When illusionist extraordinaire David Copperfield announced he has located a real-life "Fountain of Youth" it made worldwide headlines. Ever since, I've been trying to talk with him about the amazing discovery that even turns brown leaves green again! David calls Vegas home and he appears regular at the MGM Grand Hollywood Theater for a total of about six months a year! Here's our word-for-word exclusive conversation.

RL: Let's talk about the Bahamas. This fountain of youth absolutely intrigues me. How did you find it and what has it done for you??

DC: Well, I am really 82. I discovered Musha Cay and the islands around it. You can check it out at www.mushacay.com. It is a bunch of islands in the Exumas, the southern Bahamas, It is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen but I am not an astronaut or traveling around the world. They asked them from above what was the most beautiful spot the most beautiful water, and they all agreed this specific spot in the Atlantic Ocean, the southern Bahamas. I found it by connecting lines between magical places around the earth. There is Stonehenge in England, I drew a line from Stonehenge to the statues in Easter Island in Chile and another line between the Pyramid of Gaza in Egypt to the Pyramid of the sun in Mexico and those four lines intersect at a specific spot in the ocean and it so happens that is where my islands are.

RL: So did you go looking or did someone come to you with the story?

DC: I looked. I search for magical places in my spare time. And the things that are the best places I could possibly be I have been to Maui and Tahiti all the places that you have talked about with your wonderful accent. This is an amazing place.

RL: Talk to me about what makes it a fountain of youth. When you think of it you think drinking healing waters, bathing in it. What is there?

DC: We are not really sure yet. We found this liquid that in it's simple stages can actually do miraculous things, brown leaves turn green.

RL: That's not magic? It is real?

DC: Yeah. It is natural. Simple organisms that are near death are rejuvenated. So we don't know about the effects on humans, but we are doing research and development. That is on one of the islands. On the islands around the area, I am checking them to protect them and on one of the islands happens to be a resort. It's available for charter. People can rent the whole island for 24 people at once. It is really spectacular.

RL: Do you use it for your own run away or do you go to the islands with the secrets?

DC: I do both. All of the islands are amazing. There are 4 of them. Each has different characteristics in flora and fauna. It is just incredible.

RL: So have you added any new illusions to the Vegas show?

DC: We are adding new things all the time. The show is about making people's dreams come true. Nobody dreams about pulling a rabbit out of a hat or making the Statue of Liberty disappear unless you are me. But people do dream about winning the lottery. So we will do a whole piece about winning the lottery. People dream about traveling to a perfect place, so I will have people vanish and appear on an island during the show. People dream of having a car so I will make the perfect car appear. That is what the show is about and I get new ideas by talking to people after the show. I ask what they would like to see happen and that becomes the basis of the magic that I do.

RL: You are committed to Vegas for how long into the future?

DC: I am here close to six months out of the year. He rest of the time I am in Japan or China or in Europe, I just got back from a European tour. I go to South America. I love being on the edge developing new things and traveling out of this city motivates me to do that.

RL: You call this your second home, don't you? With a NYC apartment and now a Bahamas run away.

DC: Vegas is really my first home. I am a Nevada resident and happy to be here.

RL: Why do you actually think that Vegas is such a home for magic and magicians? Why this city more than any other for magicians?

DC: I think it is true for all entertainment. It is an incredible place that people come to escape and be entertained whether it is seeing musicians or magicians it doesn't matter.

RL: David, are you seeing magic change as we go into this first decade of the new century? Is it getting edgier? Is it getting more street or is it still big-box illusions?

DC: I honestly don't know. I have done magic on the streets from the beginning. That is one of the many modes of entertainment. It is easier to shoot and show. I like to do close up magic as well. If you come to one of my shows I do unplugged sections, where I do magic, right down in the audience and project it on the big screen. I really try to do magic that doesn't have box illusions. I produce a car, there is no box there is only the audience. When I travel we don't have boxes, we are doing spectacular things that are right in the middle of the audience. It is pretty cool.

RL: What have you added to your museum?

DC: Lots of stuff. We are constantly changing it. This last week I picked up some things from auction from Chung Ling Sue who died on stage while trying to catch a bullet, but some of his props were acquired and put into the museum. It is in a transition stage and you are welcome anytime. Bring the cameras; I am trying to perfect these things.

RL: Of all the things that you have in the museum, is there one thing that you just look and marvel at and just say I wonder what that was really like to have been there at that point?

DC: Well, as you know, it is a private, secret museum where scholars can come in and do research into magic. It contains 80,000 items. All of Houdini's stuff from the show is there. If he were to actually come back from the dead, which he hasn't done yet, he could come back and do his show. Over all these years I have collected all the things that he is famous for doing. The milk can escape, the torture cell, the straightjacket escape. His handcuffs, his locks everything is right there so that is pretty amazing. I also have things that belonged to Robert Houdan who was Houdini's idol. I have things that belonged to Keller, Chung Ling Sue, and Blackstone. It is an amazing archive. There is no one thing in particular, but we have Houdini's baby shoes and first magic wand.

