Criss Angel on Lopez Tonight

[chriswiehl]

Ok just watched the performance. i honestly wasnt fooled at all!. he never really had a moment where he swallowed the razors. if that was even the idea. for me it even looked like he wasnt swallowing them. then the whole water swallowing thing. it looked like he kept most of the water in his mouth then spat it all out.
unless the trick was to thread the razors onto the thread in his mouth, it wasnt convincing. i think sperrys arm illusion on AGT was better. and i didnt feel that was beliveable enough either.
thats just my two cents. not bashing criss at all. just the performance was lacking for one of the worlds most famous magicians.

i also feel that with his magic kit and many others, the whole. you can learn this in seconds or minutes. anyone, any age, really makes our magicical art seem like a joke. if anyone can do it then why have us practice hours upon hours to learn these knuckle busting moves, or complicated scripts or reading pages and pages of books? just a thought.

 

[Luis Vega]

Ok just watched the performance. i honestly wasnt fooled at all!. he never really had a moment where he swallowed the razors. if that was even the idea. for me it even looked like he wasnt swallowing them. then the whole water swallowing thing. it looked like he kept most of the water in his mouth then spat it all out.
unless the trick was to thread the razors onto the thread in his mouth, it wasnt convincing. i think sperrys arm illusion on AGT was better. and i didnt feel that was beliveable enough either.
thats just my two cents. not bashing criss at all. just the performance was lacking for one of the worlds most famous magicians.

i also feel that with his magic kit and many others, the whole. you can learn this in seconds or minutes. anyone, any age, really makes our magicical art seem like a joke. if anyone can do it then why have us practice hours upon hours to learn these knuckle busting moves, or complicated scripts or reading pages and pages of books? just a thought.

Well...you are looking at it with magician eyes...I do think it was a good performance...for a layman is the same if he swallow the water and the razors...

about the magic kit...my guitar teacher once told me that when you play guitar you should move the fingers as little as possible, for some reasons...like aesthetics, but he also told me that if you don´t move you fingers a lot it will be looked easy to play the guitar and when somebody sees it, they will think is not so hard, hence he will try to play guitar..he will eventually find that is not so easy...but the point is that at least he started, it depends on him to continue and be a good guitarrist...the same applies to this magic kits...this are for somebody to get started in magic...it will depend on him if he wants to go with the harder stuff or just know a couple of tricks...but what it matters is that he tried...

 

[TeeDee]

Criss Angel bashing doesn't seem to make much sense to me, as it's blatantly obvious that he does his job, within his own parameters, extremely well. We can have a debate about whether what he does constitutes magic, but he's clearly a powerful and engaging performer and personality, and that's all he needs to be to make his format work.

Anyway, on the magic kit thing. Unless you're going to suggest that magic's full, and no-one else should become a magician, then kits are a great thing. In the UK, Paul Daniels created a whole generation of magicians with his kits. Talk to virtually any British magician who was a child in the 80s, professional or amateur, and you're likely to find they began with a Paul Daniels Magic Kit. The suggestion that easy-to-do magic tricks make a mockery of magic is just ridiculous. For one thing, tell that to Karl Fulves, who's not only created a massive quantity of self-working and easy magic, but is also well-known for writing and publishing hardcore sleight-of-hand material. Also, if someone learns to use some self-working gimmicks, I believe that will only increase the impact of well-performed "knuckle-busting" material. They may believe they "know how magic works", but will soon see that none of the simple principles they're familiar with are being used and, therefore, will be doubly fooled. And, for those of us who do this for a living, a mass-marketed product that spread the awareness and popularity of magic can only be good for bookings!

I don't know why magicians are so negative about the art they love being popularised. It seems to come from a position of insecurity and jealousy. How about this? Practice more, work on your performance skills, and use the popularity of Criss Angel's magic kit as a great marketing opportunity to get on TV shows yourself. Then you can correct all the mistakes you think he's making...then come back to the forums to see yourself being bashed!

