I watched Letterman wreak havoc with magicians in the 80's. He was a major thorn in "Kamar the discount magician's" side. He even ended up breaking his guillotine effect by trying to force the blades through cucumbers. Kamar had to immediately improvise and go to a vanishing cigarette trick until the time ran out. When it comes to magicians Letterman is a moron. However the show is primarily comedy, and Letterman just does it because he assumes the audience wants it, or is getting bored. However he seemed to behave pretty well when Ricky Jay was on doing close-up. He made an error, but got of it nicely.

Take another look at letterman's reactions to each phase of chink-a-chink. He's pretty floored I think.

He surely was floored. And I like the way the audience reacted with honest suprise at the production of the jumbo coin in Roth's flurry routine. Roth is the best.

Anyone who does Letterman's show, no matter who they are or what they do, had better be the best.
The WORST late-night host I ever saw with magicians was Tom Snyder. He had David Copperfield and Ricky Jay on, around the time of Copperfield's first TV special.
He spent the entire show sucking up to DC, and treating RJ like dirt. I wonder if anyone else remembers seeing it.

Think Letterman did the Magicians mostly because Johnny Carson help to make them a late night staple. I don't think he really liked magic all that much, but it worked for Carson, so it became an ingredient. Letterman is so quick to crack a cheap joke, that he messes-up the flow of the presentations somewhat. When his mind stops racing and he settles down a bit, amazement can overwhelm him and the audience can even enjoy it all a bit better. Magicians on his show have to be on their toes and adjust to his bumpy sense of humor. Not sure it should have to be that way, but again, Letterman is not a big magic fan. Lucky most other people are. -MB

Letterman can be the way he is for all I care. He is funny! Annoying at times but it works! If anything, I would like to thank him for being just that! Thanks to Letterman, Mr. Roth had a golden opportunity to shine a hundred times more. Mr. Roth gave the lay audience a treat..., a sample of what good magic and entertainment is. With just 4 coins at that! As for the magicians, Mr. Roth gave a free masters class on composure, professionalism, class and the perfect mix of confidence and competence. This performance of Mr. Roth inspired me more than any other performances I have seen of him.

Rannie

I agree with Rannie,
Mr Roth's coin sleight skills are exquisite, but to sit and watch one of his videos, I need a pot of strong coffee handy. Having to "wrangle" Letterman brought out the best in DR

Roth may have sounded like a "canned pitch" but that is most likely because we have seem him over and over. I have, anyway. But I'll bet most of the people in the audience had never seen him and were seeing a great magician for the first time. And I like how Letterman twice said, "Im sitting right here." He only had a small amount of time and look at the great magic he did.

Just wondering here, while I'm glad Roth was able to make the best of Letterman's barbs and show some great skill....How do you think this might've turned out if he had not been able to pull it off, say he couldn't get to the jumbo coin out or perhaps even dropped it during the presentation amidst Letterman's over-activeness...Would we be holding Letterman responsible for what went wrong in the performance or would we be saying that Roth did the best he could under the circumstances? Wonder how Roth might've felt had he been stumped by all Letterman's jitteriness throuhout his performance. Just wondering what if?

Interesting hypothesis. Im sure I would blame Letterman and I'd never watch his show again. But I choose to think that Roth knew he had the confidence to face Letterman, being undoubtedly aware of other magicians having trouble on the show. And I believe he came across to the audience as this nice, polite little guy doing some amazing magic, and Letterman felt the same and he didn't really mess with him all that much. Here's another question: has Roth been on the show since?

I just had to watch it again!!! Mr. Roth, you are still the best!


Rannie

I agree Rannie. And I have to say, not everyone likes to be fooled. Sure, we do... but in public, close up has inherent risks. Some people will interupt, reach for props, show me your hands etc., much worse than Letterman! There is a lot more to learn from this clip than many "in the studio" DVD performances.

Could someone please post it up on YouTube cause I don't have Real Player.

That's why this is a craft of entertainment. The methods are not usually used to "make fools of" the audience. Even if we tend to find our toys next to the prank stuff in the shops.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LpBgDffoCqA

Great video. The tie thing had me worried for a minute, but Roth recovered well. I am sure he has high blood pressure now though after that show.

What a great job!

Letterman is not the easiest spectator, obviously. He is so random and moves at his own pace.

David Roth did a great job of rolling with the tie thing - which fortunately didn't happen 2 seconds later. Then he made a great read on Leterman and managed him quite well by adjusting the pacing of the rest of the matrix effect.

Thanks for sharing the video!

Thanks Eric

Letterman: "These coins are magnetized!"

Roth: "Umm yeah that is it."

:D

Prior to this, I had only see David Roth perform on teaching videos, where he was lecturing to awe-struck, polite audiences of Magicians and Magic Lovers. If Dave Letterman had behaved that way, we'd have yet another technically flawless copy of the same routines we see on those videos , over and over. Yawn. Instead, Letterman took on the role of a wild, drunken spectator (hence the Margarita references, yelling for bar food etc.), making off the wall guesses re: methods, grabbing props, etc. etc. To me, it was exciting to see Roth working in a (simulated) real world situation, and having to deal with a hard to manage spectator. I repeat, Letterman's interaction only enhanced DR's performance.