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David Copperfield has made the Statue of Liberty vanish, walked through the Great Wall of China, and flown through the air. But some of his best magic is in hospitals and rehabilitation centers with those who are disabled and going through rehabilitation.
"Learning magic can help them learn a variety of skills," says Copperfield. "It's fun and challenging."
The gratifying results of Copperfield's Project Magic (PM) certainly testify to that. Kids struck by cars or cancer, grandfathers felled by strokes, and addicts knocked out of the mainstream acquire or relearn skills through magic that they may have thought left them forever.
"Physical rehab is often very, very hard work," says Copperfield. "But as they learn magic people can get through tasks that may otherwise seem painful, intimidating, or in which they've simply lost interest."
David got the idea for Project Magic from a magician that he had been corresponding with for some time. Once, when David received a press clipping in one of the letters, he was surprised to learn from the photograph that the young man was in a wheelchair.
In February of 1982, David Copperfield brought his idea to Julie DeJean from the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, California.The occupational therapy department quickly embraced the concept, realizing that it could offer other benefits beyond just bolstering the patients` self-image. They soon discovered that Project Magic presented the patients with a pleasing distraction from the often painful and tedious hours of therapy, and motivated them to work harder than before. The participants also gained self-confidence by being able to do things that others could not.