 

[joshrobarts]

its not the popularization that people are negative about. You dont here people complaining about David Blaine bringing attention to the art, and his stuff is actually learnable, or Copperfield, or Derren Brown in the UK? and why? because they do it with respect to the art and don't sell out. You dont see an issue selling a kit that you wont even promote yourself? I mean you dont see Steven's Job's walking around with a Zune. What if Theory11 had used a Dan White impersonator to advertise LIT? would that still instill confidence? seem professional? Would you buy it? And thats for a GOOD effect. I think magic kits are a great idea, and great for the art. The same cannot be said about Angel.

and let me clarify, when i say sell out im not suggesting that pro's shouldn't be making money off the art. It is part business after all. Rather, doing it in a way that doesn't compromise basic morals, and ideals of the art. I mean david has released a few effects, Copperfield has merchandise and Brown has a few books out. But you know what they do? They stand behind it, and represent it. thats the big difference

 

[James Wise Magic]

its not the popularization that people are negative about. You dont here people complaining about David Blaine bringing attention to the art, and his stuff is actually learnable, or Copperfield, or Derren Brown in the UK? and why? because they do it with respect to the art and don't sell out. You dont see an issue selling a kit that you wont even promote yourself? I mean you dont see Steven's Job's walking around with a Zune. What if Theory11 had used a Dan White impersonator to advertise LIT? would that still instill confidence? seem professional? Would you buy it? And thats for a GOOD effect. I think magic kits are a great idea, and great for the art. The same cannot be said about Angel.

and let me clarify, when i say sell out im not suggesting that pro's shouldn't be making money off the art. It is part business after all. Rather, doing it in a way that doesn't compromise basic morals, and ideals of the art. I mean david has released a few effects, Copperfield has merchandise and Brown has a few books out. But you know what they do? They stand behind it, and represent it. thats the big difference

dude, enough with the impersonator thing, we get it and for the recored I just watched the advertisment for his magic kit, that looks like criss angel, he looks exactly like he did in season 6... probably because that is him... just sayin.. and even if it wasn't him, why should it matter? You never know there might have been something out of his control and he had not choice, like Dan Sperry said once he did AGT, there is a lot of things that regular magicians don't understand about the magic tv world because they haven't been there before, the don't fully understand all the chaos and BS that goes around.


Anyways, I agree with TeeDee, Criss is popularizing our art, getting people excited about magic, and that's what criss is doing and that's all that should matter.

But anyways, can we please get back on topic, this thread wasn't meant for a criss angel debate

 

[Toby]

Well...you are looking at it with magician eyes...I do think it was a good performance...for a layman is the same if he swallow the water and the razors...

Not quite... I was watching this video with a friend of mine (who is a layman), and his first response was "Wasn't he supposed to swallow the water? If not, than why the heck did he drink the water in the first place?" Stop thinking about lay people like they are stupid. One thing that I didn't like (his epilepsy attack in the middle of the routine aside) was that he spit the water couple of times from his mouth. First of all, it's disgusting, and second of all he is making a mess in the studio, and spiting the water has nothing to do with the effect itself, except showing us that he actually DIDN'T swallow the water.

About his kit, once again my friend said "Wait, you can learn magic in couple of minutes? Wtf?", it totally kills the magic in the eyes of the spectators. When I'm performing, people always say "wow, it must have took you years to learn that", imagine the same people now watching the show and hearing Criss Angel say that you can learn it in minutes. It just degrades magic and magicians, IMHO.

 

[Randy]

dude, enough with the impersonator thing, we get it and for the recored I just watched the advertisment for his magic kit, that looks like criss angel, he looks exactly like he did in season 6... probably because that is him... just sayin.. and even if it wasn't him, why should it matter? You never know there might have been something out of his control and he had not choice, like Dan Sperry said once he did AGT, there is a lot of things that regular magicians don't understand about the magic tv world because they haven't been there before, the don't fully understand all the chaos and BS that goes around.


Anyways, I agree with TeeDee, Criss is popularizing our art, getting people excited about magic, and that's what criss is doing and that's all that should matter.

