Longtime assistant to magician David Copperfield dies at 61..
Thanks to Ed Koch and the Las Vegas Sun for this article. Certainly, this is not the type of news we look forward to reporting. Our prayers go out to her friends and family.
Joanie Spina, longtime assistant to magician David Copperfield, died Sunday at a Houston hospital while awaiting lung and liver transplants. She was 61.
Spina, a Las Vegas resident who also coached young magicians and was an aspiring filmmaker, suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease. She also had been treated for cancer.
She left Las Vegas this year for Houston for the planned replacement surgeries.
A fundraiser to defray Spina’s mounting medical costs was held in Las Vegas in September and attracted a number of luminaries from the magic community, including Lance Burton.
Since 2009, Spina had penned the Directions column for Las Vegas-based Magic magazine. She gave tips to aspiring magicians on stage presentation and technique to help them fine-tune their acts…