Thoughts on Criss Angel

Aug 31, 2007
369
0
Hartford, CT
I know I was saying I was dropping out too, but I'm sorry, it seems like this is a competition rather than a debate. And please, everyone forgive my tone. Usually I am a pretty easy-going guy, but I draw the line at people who pretend to have supernatural powers.

First off, Dude, you didn't win.

Second. Let's compare web pages, shall we?

Look at Criss' own bio

http://crissangel.com/bio

Not one word of "powers". Oh sure, there's bragging, there's "look what I did for magic", etc.

Go to his merchandise page. Not one thing of supernatural powers. There's cheap jewelry, kind of gaudy if you ask me, but not one word of "powers". Even his book is about the craft of magic, i.e. how he performs his tricks, his philosophies, nothing about having powers.

Now let's go to Jim's website.

http://www.jimclass.com/

Right on the first page is this:

Jim Callahan is seeking individuals who desire employment after death.

I am looking for individuals who would like to participate in my shows and experiments after their deaths. You will be compensated for your participation and time. Find out more here.

$1,000,000.00 Will Be Paid

What is this bull? How the hell can you read that and say "He doesn't claim to have supernatural powers".

Oh and go to the book about he's selling about numerology.

http://www.jimclass.com/Gift and conversation starter.htm

He doesn't claim it's a trick, which it is, of course, he claims it's REAL. On that page, and on a lot of pages on his website, he's got a lot of links to psychics.

Also, he's challenging Randi to prove he doesn't have any powers.

.....there is no way you can say Jim "paranormalist" Callahan is not claiming to have supernatural powers. He's using that angle to sell himself as a magician. To me, that cheapens the art, makes him a swindler and he's relying on a gimmick worse than someone who uses stooges or camera tricks.

Why? Let me explain it to you one more time:

People are gullible. They will believe what you do on stage is real. Even if you tell them, outright, that you are lieing and you're fooling them, there are a few people who will still believe you have powers. Those people you can't do anything.

Then there are people who aren't sure, and when you tell them you don't have powers, they go "Wow! He fooled me! That was fun! I don't know how he did it. That was fun!" There is no emotional exploitation. People go to be entertained, they spend their money on it and that's it. Then someday, they tell the story of how this guy, with no special powers, did this amazing thing.

But if you say you do have powers then those people will believe that you do, and then a) there's no "magic" because you've explained away the trick. In their eyes, you've given them the secret. "I can speak to the dead". "Oh, that's how you did that!" and b) Those people will come to you expecting you to do something for them that no one one Earth can. They will spend all their money on an empty promise. They will invest their deep, painful emotions into a sham. And it's done not to entertain, (despite what Jim says he's doing), but to exploit those people, and emotionally vulnerable people who are desperate.

There's a difference between fooling and exploiting.

Criss is fooling. Jim is exploiting.

Again, I am not a big Criss fan. I have more respect for him than I do for Jim, simply because Criss doesn't claim to have powers. Jim does.

And if you can't see that difference between the two of them, if you can say that Criss does claim powers and Jim is just a victim, then you deserve to be swindled by him.

Enjoy yourself being lead by the nose.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
I took a look at Jim's website, making a few notes.

For a skeptic, the man certainly does love to give the idea that he's real. He's like Docc Hilford without the self-effacing self-awareness. A would-be Uri Geller.

He has a disclaimer stating that he is not a psychic or a medium, but a paranormalist. The exact same title that Geller uses, incidentally. His two challenges to James Randi include a seance and a metal bending act. He tells people to believe what they want to believe. He also goes to a lot of trouble to distinguish his paranormal dealings with his persona as a "master magician".

Noticing a pattern?

The slippery thing here is that his disclaimer provides him with a legal out should he ever be called on his act. But stating that he is a paranormalist implies that he is genuinely investigating ghostly and psychic phenomena in the world. This is further suggested by the fact that he is seeking contracts with people to contact their spirits after they're dead. More likely, he wants those contracts so that the families of the deceased can't sue him into oblivion.

