David Copperfield's Net Worth Takes A Lot of Magic
Presto! Change-o! David Seth Kotkin became David Copperfield in 1974 at the age of 18. He chose his stage name because he liked the character in a Charles Dickens novel of the same name.
David Copperfield performing for the 1977 ABC special.
Copperfield was a magical prodigy as a child. At the age of 10, he performed as “Davino the Boy Magician.” At 12, he was the youngest person ever to be accepted into the Society of American Magicians. By the age of 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University.
When he turned 18, he started college at Fordham University but quit school after only three weeks of classes. He was offered the lead role in a musical called The Magic Man that ran in Chicago. That is when he changed his name to David Copperfield. Copperfield sang, danced, and invented all the illusions used for the show. The musical became the longest-running show in Chicago’s history.
At 19, he created the first Magic of David Copperfield show that ran in Hawaii for several months. In 2024, David Copperfield’s net worth is estimated to be $1 billion.
David Copperfield's Net Worth From Television Specials
More fame and fortune came to Copperfield through his television specials. The first one, in 1977, was called The Magic of ABC, and the host was David Copperfield. CBS did many Magic of David Copperfield specials from 1978 to 2001. In total, there were 18 television specials and two documentaries between 1977 and 2001. His shows won 21 Emmys.
Vegas Shows And Touring
The bulk of his net worth comes from Vegas shows and when he goes on tour. His Las Vegas MGM show sold out for 15+ years, grossing over $4 billion in ticket sales.
Copperfield is one of the hardest-working entertainers. He performed his amazing live shows back-to-back.
There were four shows each day, seven days per week, for 42 weeks each year for so many years.
He was so busy with the shows he had little time to spend all the money he accumulated from his contract, which is estimated to be $40 to $60 million per year.
For those who did not see him in years past or want to go again, Copperfield is back. He performs at the MGM hotel in Las Vegas in the David Copperfield Theater.
David Copperfield's Net Worth From His Collections
Copperfield has the largest collection of magic memorabilia in the world. He spent over $200 million assembling it. The collection is in a 40,000 square-foot warehouse located a few miles from the world-famous Las Vegas Strip. He likes having it close to where he performs because he visits it often for inspiration while creating some of his most extravagant illusions.
Some of the pieces in his collection of magic history are priceless, such as the Enchanting Rose Wonder. This piece is an amazing illusion of a rapidly growing rose from the show of the American magician Karl Germain’s 19th-century act.
He has over 300 fully-restored, antique arcade machines in his New York home. He has another collection of life-sized antique mannequins that famous painters like Gaugin used as models for paintings.
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David Copperfield's Net Worth From Real Estate
Copperfield owns many iconic properties, including a four-story penthouse in Manhattan just south of Central Park. He bought condominiums on four floors to assemble the massive penthouse of 10,000 square feet with an additional 6,000 square feet of private terraces, rooftop gardens, and balconies. In 1997, he paid a total of $7.4 million for all the properties. The value of this penthouse today is over $60 million.
He also owns a chain of 11 islands in the Bahamas. He started acquiring the Bahamian islands in the early 2000s and secretly bought them through a shell company to avoid being over-charged by the previous owners. After the 150-acre island of Musha Cay was purchased for $55 million in 2006, he renamed all his islands. They are now called the Islands of Copperfield Bay. After buying Musha Cay and ten of the surrounding islands, he spent more than $40 million on renovations.
The Islands of Copperfield Bay make up an archipelago of 700 acres. The islands are now worth over $95 million.
12 of David Copperfield’s Best Magic Tricks
Making a Learjet Disappear
Houdini was known for making an elephant on stage disappear. Copperfield wanted something bigger, so he disappeared a Learjet on the television special called The Magic of David Copperfield V.
The Barclay House Spirit Cabinet
One of Copperfield’s masterful techniques is to take an old trick and improve on it. In the late nineteenth century, spiritualism and trying to talk to the dead were popular. Copperfield tells the macabre story about a house of prostitution, the Barclay House, that burned down, killing everyone inside.
He shows a one-room piece of the house he bought, which the fire did not destroy. He invites audience members to inspect the room and tie him securely to a chair with ropes. Then, the room is covered, and all the ghostly antics begin. Copperfield then makes the audience members, who came on stage to help him, disappear.
Making Grandpa’s Car Appear
Copperfield tells the story from his childhood of riding in a Lincoln convertible with his grandfather. Then, he makes the car appear. The car is set up on posts above the audience so they can look under it. Copperfield climbs up to get in the car, shuts the door with a solid slam, then turns on the engine and the headlights.
Duck Vanish
On the Tonight Show, Copperfield takes a large duck, puts it in a box. It disappears, only to reappear in a bucket held by an audience member volunteer on the other side of the stage.
Levitation and Flying
Once again, by improving on an old magical standard, Copperfield not only levitates himself up from the stage, he then proceeds to fly around the stage as he chooses. The performance is mesmerizing.
Making the Statue of Liberty Disappear
After making a Learjet disappear in a previous television show, Copperfield wanted to go even bigger. This illusion is one of his most famous tricks. He invited a live audience to Liberty Island at night so that on April 8, 1983, they could watch him make the Statue of Liberty disappear.
Walking Through the Great Wall of China
Copperfield went to China to film a 1986 television special. As a tribute to the great illusionist Harry Houdini, who had a trick of walking through a brick wall on stage, Copperfield modernized the trick.
Copperfield performed his feat of walking through the Great Wall of China. The filming spectacularly used a crane to show a bird’s eye view of the performance.
Suspended Straightjacket Escape
Taking another trick first made famous by Houdini and then improving on it, Copperfield performed the straight jacket escape in his 1993 television special called The Magic of David Copperfield XV: Fires of Passion. Copperfield had huge flaming spikes below him to increase the drama, and the rope lifting him was also on fire.
Escape from a Safe in a Building Being Demolished
This trick Copperfield performed for his 1989 television special called, The Magic of David Copperfield XI: Explosive Encounter. Copperfield is locked in a safe that is inside a building that is rigged for demolition by explosives. A Steadicam operator filmed the event in one continuous take. After the building comes down, Copperfield reappears on a thin steel plate supported by sawhorses in the middle of the rubble.
Grandpa’s Four Aces
This magic trick is Copperfield’s most famous sleight-of-hand trick. What makes this special is that Copperfield learned some magic tricks from his grandfather when he was a child. The charming way that Copperfield tells the story about how he was inspired to learn magic while making the four aces reappear after being shuffled is what makes this trick special.
The Orient Express
An annual tradition on CBS was to air a David Copperfield Magic special. In the 1991 show, he made a train car disappear from the legendary train called the Orient Express. He promised no video editing. In one continuous shot, he covers the train car, and it levitates. Then, the covering drops to the ground, and the train car is gone. He does this while surrounded by spectators.
The Death Saw
Copperfield adds his style to the classic, saw a woman in half routine, by letting himself be the one at risk of being cut in half by a large saw. In the performance, he tries to escape in time but fails. The saw cuts him in half. Blood splatters everywhere. His upper torso and his lower body are separated. The assistants on stage wheel the pieces away as the audience gasps. The assistants bring the severed parts back to reassemble them. He stands up from the table, unhurt.
Conclusion
Copperfield has always captured global attention with his larger-than-life magical tricks. He has 11 Guinness World Records and a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. He is considered the number one living magician in the world.
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