Early Years
Copperfield was born David Seth Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey, the son of Jewish parents, Rebecca, an insurance adjuster, and Hyman Kotkin, who owned and operated a men's haberdashery in Metuchen called Korby's. Copperfield's mother was born in Jerusalem, while his paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from USSR (present-day Ukraine). In 1974 Copperfield graduated from Metuchen High School.
When Copperfield was 10, he began practicing magic as "Davino the Boy Magician" in his neighborhood, and at the age of 12, became the youngest person ever admitted to the Society of American Magicians. Shy and a loner, the young Copperfield saw magic as a way of fitting in and, later, as a way to get girls. As a teenager, Copperfield became fascinated with Broadway and frequently snuck into shows, especially musicals featuring Stephen Sondheim or Bob Fosse. By age 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University.
Read more about this topic: David Copperfield (illusionist)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“Foolish prater, What dost thou
So early at my window do?
Cruel bird, thoust taen away
A dream out of my arms to-day;
A dream that neer must equalld be
By all that waking eyes may see.
Thou this damage to repair
Nothing half so sweet and fair,
Nothing half so good, canst bring,
Tho men say thou bringst the Spring.”
—Abraham Cowley (16181667)
“Id give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Lifes decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer-day.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (18321898)