I did some checking on Google. Apparently, Jim claims to be skeptic, but the skeptic community hates his guts. Their main problem with him is that he uses the same cop-out that Uri Geller, James van Praagh and John Edward use: that you can't disprove the paranormal. He issues a challenge to James Randi, but offers no test that coincides with the scientific method. His challenge is not set up to prove, but to confound. And that's not science.

Futher Google searches yielded no results for any literature by Callahan in any scientific or skeptic publications, or even any pseudoscientific publications. So he claims to be an investigator... but he hasn't done anything.

It seems to me that Jim Callahan is setting himself up to be the next Uri Geller. The problem is that Uri did one huge thing right: he treated his critics with disdain. No matter how many times we proved him for a fraud, he never even batted an eye. Jim on the other hand wants to be some sort of underdog and goes on the attack as soon as he's questioned on anything.

I get the distinct feeling that if I ever got the chance to look through the man's personal library I would almost certainly find a copy of The Shiels Effect.
 
Well to be honest i have no respect to Criss Angel mainly because i think he gives of the wrong impression on what 'magic' really is, people watch him on telly and think "Wow he's amazing" but if only they saw other magicians on tv that actually performed 'magic' and not just camera tricks then maybe they would understand just a bit more why so many magicians don't like him, but the basic point of magic IS to entertain and that's what he is doing whether he uses stooges/camera tricks or not, i just wish everyone else in the world would actually understand the art of magic and what it really is and that it's not all just camera tricks and lousy stooges.
 
Aug 5, 2008
86
0
Watch this and then speak http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=fdO25XDkrkI,This is not a Jim is worst than Criss Angel deal this a Criss Angel sucks and he dares to "risk" his life to prove he doesn't use camera Tricks or Actors thing(that he is the real deal,with Real Magic).Thats just one trick which reveals the fraud he really is.And those "skeptics" weren't skeptical at all, I would have question the fact that the elevators were covered with paper and that I never saw the elevator empty in the first place,Not before the demonstration. why not blindfold him and leave the elevators visible.

Well "Lady" I dont care If I win, But you sure did lose at least 20 minutes with that.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
this a Criss Angel sucks and he dares to "risk" his life to prove he doesn't use camera Tricks or Actors thing(that he is the real deal,with Real Magic).

Criss is a douchebag. No one has denied that. However, you're trying too hard to turn this into a black and white issue bereft of any and all nuance.

Your inexplicable grudge against this man is causing you to run your mouth off and paint yourself into a rhetorical corner.

Well "Lady" I dont care If I win,

And yet... here you are. If you have to tell someone that you don't care, then you really do.

I don't like Criss Angel either. But I don't need to invent reason to justify myself. I just don't like him because of his arrogance and the fact that his show is becoming more about self-gratification than anything else. And most reasonable people will either agree with me or accept that I have a personal reason for not liking the man.

You could actually make more friends and fewer enemies if you did the same and stopped acting as if you need to completely demonize that which you do not like. All we want is an honest explanation, not the affectations and wild accusations.
 
Aug 31, 2007
369
0
Hartford, CT
Criss is a douchebag. No one has denied that. However, you're trying too hard to turn this into a black and white issue bereft of any and all nuance.

Your inexplicable grudge against this man is causing you to run your mouth off and paint yourself into a rhetorical corner.



And yet... here you are. If you have to tell someone that you don't care, then you really do.

I don't like Criss Angel either. But I don't need to invent reason to justify myself. I just don't like him because of his arrogance and the fact that his show is becoming more about self-gratification than anything else. And most reasonable people will either agree with me or accept that I have a personal reason for not liking the man.

You could actually make more friends and fewer enemies if you did the same and stopped acting as if you need to completely demonize that which you do not like. All we want is an honest explanation, not the affectations and wild accusations.

Hear, hear.
 
