Copperfield Magic

What would be the likelihood of participating in a magical performance with David Copperfield? All I really wanted to do on the evening of our 44th US President's inauguration was stay home glued to CNN or MSNBC...however my husband and friends had other plans. It was an exhausting day at work, I came home tired and ready to crash, but recalled, that there was something else I needed to be doing....my heart began racing, what was it? Oh , yes, I need to meet some friends for dinner and go see the David Copperfield performance at our local community college performing arts hall.

Feeling a little down, stressed and tired, not-to-mention freezing from the unseasonably COLD weather we were having, I joined my hubby and we drove to meet our friends for an evening out in sleepy little Ft. Myers. On the way, I told my hubby, let's not ever plan to go out on a weekday evening again! Saying this, due to the overall tense feeling I was experiencing knowing our friends had been waiting for us at the restaurant for 45 minutes, not because we were late, but RATHER they were early!! Still, it made this very time-focused gal a raging lunatic. I hate the thought of people having to wait for me! Now, please, do not get me wrong, I love going out, hubby and I love night-life, but rather the night life on vacations in say, New York City, South Beach, or even Monte' Carlo, but a weekday night in Ft. Myers, na-aw! Not tonight!

Finally arriving at the restaurant, we ordered our favorite cocktail, spiced rum with just a splash of Coke, (yes, Coke as in coca-cola, this is the south!) with a "topper" (famed by my momma) of Malibu coconut rum and topped with two cherries...yummo! After the first cocktail, good food and conversation with our friends, we ordered another cocktail. Sipped it, well, okay gulped it. Now, I was finally ready to be entertained by David Copperfield!

Heading across the street into the performing arts hall at the last minute, I no longer suffering from the previously described mental status, we all hurried to our seats, elated and ready to see this show. Hey, it even began on time, furthering my pleasure for the evening. The time-issue thing always gets to me! I do not like waiting for people either, even if it is David Copperfield! You could call me impatient, time-pressured type A personality or whatever the opposite of laid-back personality would be described as. Not so southern...

You see, my husband, Chris, has always wanted to see David Copperfield, I was along to please hubby, not a big fan of this type of art, however curious to see how this event would be performed. After all, I have watched David Copperfield on television so my thinking was how will David Copperfield manage to pull off these amazing illusions in such a small venue.

The show began, David arrives on stage emerging from a previously empty secured large container on a shinning beautiful motorcycle. In addition to David's amazing stage presence and talent, he's funny. He's very entertaining. I had no idea that he would be funny, this was the best part of the show for me. The guy is fun!I was really enjoying myself, thinking this was not how I imagined the show at all.

The performance was going well, I was feeling relaxed, entertained and beginning to warm up from the frigid cold outside. David engaged the audience with a very touching story about his life and family, highlighting his grandfather. Or best that I can recall, because my stress level was about to become elevated once again, escalating beyond the earlier description I have provided. I was selected by Frisbee, yes, by a Frisbee toss (by random?, not certain) and I was going to become a part of the next performance. The Frisbee landed on the gentleman in front of me but David told the man to give me the Frisbee. Yikes! The little venue I mentioned earlier, had suddenly exploded in my mind, to being the biggest building with so many people, I could ever be in...ever...!!

Fortunately, for myself and everyone else involved, things were happening fairly quickly, so I had little chance to think about anything or I may have refused to get up on that stage. I am beyond horribly shy, I was shaking, (and not from the cold temps outside) yet a teeny tiny component of me was a tad wee excited to be part of this event. At first, all I had to do was give David some numbers from my seat in the audience (standing) and also give my birth date..as I began to recover and sink back into my chair, I heard the words, "Now, come on up on the stage."

For a split second I thought, okay, who are you kidding, I do not care who you are, David Copperfield or not, there is no way I am leaving this seat! Even my husband was frightened that I would refuse and that I would cause a huge scene. But I didn't, I sucked it up, put on my adult face and hurried up to the stage, as one would expect me to do. From there, it was sort of blurry. I was wishing I had that third cocktail back at the restaurant, I had really wanted a third, I was thinking, oh why, oh why didn't I have the third cocktail things would be going so much more smoothly if I had, oh why.......Although in reality, I am unsure that third cocktail would have done anything for me really in this very exceptional case. I was beyond a heightened state of arousal, one that even a third cocktail could not calm, pharmaceuticals, perhaps, but not a third cocktail. Ha!

Once on stage, I was instructed to do a few things by the staff or the stage help. I thought, oh, great, why me, I will screw it up. I was supposed to be silent after David asks me to say some numbers...I thought this is NOT going to go very well...but it was fine, David did great and I kept my mouth shut! Yay! There were other people from the audience on stage as well. All of us doing things so quickly, in being part of the performance, it was difficult to take everything in...But I think I did fine, based on my ability to be sitting here writing this right now and my husband's and friend's kudos and commendations.

The end result in the performance was that David made his grandfather's turquoise colored Buick convertible appear on stage. Nervous, I didn't even notice the car on stage, as I was too busy giving David a kiss on the cheek, feeling very, very much like an out-of-the-body experience myself! I really had a magnificent time after all, it is not every day that you can share in an experience like this one..., and I didn't even need the third cocktail. Although, now I needed it to celebrate my performance!

I have met Angelina Jolie in our hotel in NYC, seen Jerry Seinfeld at Cafe' Gray in NYC, seen Jon Bon Jovi and his wife at Donna Karan, played with Vanessa Redgrave's dog in Central Park among other things, although this Copperfield experience is pretty much at the top of the list for me, well, dinner with George Benson in South Beach may rival this experience.....more on that later!

Anywho, if you ever have the chance to see David Copperfield in a live performance, I'd suggest it, even if you do not have the out-of-body experience to be on stage, he is fun, entertaining and amazing and hey, perhaps you will be invited to be a guest on stage. As stomach twisting as the experience may have been, if given the opportunity I'd do it again and quickly!