RL: David, magic in Houdini's day was probably tougher to achieve than it is today, but how has it changed from over the years?

DC: I don't think it was different, he stood on the shoulders of a giant that came before him and there were other masters that came before him. I don't think he was the greatest of the group. I think Houdan was more of an inventor and an incredible creator of magic today. It is equally hard or harder because we have all this technology that we have to compete with. The Internet, microwave ovens communication and people that are trying to guess magic. The greatest runner of all times in the 50's, people today can run faster than them. That is without steroids, we push ourselves harder.

RL: What is the magic of magic? What is it that makes the average person so fascinated by magic?

DC: It is a need. We all possess the need to dream. Einstein talks about it. Mark Twain talks about it. Dreams are illusions, and we can't let go of them because we would be dead. That is why we go to the movies. We think about fashion. We want to think about another world. Magic is the simplest kind of primal escape form. We take Mother Nature and turn it upside down, to be able to dream about something that doesn't really exist. That is what draws us to it and that is what makes me want to do more and more of it because it allows me to take people on an amazing journey, and that is what I try to do.

RL: Is there an illusion that you want to do or that you have been working on?

DC: I want to be the first 150-year-old magician.

RL: Well now you have the fountain of youth!

MORE VEGAS MAGIC

I'm reliably told that the new magic show with super-speedy illusionist Hans Klok and featuring the sexy Carmen Electra's song and dance numbers will begin in early May at the Planet Hollywood resort arising out of the old Aladdin. I discovered the duo met in Hollywood a few days ago for their first publicity photos together and they discussed the songs and dances moves she'll perform and the way in which they will be woven into his trickery. Interesting to note that their director will be Anthony Van Laast who not only worked on Siegfried and Roy's initial production at The Mirage but also the staging and choreography for the 'Mamma Mia' musical that celebrated its fourth birthday at Mandalay Bay last week. We'll have that report here at LUXE LIFE on Friday. Carmen has agreed to an initial 13-week stay with the magic spectacular.

JUST ASKING
Is Michael Jackson moving into a high-rise super luxury condo just off The Strip to set up his business offices there- or because he likes all the privacy and quiet of the restaurants there? Is Quincy Jones beginning the music for another new Cirque du Soleil show destined for Vegas? Is the Mandalay Bay wedding chapel alongside the topless Moorea pool and beach club being demolished and changed into a $35-million three-story complex of sun villas with their own casino and restaurant?

'PLAYBOY' PIN-UP PICS
Today marks the start of the 10-day 'Playboy' photo-pictorial at The Palms. Both the busty blondes, brunettes and redheaded cocktail servers and dealers will be shot by 'Playboy's' top lens men. More than 5,000 photos from all over George Maloof's resort-hotel will be shot and then eventually whittled down for a super 16-page showcase in an early fall 'Playboy' magazine.

Meantime, Kendra Wilkinson and her 'Girls Next Door' castmates Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt continue filming new episodes of their hit series around the resort, too!!

PRISON INMATE TO TOP CHEF
Congratulations to Jeff Henderson, Executive Chef of Café Bellagio, who released his memoirs in a new book entitled, 'Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove' yesterday. Jeff's journey from prison inmate in California to successful chef at one of our premier resorts even won him an appearance and cooking segment on the 'Oprah Winfrey Show.' I'm going to meet him this afternoon and will report back next week here at LUXE LIFE with his fascinating story.

STRIP SCRIBBLES
It was a musical 'Summit of Greatness' when Jay-Z, Diddy, Beyonce and Mary J. Blige all hit the new, exclusive RAO's restaurant at Caesars Palace for a late-night feast and dined on steak pizzaiola, jumbo shrimp, Penne alla vodka and lemon chicken. Music's heaviest hitters had a low-key evening while enjoying several bottles of Sassaccia '86 and '95! ... Songstress Ashanti was spotted shopping at Intermix inside Caesars Palace Forum Shops. ... Social House at TI won high scores when Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson stopped in for dinner. Johnson ate in the restaurants lounge DJ area on yellowtail sashimi with jalapeños and grilled skewers prepared by Chef Joseph Elevado. ... Bobbi Sue Luther, who starred in 'Deuce Bigalow' movies, brought in a gaggle of gal pals for her wild night out at Coyote Ugly in NY-NY. ... And the cast and crew of 'Friday Night Lights' dined together in Nove at the Palms before moving on up to Moon nightclub to party on the dance floor for the rest of the night. Among the stars were Taylor Kitsch, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Scott Porter and Connie Britten.

TONIGHTS TIP
The cast of "Beauty and the Geek" will attend the Mardi Gras party in the Kama Sutra lounge at TAO in The Venetian this evening.

TOMORROWS TEASE
Meet the WWE Divas on a Vegas shopping spree and then we're in the kitchen with zingers from 'Hell's Kitchen' star Gordon Ramsay and a reunion with my Food Network friend Bobby Flay plus chef Steve Martorano's brand new outrageously wild wickedly delicious Italian restaurant at the Rio!

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