Celebrity clients include Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart, Jodie Foster, Bob Newhart, Candace Bergen, James Cameron, Rupert Murdoch, Norman Lear, Alyssa Milano, Richard Lewis, Virginia Madsen, Matt Groening, Kristina Wagner, James Brooks, Penny Marshall, Kwame Brown, and many more.
David has performed in many cities, from Hong Kong to Melbourne, from Monday Night Magic in New York City to the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, from the Wonderground in Las Vegas to the indigenous
tribes in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, and took an 80-city tour as a result of the success of his acclaimed book, Be a Street Magician!
Hotels, private clubs, and restaurants have included the Four Seasons Hotel, the Jonathan Club, the Bel-Air Country Club, the Regency Club (Westwood), the Valley Hunt Club (producers of the Rose Bowl), the Rose Bowl, Loew’s Beach Hotel (Santa Monica), Ritz-Carlton (Laguna and Pasadena), The Landing Restaurant (Catalina Island), Riviera Village (Redondo Beach), Le Meridien Hotel (Beverly Hills), Michael’s (Santa Monica), and many others.
To get to James Cameron’s Malibu home, you have to drive through a shallow stream and it’s laid out like a sprawling hacienda. Inside, there are genuine dinosaur bones in huge wall frames. Cameron videotaped the entire show with the smallest camera David had ever seen. “I want to watch your show later in slow-mo,”
Cameron said with a grin. “Maybe I’ll learn something.”
David was hired for a party in Harrison Ford’s hangar in Santa Monica, where Ford kept eight of his planes and helicopters. David performed in front of a 10-seater for the party of 40, Harrison stretched out on a couch in front, smiling and gasping in amazement, his girlfriend Calista Flockhart seated next to him. “That was crazypants,” Calista said at the end.
For several years in a row, David has been hired for the Christmas party at the Bel-Air Country Club. He performs his parlour show for partygoers. One year, Bob Newhart stood in the back row and laughed and laughed. David was thrilled that the star of that classic TV show, which had amused David and America for so many years, was now laughing at his own jokes.
Norman Lear called David in the morning for a show that night for his son’s 18th birthday party. Lear wanted only David’s three best tricks. For such a truncated show, David quoted $1,000. “Let’s double that,” Lear said. “I’ve seen you work.” The show took place at an exclusive Melrose restaurant,called Ago, and when the show was over, Lear’s smile stretched from ear to ear. “I got a bargain.”
Every year, the Saudi Royal Family visits Los Angeles, occupying three floors of an exclusive Beverly Hills hotel. Before David starts his show, he waits in the most fabulous green room. During the show, he performs for heirs to the fortune dressed in the latest fashions. Still, they laugh and gasp just like everybody else.
After performing for 1,000 guests in tuxedos in the Beverly Hills Hotel, a young woman said she wanted to introduce David to her grandmother. “Great job,” the grandmother said. It was only as they were shaking hands, their faces inches apart, that David realized: “Hey, that’s Murphy Brown!”
At a party in a private club on the beach in Malibu in 1993, Tom Cruise watched David’s miracles with his then-wife Nicole Kidman, who held their adopted newborn Isabella Jane. “You have to tell me how you do that,” Tom said. David remained unswayed: “I could tell you, Tom, but then I’d have to kill you.”
Corporate clients have included Mobil Oil, Sony Pictures, Gracie Films, the cast and crew of “Charmed,” Disney Pictures and Television, Coca-Cola, Paramount Studios, Westside Pavilion, DirecTV, Ken Blanchard
& Associates, Southern California Edison, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Century 21, Amtrak, Herbalife, Purcell International Group, Whole Foods, The Operon Group, Armitraj Entertainment, and many others.