The Magic of David Copperfield XVI: Unexplained Forces
This is the 16th and penultimate CBS Copperfield TV special, which six years later will be followed by the 17th and last one, Copperfield: Tornado of Fire (2001). The special is introduced by a voice offstage who talks about Barclay House, the set of the penultimate illusion of the special. The illusion in question is composed by four phases and the first of them consists in turn of four parts. All the phases regard the presence and manifestation of ghosts and spirits remained in the upper room which somehow escaped the destruction of a house that burned down because of a lightning during a storm. The room has a pentagonal shape and has been rebuilt on the stage, on which David Copperfield brings two boys and a girl from the audience. Then he asks the boys to tie his hands, back and neck, and then the ankles to the legs of a chair inserted into the room. This condition serves to prevent Copperfield from moving himself into the room itself and manipulating objects within it. Meantime an assistant put into the room a jacket and a box containing various objects including newspapers and a bell. The four parts of the first phase consist in the interaction of the ghosts and spirits with the objects placed in the room. In the second phase Copperfield asks the three spectators to enter the room and to blindfold themselves. At this point the two frontal walls of the room close themselves to hide the interior and then spark everywhere. At last, all five walls open themselves to show that the three spectators have disappeared from the stage. After a few seconds the room turns to ash because of several consecutive explosions from its interior. In the third phase five sheets that come from the stage begin to float in the theater going into the most different routes over the heads of the audience, until the lights go out, leaving everything in complete darkness for a few seconds. In the four and last phase, there is the reappearance on the stage of the three spectators: a table and a scaffolding are placed on the stage, on the scaffolding four sheets have been hung to hide the four sides of the space above the table, and when three shadows appear on the front sheet, the latter is dropped to show the three spectators standing on the table, still blindfolded. So the illusions performed are: "The Fan", "Vanishing Egg", "Floating Table", "The Blade", "Grandpa's Four Aces", "Touch The Magic - The Clock" (aka "Interactive Clock Illusion", the 4th and last of the interactive games performed beginning with the 13th special), "Barclay House" and then "Snow". At the end of this last illusion all the snow produced by the Copperfield's hands spreads in all the hall of the theater.
