David Copperfield, the American magician, master illusionist and showman par excellence is among the best in the world at the art of misdirection. His uncanny ability to delude an audience into believing that the trick is actually real is spellbinding.
Over the years he has walked through the Great Wall of China, escaped from Alcatraz prison, made the Statue of Liberty disappear, flown on stage, made snow fall in the theatre, teleported himself and a member of the audience to a beach in Hawaii, made a seven ton airplane vanish and cut himself in half with a laser. On occasion the apparent illusion is actually real and there is no room for error.
Copperfield’s 1990 television special involved him being locked into a raft with his arms and legs restrained, and a fire lit underneath him. He was then dropped into the water above Niagara Falls. He had less than sixty seconds to escape from the contraption and mount the jet-ski attached to it. As the raft goes over Niagara Falls, Copperfield comes into focus on the television screen dangling from a helicopter rope. Later, he confessed to the Las Vegas Sun about the doubts he encountered whilst preparing for the breathtaking stunt, “I remember going to my hotel room every night and dreaming of how I was going to die.”
Copperfield’s showmanship is legendary and the captivated audience is willingly dragged along to the conclusion of the show. What is not seen by the onlookers is the months of effort that goes into creating these acts: the trials, errors and frustrations to script, rehearse, fine tune, hone exquisite synchronization of props, assistants, music and production crew. These performances were well kept secrets that left the viewers with unanswered questions for years.
In 1997-98, a new series appeared on television, ‘Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Tricks Finally Revealed’ in which a masked magician performed large-scale illusions and some small close up tricks, before he revealed how they were actually executed. The masked magician, Val Valentino, did not reveal his identity until the fourth episode for fear of recrimination from his fellow magicians for having broken the bond of silence of the profession.
On Monday, in Washington DC, a political illusionist whose ‘tricks’ are no magician’s secret, began his usual early bouts of tweeting his thoughts and takes on topics of importance. At 6.35 am, President Donald Trump’s opening salvo announced, “James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence that Potus colluded with the Russians. This story is FAKE NEWS and everybody knows it!” Fourteen minutes later, the President was at it again, “The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!”
Later that day on Capitol Hill, the House Intelligence Committee began hearings on the Russian influence on the 2016 American presidential elections. The FBI Director, James Comey revealed the very damaging news to the White House that the bureau was in the process of investigating possible Russian influence on the US elections, and they will “follow the facts wherever they lead.”
In January, in a declassified report ‒ highly unusual in the prevailing circumstances ‒ the CIA, FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) had confirmed in “high confidence” that Russian President Putin had ordered an influence campaign in the presidential elections aimed at favouring Trump.
Comey who was extremely careful in his choice of words, also testified that the FBI and the Department of Justice had found no evidence to substantiate Trump’s tweet at 7.35 am on the 4th March: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had ‘my wires’ tapped in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Not to be undone the President tweeted at 12.33 pm, “FBI Director refuses to deny he briefed President Obama on calls made by Michael Flynn [Trump’s former short-lived Security Advisor] to Russia.” This was followed nine minutes later by, “The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process.” Trump had previously issued calls to Congress and the FBI to drop the matter and pursue the persons responsible for leaking information to the press, or as he prefers to call the media, “the enemy of the American people.”
This is no magic act in progress, this performance is real. Where will this raft lead to? How close is it to the falls? Will the White House refrain from interfering and allow the FBI and Congress to pursue the investigation? Will Attorney General Jeff Sessions, already forced to recuse himself, appoint a special prosecutor?
Everyone loves the circus clown car act. The car arrives in the spotlighted circle at the edge of the ring. The driver tries to get out and after a brief struggle, he tumbles out, still clutching the steering wheel, falling to the ground on top of the driver side door. His neighbour exits also with the door, three more clowns appear from the back seat, the bonnet pops off, two more clowns eject, as the trunk lid opens up and more two more clowns with painted noses and oversized shoes are revealed to the audience. The wheels, the fenders and the frame collapse into a pile of parts. The audience loves it, the lights fade and the music dies.
The spotlight then shines on the centre of the ring; the cages have been assembled in the meanwhile, the big cat act is next up on centre stage. Four tigers or lions along with a lone tamer, are locked in the cage. The crowd has been caught by surprise, you can hear a pin drop.
The American public and the rest of the world anxiously await the appearance of the big cats.
