Las Vegas Weekly

December 18, 2008 · 10:45 PM

Breaking News: David Copperfield stops show after assistant is injured on stage

By Robin Leach

David Copperfield.

Photo: David Copperfield

MGM officials confirmed tonight that headline illusionist David Copperfield had to cancel his magic show there midway through a performance after one of his assistants was injured by the blades of a large industrial fan.

The male assistant was taken to University Medical Center last night and treated for a facial puncture and a broken arm. Members of the crew waited through the night, and David himself went there early this morning with gifts for the injured staffer.

In the illusion, David seems to pass through the blades, which until now many people assumed were made of rubber and not dangerous metal. However, his assistant was caught in the fan while fixing a portion of the exterior machinery -- before David stepped into the machine -- and was sucked into it in full view of the horrified audience.

Another crewmember immediately shut down the whirling blades and pulled the assistant out of further danger.

“It was a pretty scary set of circumstances,” one eyewitness said. Vegas DeLuxe will continue to monitor this story for any updated or late-breaking developments.

Photo: Courtesy

David Copperfield.

David apparently asked the audience to “hold on for a moment” and then moments later shut down the show and told the audience how to obtain refunds at the Hollywood Theater box office inside the MGM.

My MGM sources confirmed that David has performed that illusion some 4,000 times since introducing it into the act and never had a similar problem or mishap.

“Every precaution is taken to always ensure the best of safety concerns are met on our stages. We will look into it, but from what we’ve heard, it’s being made to sound a lot worse than it was reported to us. But we do know now that this particular illusion can be as dangerous as it really looks,” one top MGM executive told me.

David is continuing his run of two nightly shows at MGM through Jan. 14.

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