DEFY YOUR EYES.

You might think David Copperfield wouldn't want to work on Halloween - the anniversary of master magician Harry Houdini's death during one of his greatest escape feats, and the night that has the potential to bring out the prankster in anyone, even, say, a Copperfield stagehand charged with rigging his ``Death Saw'' equipment.

But the show must go on, in this case the illusionist's ``Dreams and Nightmares'' extravaganza playing Friday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

In this touring production of Copperfield's Broadway show, the dreams include ``Snow,'' a nifty little hand trick in which Copperfield, his billowing sleeves rolled up, appears to generate snowflakes (OK, maybe flaked soap) from his bares hands, and ``Flying,'' in which he drifts through the air with no visible means of support.

``It took me seven years to create,'' Copperfield said recently of the flying stunt, ``and I've always felt that it transported the audience back to their youth, a time when dreams of flight are a common occurrence.''

Then there are the nightmares. One is ``The Fan,'' in which Copperfield and a lovely assistant, standing behind a backlit screen, walk into the rotating blades of a huge industrial fan, which blows puffs of colored smoke out the other side.

Another is the aforementioned ``Death Saw,'' which has Copperfield clamped down to a table as a large, shiny blade with meat-ripping teeth spins over him, inching ever closer to his midsection. It's no ordinary sawing-the-box-in-half trick.

Copperfield says he has one grand illusion in the planning stages that he hopes to perform someday - an act he calls ``Twister.''

``The plan was to actually create a raging twister on stage that I get sucked into and vanish,'' he said. ``It has made it past the drawing board, but not yet to the stage due to a variety of technical difficulties - one of which is having me survive.''

THE FACTS

The show: David Copperfield's ``Dreams and Nightmares''

Where: Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., and Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St.

When: 6 and 9 p.m. Friday in Thousand Oaks; 9 p.m. Tuesday and 6 and 9 p.m. Nov. 5 in Pasadena.

Tickets: $46 for Thousand Oaks; call [phone] for information. For Pasadena, $27.50 to $42.50; call [phone]. Tickets for both engagements are available through Ticketmaster, [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) In ``Death Saw,'' David Copperfield is strapped to a table as a jagged blade descends. The magician appears this weekend in Thousand Oaks and Pasadena.

(2) ``I've always felt that it transported the audience back to their youth,'' David Copperfield says of his ``Flying'' stunt.