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I think the negative reinforcement really helped me in my very beginnings.

David Copperfield

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David Copperfield
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: September 16
Entertainer
Film Actor
Hypnotist
Illusionist
Stunt Performer
Writer
Metuchen
New Jersey
David Seth Kotkin
Reinforcement
Beginnings
Helped
Negative
Really
Think
Thinking

More quotes by David Copperfield

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The real secret of magic lies in the performance.
David Copperfield
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When the time came to say, Mom, I want to do this as a job, it was brutal. She was really against it. There were screaming matches. Some people are shut down by that and get defeated by it, and other people are empowered by the negativity. My father kind of encouraged me through that.
David Copperfield
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You have to learn certain skills to present magic.
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Magic has been something I've been really good at since I was really young. The ability has always come easy to me, I'm not sure why.
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I had a point of view, which was different. I looked at magic as theater, as storytelling, and I tried to have an approach that was different from what they were doing. How can I move people and really get them to dream with a card trick, with coin magic, or even a piece of stage magic?
David Copperfield
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I really did sneak into Broadway shows, starting when I was 12.
David Copperfield
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All of the [Bob] Fosse-esque movements and point of view informed years and years of what I would do.
David Copperfield
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There was an old brochure for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with a quote from Robert Redford or someone, that said, You're only as good as you dare to be bad.
David Copperfield
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For me to grow, I have to know about the foundation that came before.
David Copperfield
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I'm trying to change theater, in my own way - not just magic. I say that humbly, because I'm learning every single day. I do 15 shows a week, and every single audience I have is like a test screening for you, when you listen and go, Really? They laughed at that? All over the stage I have lines, written onstage, that I'm changing every single d
David Copperfield
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Demonic figures and occult themes have disappeared from modern magic.
David Copperfield
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The audience likes to be taken on new journeys.
David Copperfield
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I really wanted to succeed. I wanted to be accepted. I read every magic book that I possibly could, studied every move, and by the time I was 12, they really accepted me, they embraced me.
David Copperfield
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For my father, being kind was natural... I have to really work at it. I love competing and winning, conquest - not words you usually associate with kindness.
David Copperfield
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I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
David Copperfield
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From the very beginning, I studied acting, directing, lighting, dance and movement. I didn't rely on just the magic to take place. It's a shame that a lot of magicians just rely on the trick itself and they have no other abilities. They get away with the wonder factor, and I don't think that's enough. It's great, but it's not enough.
David Copperfield
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In movies, storytelling and every single art form, we're creating wonder. You're starting with a blank page and creating something that doesn't exist.
David Copperfield
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I used to fly around the stage without strings or camera tricks. That took seven years to create.
David Copperfield
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For one of my specials, I said, I'm going to make an airplane disappear. Okay! And the next day, everything went crazy - it was like breaking the internet before the internet.
David Copperfield
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Normally, I do magic on the stage. But I can make magic credible and resonate through a TV screen.
David Copperfield