MAGIC TIME DAVID COPPERFIELD HOLDS NO ILLUSIONS ABOUT HIS GOOD FORTUNE.

Byline: Phillip Zonkel Staff Writer

EVEN THOUGH he wants it to vanish, one part of David Copperfield's act won't disappear.

The 46-year-old illusionist has a small part as Ken, the magician, in the 1980 low-budget slasher film ``Terror Train.'' It's a role Copperfield wishes he could saw in half.

``I apologize. I didn't know what I was doing. I sucked so bad in that film that I'm trying to eliminate my performance,'' says Copperfield, who thinks he might have found the right trick to make the film fade into thin air.

``In every city I go to, I rent the video, and I don't return it,'' he jokes. ``Eventually, I will have them all.''

Copperfield has had better luck making other things vanish - an airplane, the Statue of Liberty and the 70-ton Orient Express.

In his new stage show, ``Portal,'' which appears at the Kodak Theatre Friday through Sunday, Copperfield randomly collects items (articles of clothing, mementos, signed and dated instant snapshots) from fans. He then takes the pieces and an audience member on a suspended platform above the audience. Copperfield and the patron are transported to the other side of the globe.

The audience sees where they wind up, thanks to a live satellite uplink.

For the evening's encore, Copperfield randomly selects 13 audience members and makes them vanish in a fiery blast.

Copperfield has performed ``13'' for three years, and with 500 shows a year, he figures the 25,000th person will disappear during one of the Kodak Theatre engagements.

This person also will take another trip. At a later date, Copperfield will escort No. 25,000 on an all-expenses-paid trip and tour of his International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which is located secretly in the Nevada desert.

Mystery spot

This private warehouse, only visited by scholars and historians, houses the world's largest collection of magic history and memorabilia - more than 80,000 pieces, including the spirit cabinet of Dante (aka Harry Jansen), Maskelyne's decapitated princess chair and numerous Harry Houdini items.

But the artifacts won't stay hidden in the desert. Copperfield brings selected pieces on his ``Portal'' tour. Several Houdini items (his first magic wand, the only known recording of his voice, his metamorphosis trunk and mirror handcuffs) as well as Orson Welles' buzz saw, two Charlie McCarthy dolls and Dante's original illusion of sawing a woman in half are on display in the lobby.

Copperfield's interest in hocus-pocus dates back more than 30 years. Born David Kotkin (he took his name from ``David Copperfield,'' Charles Dickens' semi-autobiographical 1849 novel about a boy understanding adulthood), the Metuchen, N.J., native started performing professionally at 12 and then became the youngest person admitted to the Society of America Magicians. He started his career billed as ``Davino, Boy Magician.''

Four years later, with an already growing reputation, Copperfield taught magic at New York University's drama department. One trick he couldn't master was making the butterflies disappear.

``The first day was nerve-racking. I walked into the wrong classroom,'' Copperfield says. ``I was teaching misdirection, how to fool people, and they didn't stop me. It was a political science class, so it was perfect.''

But seriously, ``I was scared,'' Copperfield says. ``I was teaching them. They were older than me. I was in a school I was trying to get into.''

He didn't attend NYU. Instead, Copperfield was chosen to host and star in ``The Magic of ABC.'' That show was so successful that CBS signed him for a series of specials. His first was 1978's ``The Magic of David Copperfield.''

Thanks to those TV appearances, Copperfield's popularity levitated higher and higher, as did his illusions - walking through the Great Wall of China and making the Statue of Liberty and Orient Express disappear.

Odds and ends

But vanishing acts aside, Copperfield says the personal highlight from his ``Portal'' tour is his new work in progress, ``Lottery,'' which shows the audience how to beat the odds.

The routine was influenced by his grandfather, whose dream was to win the Irish lottery.

``I had a very strained relationship with him. He didn't want me to do magic,'' Copperfield says. ``Ironically, he was the first person to introduce me to it as a hobby.

``When I wanted to do it professionally, he disowned me. He didn't want me to fail, and that was his way of trying to convince me to not go into entertainment and do something more standard and stable,'' he says.

``He did the same thing to my father, who wanted to be an actor. He got a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, but he threatened to disown my father if he did it. He gave up his dream and became a clothing salesman. I didn't want the same thing to happen to me, so I chose to follow my dream, but lost my grandfather in the process. I didn't speak to him for the last three years of his life.''

Copperfield's grandfather died when Copperfield was 17. Shortly thereafter, Copperfield's parents were going through the grandfather's belongings and found a ticket stub from Copperfield's first ofroadway show.

Despite the strained relationship, Copperfield indirectly includes him in the act with the ``Lottery.''

``As a salute to him,'' Copperfield says, ``I try to make his dream come true.''

DAVID COPPERFIELD

Where: Kodak Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $40 to $75. Call Ticketmaster at [phone] or go to ticketmaster.com or kodaktheater.com

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Master magician David Copperfield brings his ``Portal'' show to Hollywood audiences this weekend at the Kodak Theatre.