Well, we’ve landed in Charlotte, NC – red eye flight out of Vegas after an amazing three days there at the Copperfield Symposium held at the MGM Grand and Hollywood Theatre. Twenty-five years ago, David Copperfield and an occupational therapist named Julie DeJean began exploring how magic tricks could be used with patients undergoing rehabilitation. Cindy and I became involved with that program and, through a series of events, expanded it to Healing of Magic. We left the I.B.M. Convention in Reno to be the closing speaker of this Symposium.
We arrived around 12noon – Reno to Salt Lake to Vegas – picked up our rental car and then checked into the MGM Grand Hotel.
After getting checked, we grabbed lunch and took a nap! We were exhausted after only 3 hours of sleep the night before. Our first, and only official event of the day was a Reception for presenters at this Symposium being held at the West Wing Bar in the MGM. Cindy and I arrived on time and met a lot of amazing people who have been involved with magic therapy for many years – from Belgium, Austria, Mexico, Panama and across the U.S. Several of the founding members of Project Magic were there – Julie DeJean, Ron Porter and Mark Paskell. It was great to meet them in an informal way before the big event. We also had the chance to meet several members of the organization from Belgium and Austria. This is part of the group with David Copperfield.
Thursday night, we had the chance to visit with one of our favorite people in the whole world, Joanie. We’ve known and worked with Joanie for several years and she has become a great friend to us. She took us out to dinner at a very cool Japanese Hibachi restaurant – great food and lots of it! We had the chance to visit and just laugh at life.
The presentations over the next two days were very interesting. The diversity of the experiences and the amazing way that magic is being used in a therapeutic way is really exciting. After the first day of speakers, Cindy and I went to see Hans Klok: The Beauty of Magic at Planet Hollywood. This show recently opened and co-stars (kind of) Pamela Anderson, who doesn’t really make an appearance until the show is almost over…and when she does arrive on stage, she really doesn’t look like she wants to be there. There are some amazing illusions in the show as well as some lavish lighting and scenery but it just doesn’t seem to connect with the audience – it’s more like a “high tech catalog of magic” than a Las Vegas production show.
The final day of the Symposium featured Scott Tokar and Jeff McBride (Jeff and I pictured below) prior to the lunch break. Both of them spoke on magic for medical professionals from very different vantage points. I wanted to attend their presentations BUT, my own presentation had crashed on my computer and we were busy in the hotel room trying to put it all together again. I was scheduled to speak at 1pm and at 12:30pm, we were still in the hotel business office getting some things printed out! It was crazy!!
I ran into the theatre around 12:40pm and Copperfield’s guys were there to get my computer patched into the project and make sure the sound was good. A few minutes later, I was approached by a young woman asking me if I knew who the Spencers were. When I acknowledged that we were them, she told me that David Copperfield would like to see us in his room. She escorted Cindy and I to David’s room where he was very kind and personable. He thanked us for the work that we had been doing, using magic as a therapeutic tool, and congratulated us on the way we had taken the program into so many different areas to help people. He was very supportive and encouraging – and that was a great moment for Cindy and I. David was going to attend my presentation…which can make one a bit nervous!
We were taken back to the Hollywood Theatre and it was almost time for me to take the stage. Mark Paskell introduced me to the group and I was on. In spite of all the difficulties we had had that morning, the presentation came together, moved along quickly and the integration of pictures, video and text into my Power Point presentation seemed to work well. The response was very positive and overwhelming from the group and the other presenters. David Copperfield came out as the final speaker (and he gave me a high five for the presentation), addressed the group and did group photos for future publication. It was a nice finish to two informative days.
That afternoon, we were given a tour of David’s warehouse in Las Vegas which houses not only his amazing collection of illusions, videos of his performances, and thousands and thousands of newspaper clippings, it also houses the most spectacular collection of magic memorabilia found anywhere in the world. It is beyond comprehension the history and information contained in this single location.
After the tour, Cindy and I raced back to the MGM to see David perform in the Hollywood Theatre that evening. There was a really good crowd and it was a spectacular show! We had perfect seats (thanks David and Chris) – a booth right in the center of the theatre on the second row. It was amazing to see the show from these seats! It was very nice evening and we were treated so well. A great finish to the day.
Sunday was our day to enjoy and relax in Las Vegas. We slept in, arranged for a late check out, and then went to find lunch. After lunch, we decided to walk over to the Tropicana Hotel and see the shops there; then off to the Excalibur Hotel and then the Luxor Hotel to see if Criss Angel was running around anywhere (just kidding) but did find his “official store.”
We stopped for a snack and then went back over to the Tropicana for the 2pm show of Xtreme Magic starring Dirk Arthur. This was a fun, fast-paced show – perfect for the afternoon break from the Vegas heat. Dirk does a lot of magic using the large cats – tigers and lions.
After the show, it was back to the hotel to start packing and getting ready to leave. We decided to just head to the airport around 6pm so we would have plenty of time to drop off the rental car and get checked in. We had a long night ahead of us on the plane…
I’m in the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, NC now waiting for our connection to Lynchburg. We arrived here around 6:30am. Won’t be home until 10:30am or so…and then it’s nap time!
Okay, that should bring us up to date – quickly! Tomorrow, we leave for Lakeside, OH for a July 5 performance at Hoover Auditorium. We’ve performed here before so this should be fun.