But anyways, can we please get back on topic, this thread wasn't meant for a criss angel debate

Again you've completely missed the point. As with your whole "There must be more going on. blah blah" crap. His name is on the product, using somebodies name on a product without their persmission is not only illegal but incredibly stupid. He obviously gave them permission to do it, but felt that he couldn't be arsed enough to endorse the product. Yet on Lopez tonight he decides to do it. Which means that the producers obviously decided to pay him a pretty big sum of money behind the scenes.

If he REALLY wanted to endorse it, he would have actually appeared in his commercials.

 

[Sir FansAlot]

First of all, it's disgusting, and second of all he is making a mess in the studio, and spiting the water has nothing to do with the effect itself, except showing us that he actually DIDN'T swallow the water.

About his kit, once again my friend said "Wait, you can learn magic in couple of minutes? Wtf?", it totally kills the magic in the eyes of the spectators. When I'm performing, people always say "wow, it must have took you years to learn that", imagine the same people now watching the show and hearing Criss Angel say that you can learn it in minutes. It just degrades magic and magicians, IMHO.

Well, you've been mistaken. The effects he showed are well known by magicians. But laypeople don't generally know them. We try so much to shallow the art by not teaching anyone or complaining about exposure. The thing is, we don't need to if we don't want to. It's like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The magic package was obviously just something to get people and their kids interested. I personally don't like Angel but I see what he's getting at.

[Edited] Also, when are you going to realize that people know magic isn't real???

 

[Toby]

Well, you've been mistaken. The effects he showed are well known by magicians. But laypeople don't generally know them. We try so much to shallow the art by not teaching anyone or complaining about exposure. The thing is, we don't need to if we don't want to. It's like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The magic package was obviously just something to get people and their kids interested. I personally don't like Angel but I see what he's getting at.

[Edited] Also, when are you going to realize that people know magic isn't real???

I don't thing you understood me...
And I know people know magic isn't real, don't worry

 

[Sir FansAlot]

Okay, I get it thanks. Wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic or not. Peace.

 

[James Wise Magic]

Again you've completely missed the point. As with your whole "There must be more going on. blah blah" crap. His name is on the product, using somebodies name on a product without their persmission is not only illegal but incredibly stupid. He obviously gave them permission to do it, but felt that he couldn't be arsed enough to endorse the product. Yet on Lopez tonight he decides to do it. Which means that the producers obviously decided to pay him a pretty big sum of money behind the scenes.

If he REALLY wanted to endorse it, he would have actually appeared in his commercials.

What makes you think it's not him anyways? Do you have proof other than you thinking that's not him. If it wasn't really him I'm sure EVERYONE would be talking about it though you seem to be the only one. And like I said before, even if it wasn't him, lets just say, why does it matter?????

 

[necrofiend]

The only thing I have to say on this, aside from it was a solid performance... Is I want to address the 'seizure'. It's not even close to an accurate description. Listen to the background music, and watch the way he moves from the second he starts the routine. It's a performance piece, not just a magic trick. The 'seizure' movement style is seen constantly in modern pop style dance, it's perfectly in time with the song playing. If yer not educated in that sort of thing, which I'm sure many here might just be, I don't think it fair to make assessments without looking at the performance as a whole. My useless two cents.

 

[Randy]

What makes you think it's not him anyways? Do you have proof other than you thinking that's not him. If it wasn't really him I'm sure EVERYONE would be talking about it though you seem to be the only one. And like I said before, even if it wasn't him, lets just say, why does it matter?????

Yes, I have proof, it's called comon sense and you seem to lack it.

 

[James Wise Magic]

Yes, I have proof, it's called comon sense and you seem to lack it.

haha and you're going off of what? The fact that it doesn't look like him...? even though it does. And you still haven't answered my question... even if it isn't him, why should it matter???

 

[CaseyRudd]

Guys, it is apparent that we can't have yet another discussion about Criss Angel without getting into a heated discussion and causing members to yell at each other. This isn't appropriate and mature behavior here fellas. Not being professional, and some members are being disrespectful as well. I asked nicely to please don't make this another bash Criss Angel thread yet you guys continue to do so. This thread has run it's course, so I will close it. Any questions or concerns please PM me and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

-Casey