Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm just waiting for people to start asking me to make the rain disappear.
I think the negative reinforcement really helped me in my very beginnings.
When you're a guy and meet a girl the first time, you do whatever it takes.
Dreams are illusions, and we can't let go of them because we would be dead.
When I am on the road and heading to my next venue, I think about my audience.
The key is for the audience never to know, so I have a plan B for every illusion.
Magic was a thing that, when I did it, it made all the kids go, "Ah, that's cool."
I'm fascinated by the similarities and differences between comedians and magicians.
I am fortunate to have the resources to have many methods to do each of my illusions.
I'm inventing new principles. The audience has a point of view that no one can predict.
What I've tried to do in my stage magic is to take a trick and give it an emotional hook.
I love creating new things. It's kind of my job, it's what I do, and I really have fun with it.
I used to fly around the stage without strings or camera tricks. That took seven years to create.
Magic and new technology have always walked hand in hand - even back in the days of Robert Houdin.
Normally, I do magic on the stage. But I can make magic credible and resonate through a TV screen.
All of the [Bob] Fosse-esque movements and point of view informed years and years of what I would do.
The first trick I bought at Macy's was a little wooden board where a quarter would appear and disappear.
I try to help people realize their dreams by using magic to tell stories that educate, move, and inspire.
I invented magic stuff; it came very easily. Now, I sucked at everything else, but I was good at magic as a kid.
In magic, it takes two or three years for me to create a 5-minute illusion for me to get it to the level I want.
You can feel better about yourself in a very short period of time depending on the kind of magic that you are doing.
No self-respecting gay guy would have ever made some of the hair and clothing choices I am still trying to live down.
I'm the luckiest man in the world - performing 500 shows a year and loving what I do - illusion IS my day to day life.
Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!
I discovered that magic tricks got me more attention from the girls in my class when I was nine - so a magician was born!
I discovered something amazing, which has caused a lot of controversy - the fountain of youth. I have to keep it a secret!
When people say you can't do it - that it's impossible - never lose hope. Just because they couldn't doesn't mean you can't.
Usually, about two years of work go into each illusion, whether it's big or small. Two years of work on each five-minute piece.
The inspiration for my illusions comes from many places. Most often they come from my dreams, or an everyday occurrence in life.
My uncle's house burned down when I was 6 years old. We got out safely. But ever since, I've had a nightmare of dying in a fire.
Everyone understands cards and relates to it. They have them in their homes and in their hands, so it makes them very accessible.
Magic has been something I've been really good at since I was really young. The ability has always come easy to me, I'm not sure why.
[ Gil Cates] said, "You've got a point of view with your magic. There's this comedy to it, there's drama. You're telling stories with magic."
There was another guy suggested. He was a tall and dark-haired and Jewy, and I said, "No, he's too close to me." It ended up being Jerry Seinfeld.
The more educated you get, the better shot you have to get it right, but if you're really trying something different, it's a challenge every time.
Later on, towards the end of their lives, I thanked her. I said, "Mom, you were really tough." She said, "I wasn't tough! I always believed in you."
In movies, storytelling and every single art form, we're creating wonder. You're starting with a blank page and creating something that doesn't exist.
To make [parents] happy, I went to Fordham University for three weeks, while at the same time running ads in Variety, "magician-actor David Copperfield."
Magic came very easy for me when I was a kid. When I was 8 years old I started doing it, and by the time I was 12, I was already published in magic books
It's really hard to think of one kind of magic as a favorite. I've been really fortunate in that I've been able to perform such a diverse range of things.
Magic came very easy for me when I was a kid. When I was 8 years old I started doing it, and by the time I was 12, I was already published in magic books.
For my father, being kind was natural... I have to really work at it. I love competing and winning, conquest - not words you usually associate with kindness.
I started as a ventriloquist, a very bad ventriloquist. And people saw my lips moving and it was ridiculous, so finally I decided I'd better change my occupation.
I'm a big fan of the Pixar movies, and Ed Catmull, who wrote a book about his experiences producing them, talks about how it takes three or four years to get it right.
There was an old brochure for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with a quote from Robert Redford or someone, that said, "You're only as good as you dare to be bad."
I'm really trying hard not to do anything that has been done before. So knowing everything I can about the legacy of magic challenges my team and I to invent new illusions.
For one of my specials, I said, "I'm going to make an airplane disappear." Okay! And the next day, everything went crazy - it was like breaking the internet before the internet.
My father wanted to be an actor, dreamed about being an actor, but he gave it up because my mom and his family told him, "You're never going to make it; it's too tough out there."
When you see me do a five-minute thing, there's been about two years of preparation behind that. You know, I find that's what it takes to really make it the level of quality I prefer.
Magic is the only profession where it's easy to lie about your talent. If you do a trick and you can learn it very quickly, you can fool somebody into thinking you're a great magician.