak Chinese Las Vegas I note you know I but it's wonderful to see all these different people that I've you know 10 times around the world have seen what's the wildest place around the world that you've performed magic that you just thought to yourself I can't believe I'm performing my show for these people here you know I've done shows for royalty you know I was in in England when Prince Harry and William came with Princess died to the show and I'll be on stage and I was flying at the time and that show it went horribly wrong and I was frozen this is my big illusion this flying thing at the time and I was beginning I am frozen in space I can't move and I've got you know Prince William and Harry in the knights and princes die in the audience and I like camps I'm stuck in the air and in the microphone I could hear me backstage the audience couldn't hear me I says I say close the curtain the curtain closes on me and they bring out ladders to unlevel behind the thing and I say turn my mic on ladies and gentlemen behind the curtain ladies and gentlemen give me give us five minutes I want you to really see this properly and five minutes they wait the owners patiently waits and I we fix what has to be fixed and I do this 15-minute flying sequence I fly with a lady in my arms I fly for the Falcon in my hands I fly in a box hoops pass around me it's a really kind of a great good very good thing and I finished the the illusion and it turns out fine after this weight but in that show you know at Royal tea in the audience and on stage I rarely [ __ ] up did you speak to the royalty afterwards I did did you are you the type of person upon speaking to the road - we're like I'm so sorry about what happened did you try to play it off like that like nothing today I learned to ignore it I just literally make-believe it didn't happen you know and but they were very very nice about it and yeah well because no decent person is gonna go what happened because it's a show if the rest of the show went well why would you bring up this one moment they were pretty decent we have a question coming in from Twitter it's a hey David can you talk a little bit about the work you're doing in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian it's amazing what happened there we have a bunch of violins they're called the islands of Copperfield Bay and Musha key which is a beautiful resort that I have there and we were spared we were very very lucky above us a lot of our people that were of employees families got demolished I mean totally flattened so Jose Andres has an amazing organization we went and I you know he's doing he's very godly this guy and I had the honour of you know chopping salad with him and in the kitchen and trying to you know it's my birthday I went there and did that a little small thing compared to everything else with my team my team is there getting food to the different shelters and so forth and some of the other areas with some of the we're flying things back and forth to help out with the effort but and also we brought in a lot of people who lost everything as employees to my resort so and that's the best thing because that's not just a band-aid that's something that hopefully will change their lives and there are very very wonderful people and it's a horrible you know devastation that took place in all the northern islands we got spared you know we're very lucky so we're doing our best also all hands all hearts is another organization Petra Nemcova her organization that she began is doing amazing things there so we're doing what we can as much as we can to help out there we have time for a few questions from the audience who is a quick if you could have any supernatural power which one it be and why um living forever yeah getting more time because then you could become a better person and do better things for people I think you know I think although I've I have that I can prototype supernatural powers in my career so I know what it feels like to fly I know it feels like to disappear I know to feels like to to restore things from badness and I kind of connect you know as a performer you kind of have to really believe it for you to believe it at home you have to have the artists to really believe what they're doing so I think you know having more time would be a great thing a couple more questions I've been lucky enough to work with magicians as consultants unscripted TV drama series and my favorite thing is the psychology behind the deception in the misdirection I think the normal people don't realize the psychology that goes into it do you have any psychological tricks that you can share with us that are your favorites you know I think you have an audience you have to guide them in certain directions you know they talk about well it's misdirection you look over here and something's over here you're correct it is really understanding how people's minds work understanding what the expectation is of people and knowing that you can take mother nature and turn it sideways there's no individual thing that I can think of but III think that just the knowledge of how we operate how our brains operate informs what I do you know and how to do that so I think it's it becomes an eighth after awhile you know you know you were this is in your wikipedia you were everything you were a shot a fairly shy kid growing up right still in do you think in some ways magic was a means for which you to understand the psychology of other people to in some ways connect not just by entertaining them but by understanding how they worked I mean I I slowly I'm still shy I'm still trying to figure it out and that's what keeps me going you know part of it I saw a lot of people in you know in the 70's 80's 90's you know people that like lost their careers because they were too confident about stuff they lost everything they were too happy with the work they did and I think in my brain uh-huh I don't want that to happen to me I better be insecure my whole life I've literally forced insecurities to make sure that I was always questioning what I did and I think it definitely had magic helped me have something to talk about it has them to share the whole psychological thing understanding people came gradually just understanding by trial-and-error what works and what didn't work with with my thing and then you start to learn and I continue to learn and isn't that great to learn things every fan tastic I just know that I can be quite shy sometimes and it can be alienating in the sense that you get sometimes when you're feeling very alienated due to your shyness it's like wow how are they doing this how is everybody just going about their lives and connecting and being social and just enjoying each other's presence so so so easily I think I'm amazed by people that go walk into a room and go Here I am and all that cuz with not with totally without magic exactly without a single thing you know that they're doing or something to talk about this people have built and I still walk that's amazing you know I'm amazed by that you know jealous of it but it makes me work harder at you know figuring out the next thing that I should do so they actually create something some some hopefully art from that one more question after eleven Guinness World Records any other big dreams of new shows ideas that you don't even have technology for yet we're working on stuff right now believe it or not it's really something really affect that would affect how we think about life and living in the world and magic that would actually affect us a huge idea I'm gonna see if I can do it or not new technology never been done and and I love it you know I'm really I can't talk about it but I love it and I you know I look at all the Elon Musk's of the world we're really accomplishing new things and pushing us to be you know fuel-efficient or no fuel or you know to land a rocket back on on earth after being off site oh my god that's great and inspired that what can I do with my work that comes close to that that level you know what can I do to really inspire people and you know I've done it a few times before and it's worked pretty good I'm I'm thrilled that I have a new thought and it's lots of good David it's been an absolute honor to talk to you thank you so much for being here people can see your show at the MGM right and in Vegas how many how many shows the only 15 shows a week you know we do seven days a week two shows a day and three on Saturday at the MGM and it's it's great and you'll see stuff you've never seen before it's never been on TV which is really awesome and and I take 10 weeks off a year we're going and creating new things and I'm very happy you know ten weeks off are you basically working on the show and coming up with new ideas we'll use them what do you do in your downtime what is what is David Copperfield Netflix haha I come on the build show oh that is that is very that is an honor sir thank you and this documentary this wonderful documentary Liberty mother of exiles premieres Thursday October 17th at 9:00 p.m. on HBO I love it they did such an amazing job beautiful and the great team great director is a fantastic group David Copperfield everybody let's here [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: BUILD Series

Views: 30,295

Rating: 4.8599224 out of 5

Keywords: AOL Advertising, BUILDseriesNYC, AOL Inc, AOL, AOLBUILD, #Aolbuild, build speaker series, build, aol build, content, aolbuildlive, BUILDSeries Ricky Camilleri, David Copperfield, Liberty: Mother of Exiles, HBO Docs, personal history of david copperfield, david copperfield vegas, david copperfield las vegas, david copperfield movie, david copperfield dickens, richard jewell, rosalind eleazar, the gentleman, peter capaldi, 6 underground, morfydd clark, the gentlemen, Magician

Id: 4GcpgXp4bBE

Length: 40min 4sec (2404 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 08 2019