Copperfield’s Snow Job
/David Copperfield has said some unbelievable things in his life:
—I'm going to walk through the Great Wall of China.
—I can fly.
—Any suggestion I was his friend is totally false and a mischaracterization made by the media. We were at most, acquaintances who met on a handful of occasions. I was completely unaware of his horrific crimes.
But I think the most unbelievable thing he ever said was in the introduction to his snow effect…
"I never saw snow for myself when I was a kid. I grew up in New Jersey, but every winter my parents and I drove to Florida to visit my aunt. So I never got a chance to experience winter or snow for myself."
I'm not sure what he's suggesting here. I mean, I understand that for the dramatic arc of the story it's important that he's never seen snow. But his version of events only makes sense if winter in NJ is like cherry blossom season in Japan—where you could "miss" it by going on vacation each year.
But that's not how winter works in NJ. So did he and his parents go to Florida for four and a half months? That seems like a bit more than a "visit." What about his schooling? How did his aunt feel about all of this?
It just doesn't work very well as an intro to the effect.
Copperfield has assured us he's not slinking off into retirement, but instead has much more to come in his performing career.
Should he decide to bring back the snow illusion, I thought I'd come up with some alternative—and much more believable—stories for why he'd never seen snow.
"I never saw snow for myself when I was a kid. My dad was a violent drunk and turned increasingly angry when the weather got cold. So every November my mom took me to Florida where we stayed with her sister until spring."
"I never saw snow for myself when I was a kid. Did you ever see the movie Room with Jacob Tremblay? Yeah, I grew up in one of those situations."
"I never saw snow for myself when I was a kid. My parents were part of a sun-worshipping sex cult. Cold weather was considered spiritually contaminating by the group's elders, so every winter the entire congregation migrated south. We spent November through March in Florida. I have complicated feelings about my upbringing, but I never saw snow."
Or… try wrapping your head around this idea…
Use the Out-to-Lunch principle. Have your spectator sign a business card verifying the statement on it is true—the statement being It regularly snows in New Jersey. You pull the card from the stack and say, "You've confirmed that's true?" They agree. "Good. Because I'm about to change the entire world to one where it isn't. Abracadabra… we now live in a world where what's written on that card is false, and your memory of the old world has been completely erased."
"You signed this card. Said the statement was 100% true. Correct?" They agree. You show them the card—which, via the OTL principle, now reads It never snows in New Jersey. "True statement?" They admit it's not. "Ah-ha! It was when you signed it. Back when the world was different. Before I rewrote history, reality, and everything you thought you knew."
Applause. Transition.
"Now, because I grew up in the 'before world,' I never got to see snow as a kid. Because it didn't snow in New Jersey. As you verified when you signed that card."
Simple!
Or, just repurpose that introduction for another Copperfield classic.
"Because I grew up in New Jersey, I never got to see a tornado of fire as a child…."
