David Copperfield wants Congress to make magic legit

A congressional resolution to recognize magic as an art form is …

A. Worthy and long overdue.

B. A waste of time, but the House can’t get anything else done, so why not?

C. A thinly disguised infomercial for David Copperfield.

Take your pick. Or “All of the Above” may be the right choice for the resolution that recently had Copperfield visiting the Hill.

The resolution was introduced in March by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and seeks to recognize magic as “a rare and valuable art form and national treasure.”

Copperfield was given a tour of the Capitol on June 9, when he was center-focus of a guest panel hosted by Sessions. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., tweeted a photo of Copperfield with him and his son Sam.

“It’s a real thing, you know?” Copperfield said back in Las Vegas between that visit and last week’s trip to France, to speak about branding at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Ballet, jazz, theater and even country music have received similar recognitions, Copperfield noted.

“Obviously we have important things to deal with in our country. Obviously we should take care of all those issues,” Copperfield said. “But the arts make us who we are. That’s part of our existence. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a very easy decision.”

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., agreed; both in a National Public Radio piece and on Twitter, where she wrote “(W)e’re working to protect @D_Copperfield’s craft & recognize it as a valuable art form.” Titus argued in the radio piece that with 14 magic shows in the resort corridor, illusions are very real commerce to Las Vegas.

Sure, but this is Congress, so everything gets argued. What’s the controversy here? Perhaps the fact that Copperfield is mentioned eight times in the resolution and his Project Magic therarpy program three more times. No other stage magician except for Harry Houdini is mentioned by name.

Cross-Strip rival Criss Angel called the resolution “a simple ploy for PR.”

In a text message, Angel added, “There are better ways to spend tax dollars considering one child every three minutes is diagnosed with cancer (his 2-year-old son is battling leukemia). We must focus on life and death before we worry about giving hard-earned tax dollars for magic tricks.”

To be clear, the resolution doesn’t call for any spending. Copperfield said the closest it could come would be to legitimize magic in the eyes of those who control grant money.

“When kids want to study theater they go for grants, corporate or foundation grants,” he said. But magicians could be asked, “Why? Is magic a real thing? … Why should we give it to you?”

“They can point to this,” he said.

Copperfield also donated $20,000 to pediatric cancer research in the name of Angel’s son, and will contribute auction items for Angel’s Sept. 12 benefit at Luxor. …

Jim Jefferies says he doesn’t have to turn on the news to find out there has been another mass shooting in the United States.

“I know when a massacre’s happened by when I wake up and turn my phone on,” says the Australian comedian who visits The Mirage Friday and Saturday.

That’s because tragedies such as the one in Orlando on June 12 make one of his stand-up monologues go viral again. And he wakes up to a phone full of tweets and messages both angry and supportive from people who have watched his two-year-old bit on gun control for the first time.

The routine manages to be consistently funny and clear-headed without becoming angry or preachy. Jefferies talks about how Australia ended mass shootings with legislation in the wake of a 1996 massacre of 35 people, and why it will never happen here because Americans simply love their guns (“None of you read Padlock Monthly.”)

The only problem? Jefferies says the routine now defines him. All his other material “gets reviewed against it (as the standard),” and it even psyched him out a little when he was trying to write new material that can stand up to it. (He says he wonders if each of his five stand-up specials in seven years will be his last. But the latest, “Freedumb,” debuts July 1 on Netflix.)

Why is this a problem? Think back to the pilot of his cable-sitcom “Legit,” where Jefferies played a version of himself a la Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It was based on the true story of the comedian breaking his wheelchair-bound friend with muscular dystrophy out of an assisted-living facility to take him to a Nevada brothel.

Jefferies always admired the way the late George Carlin would follow a brilliant sociological observation with “a fart routine.”

“Isn’t it boring if you have to do the one thing all the time?” he says of Bill Maher and others branded as political comics.

Speaking of “Legit,” Jefferies says the show canceled by FX after two seasons is doing better on streaming services than it did on TV. That, and questions of whether he could live with himself, empowered him to turn down what he calls a “Fonzie-like role” on a sitcom that would have him “bursting through the door to applause” a la Kramer on “Seinfeld.”

“All I know is I got to do 26 episodes of a TV show I’m still proud of,” he says, one that was more or less “the exact show I wanted to make.”

Will he get to do another one?

“That’s like asking me if I would ever have sex with another hot woman. It’s not my decision. I can do the asking but it’s really up to her if I’m allowed to.”

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com. Follow him @Mikeweatherford’.