Aug 9, 2008
24
0
what do you guys think about that Jim callahan guy that Criss Angel called "comical". I saw the performance. I don't see what problem Crissy sees w/ that. Yea, he claims to have psychic powers, but Criss Angel pretty much does the same in his show. "Do you believe in mind reading? think of an object." Anyway, that was massive heckling. It's like if I was doing a trick and someone came up to me and went: "WHAT OBJECT AM I THINKING OF RIGHT NOW!! WHAT IS IT???? I"LL GIVE YOU A MILLION BUCKS IF YOU GET IT!! YOU"RE NOT A REAL MAGICIAN!! ZOMG"

Oh man you are so right,That would be exactly the same thing ha ha ha haha ha,I hate Criss Angel Too,Hes a disgrace and he is running out of material too.He

claims to have Magic Powers too,He makes real magicians look like **** and takes credit for doing fake stunts.

The latest episode is him trying to prove he is a
real magician with real powers! ha ha ha ha ha,Criss is so stupid I hate him and so should you.He is pathetic ha ha ha ha,
IDIOLOGICAL BIGOT?
 
Aug 6, 2008
10
0
all of you are right

im actualy a big fan of Criss Angel because he has worked so hard to get to the statuss that he's at today. the point of magic is to take the impossible and make it possible. who cares how you did it, the point is you did it. wether you use slight of hand or cameras, it dosent mater. you do what you have2 to pull it off. truth be told though, when it comes down to it, you take away the cameras, the money, and the confederets and bring it down to pure, slight of hand, real magic. Criss wouldn't last a secont compared to some of the magicians i've seen.
-Chris D.

ps. personaly, i dont like camera tricks, but sometimes, thats just how its done.
 
Jul 15, 2008
167
1
yes, actually I think that's a pretty good opinion. respecting him as a performer, but seeing that he's crap as a magician
 
Aug 6, 2008
10
0
There you go then.

People saying that Criss is a bad magician have no clue and often just jump on the bandwagon with all the Criss-bashing.

oh, definetly. Criss is one of my favorite magicians. he's a great magican, just not the best like people make him out to be. but people who bash him are arogent and dont really know what magic is and what it's suposed to be.
 

BrianationX

Banned
Jul 13, 2008
263
0
oh, definetly. Criss is one of my favorite magicians. he's a great magican, just not the best like people make him out to be. but people who bash him are arogent and dont really know what magic is and what it's suposed to be.
Wait.....
So are you saying that being a magician is about
Heckling Fellow magicians(Jim),
lying to your audience (about your “Powers”),
Doing Camera tricks and passing them as magic,
Claiming “what you see is what you get” and Putting you life on it,
Fake building escape,(he got caught by FoxNews)
and dressing up like an emo?
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
Wait.....
So are you saying that being a magician is about
Heckling Fellow magicians(Jim),

Jim doesn't count.

lying to your audience (about your “Powers”),

Strawman argument.

Doing Camera tricks and passing them as magic,

Strawman argument because Criss was actually an accomplished stage magician prior to Mindfreak.

Claiming “what you see is what you get” and Putting you life on it,
Fake building escape,(he got caught by FoxNews)

Strawman argument.

and dressing up like an emo?

Has nothing to do with anything.

Welcome back, Brian. I see nothing has changed.
 
Nov 30, 2007
821
0
I mostly don't post my views on Criss Angel but I geuss I will this time. I am going to make it short though because frankly I don't want to argue about Criss Angel. I don't like Criss Angel. I feel bad for Criss Angel though because he has some good ideas and I am sure he is a decent magician but he ruined all of it because of using special effects and stooges.
 
Aug 31, 2007
369
0
Hartford, CT
Steerpike, I don't think Brian knows what a strawman is, considering he's using so many he has a army of scarecrows. :)

EllisG, I have to agree with you there. :)
 
Oct 21, 2007
302
0
www.hi5.com
I mostly don't post my views on Criss Angel but I geuss I will this time. I am going to make it short though because frankly I don't want to argue about Criss Angel. I don't like Criss Angel. I feel bad for Criss Angel though because he has some good ideas and I am sure he is a decent magician but he ruined all of it because of using special effects and stooges.

I agree with you, I have been approached by him in New York at around 2001. He did suff great stuff. All that I really remember was a signed card through window.
 
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