Is Chris Angel Any Good With Cards

[JohnnyG]

I've seen these new magicians so to speak come out and do tricks here and there. There is no doubt that blaine is good with cards. My question is Do you guys think chris angel has card skills, I mean advanced skills. I have never seen him perform a card trick that requires any slight above double lift.

 

[obrienmagic]

His skills are about average (intermediate) if you will. Which there is no problem with IMO. You don’t have to be able to perform every sleight in the book to be a good magician. I have seen some amazing performers who only know 3-4 good sleights and have also seen some really bad performers who know a ton of complicated sleights.

For me whether you are a good magician or not doesn’t depend on the level of sleight of hand skill you have. As long as you can perform the moves you do know well and put in a good show.

 

[ncaron]

I've seen these new magicians so to speak come out and do tricks here and there. There is no doubt that blaine is good with cards. My question is Do you guys think chris angel has card skills, I mean advanced skills. I have never seen him perform a card trick that requires any slight above double lift.

To be fair, a lot of what we see Blaine do can also be done with a few very simple sleights. I am not saying he is not good, just mentionning that to reinforce what obrienmagic said above.

 

[Lord Magic]

I've seen these new magicians so to speak come out and do tricks here and there. There is no doubt that blaine is good with cards. My question is Do you guys think chris angel has card skills, I mean advanced skills. I have never seen him perform a card trick that requires any slight above double lift.

Oh I dunno abt Chris...but Criss Angel may be...check him out.
...
Sorry To to say something my fellow mortals label as 'relevant'...a LOT of the card magic we see on TV is pretty easy. I third the opinion that the simplicity does not matter. It matters how GOOD you are at it.
To quote Bruce Lee,
"I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
So I am impressed not by the magician who has practised 10,000 sleights once, but I am impressed by the magician who has practised one sleight 10,000 times.

So as to speak...but I feel the whole 'impossible' thing with performers on street irl or on TV is their magic with ordinary objects rather than cards.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Some of the greatest magicians in history rarely used advanced sleight of hand. David Berglas used the Glide regularly, and it's one of the only sleights he did with cards, according to The Berglas Effects.

 

[RickEverhart]

We are in the entertainment business. At the end of the day all you need to do is ask yourself if you put a smile on someones face, had them ponder reality for a moment, etc. THIS to me is the most important part of our craft. I could care less how many sleights a magician knows. All I want to do is have a good time and create wonder and excitement for spectators. The number of effects or sleights a magician knows has absolutely nothing to do with their entertainment value or worth as a magician. That being said, I don't know how Criss is with cards, but I did watch him perform his coin matrix routine/copentro and it is was phenomenal.

 

[obrienmagic]

Like when people ask me "What is your hardest sleight you do?" I usually say than i am not sure be cause most of them are pretty easy lol. My arsenal consists of moves that are easy to perform, low risk and work well in the situation they are used for.

 

[DominusDolorum]

It's been a long time since I've seen a Chris Angel performance but from what I remember he seemed to have some skill with a deck of cards. I can only think of one card trick he did at a black jack table, which I think was an Ace Assembly. I believe it was MacDonalds Aces, which isn't a very technical trick to do but the spectators enjoyed it and I must have too since I remember it after this many years.