Thoughts on Criss Angel

[Tyler Johnson]

My deal with Criss isn't that he uses stooges or actors in practically everything he does. It's the fact that he uses his undeserved success to feed his already larger-than-life ego.

I have to agree that that's the same reason I don't like Criss. The whole Ego thing just kills me. Although I do watch his show sometimes, I look at it as a sort of learning experience, you have to admit that the guy is a showman. He's good to learn from when you see how he controls an audience and builds up a trick.

I always sit after the show and think of all the tricks he did that were stooged or camera tricks, then I try to think of a way to accomplish them without stooges or camera tricks. His ideas that are fake can sometimes be made real, which I'm not going to expose yet.

But, he does have a HUGE ego. Has anyone read his book Mindfreak: Secret Revelations? I bought it and read it hoping that it was going to be about magic. About performing magic, some magic tricks, thoughts on magic, etc. Started reading it, there are a couple of stupid beginner tricks at the back of the book, and the rest of the book is about him. I can't tell you how many times he talked about how he accomplished this, pulled through this situation when most people wouldn't have, did this or that because he's so strong, etc. It really just got annoying. Anyway, I've had my say. He isn't a great magician skill wise, but he's a great entertainer and showman, and his ideas are pretty cool. We should learn from them. Peace!

Tyler

P.S. If in of this was hard to read, then I'm sorry, it's late so I'm probably not making much sense.

 

[heavymetalholic]

walking on water?? really??

who would belive that? i mean if he did do it there is no way thats impromptu lol

 

[Volcan]

walking on water?? really??

who would belive that? i mean if he did do it there is no way thats impromptu lol

Well, of course it would be gimmicked..

Why are people making such a big deal about camera tricks? I just look at it as another gimmick. He entertains people, isn't that what really matters?

 

[The Tumbleweed]

I respect Criss, and I never miss an episode of Mindfreak, just to enjoy the real stuff he does, and laigh at the fake stuff. He isn't ruining magic, at least not to me. When people see something on TV they can take the path of "It was fake because it was on TV," but when you show them a trick live, they haven't got that option, so, in a way, Criss is making us lok good. Have you asked laymen what they think of him? I'm sure they'll always be more impressed by your magic.
Daniel Madison: "Criss who?"

Josh T

 

[d34thg0d]

As DannyT said, not all Chris' tricks are fake/stooge. However, there are some tricks that are too extreme, and even layman will know that it is fake. For example, walking on water, levitating above the luxor hotel in vegas.

 

[HardcoreXcmer]

so, in a way, Criss is making us lok good. Have you asked laymen what they think of him? I'm sure they'll always be more impressed by your magic.
Daniel Madison: "Criss who?"

Josh T

He is an emberassment to all magicians who actually use SKILL to amaze people. If I was going to do magic for someone, I would wan't to ACTUALLY be MAKING the magic happen. What is the point of a magician anymore if the performer isn't actually DOING magic?

PS: Criss is a HORRIBLE actor.....how can you say he's a good performer?
Half the time it seems like he doesn't even know what to say......he just stands there.....thinking of something so he doesn't sound like a dumbass. He stutters a lot too.

 

[TheKingOfCards]

lmao at Criss Angel

Tonight I caught a glimpse of the show. Pretty stupid if you ask me. Anyone wanna read Darwin Ortiz's "Strong Magic?" Now that's what I call magic. Not this Angel ****aki...

 

[Steerpike]

Nothing beats the satisfaction out of fooling a magician.

There's an attitude I'd love to see go away.

There is NO WAY that they could do something like criss angel in a REAL setting.

The same could be said of David Copperfield's most extravagant stunts. But of course no one will say that. I wonder why?

Honestly, I don't get why people waste all this time and energy on hating his guts when they could be doing something useful.

 

[Deechristopher]

At the end of the day chaps, Criss is here and here to stay. Nothing said on this forum is going to affect what he does realistically.

Though I'm in the UK, I catch MindFreak every so often, I'm yet to see the new season though and some of the stuff he does floors me - even if he uses stooges or cam trickery, there's still a lot or skill and work goes into that kind of thing.

Anyway, as has been mentioned before, he IS a good showman - how do you think he fills out live performances?

His target audience are the millions of people sat at home watching the show. That's who he's looking to entertain, not people strolling around the street.

His lies, he cheats, he deceives - but so do we all day in day out as our jobs too!

One of the things I do note is that it must be tough being in the States and having to live in Criss' shadow. Luckily, we don't really have anything like that over here - we've got Derren, Keith B and Paul Z - all of their stuff is more 'real' though

D.

 

[VWind]

I respect Criss, and I never miss an episode of Mindfreak, just to enjoy the real stuff he does, and laigh at the fake stuff. He isn't ruining magic, at least not to me. When people see something on TV they can take the path of "It was fake because it was on TV," but when you show them a trick live, they haven't got that option, so, in a way, Criss is making us lok good. Have you asked laymen what they think of him? I'm sure they'll always be more impressed by your magic.
Daniel Madison: "Criss who?"

Josh T

D+M said that? no way, I thought he liked Criss Angel... In his lethal dvd, where he says: Thank you mr. Angel, I thought he meant Criss Angel.

I wonder what the T11 artists think of him. W:H probably made a good amount of money off him, I actually watched the dvd Criss Angel made that featured good ol' Houchini. Throughout the explanation for sinful, you just felt the gigantic ego emanating from Criss. Expecially when he talks about how he made the trick better by doing a few minor changes.

btw, 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"

 

[illusionist14]

I heard somewhere that Criss fired Banacheck. Banacheck was apparently being interviewed and the interview led to Mindfreak, and from what Criss said, he wasn't being praised enough for his creativity. And also I heard Luke Jermay quit.

There goes his Mentalism.

 

[Steerpike]

btw, 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"

Since I'm the only person one here that I know who actually does haunted magic and seances, I fully expect my opinion to be ignored and disregarded. It's just par for the course around here.

Nevertheless, claiming to read minds is a whole different subject than lying about the dead. Callahan tries to have his cake and eat it too without any disclaimers, probably trying to kiss up to Uri to improve his chances of winning. Haunted magic is really playing with fire, and unless you have a disclaimer to protect your clients emotionally and yourself legally, you're just a con man.

Christ, at least Docc Hilford admits that he's a con artist.

And as for your bizarre pseudo-analogy, that's just taking the p*ss. The day you start claiming you can talk to the dead, I will take you down. Until then, continue claiming you can make a signed card rise to the top of the deck, and I couldn't care less who you are.

 

[Deechristopher]

I agree with Steerpike on this. People claiming to be mediums are a SERIOUS problem.

Remember that 'talking to the deceased' thread that got deleted off here?

Well, this is swinging off topic a little, so I'll leave it lie!

D.

 

[DannyT]

I heard somewhere that Criss fired Banacheck. Banacheck was apparently being interviewed and the interview led to Mindfreak, and from what Criss said, he wasn't being praised enough for his creativity. And also I heard Luke Jermay quit.

There goes his Mentalism.

Where did you hear that?
I saw Banachek on the show last night.

 

[DannyT]

I wonder what the T11 artists think of him. W:H probably made a good amount of money off him, I actually watched the dvd Criss Angel made that featured good ol' Houchini. Throughout the explanation for sinful, you just felt the gigantic ego emanating from Criss. Expecially when he talks about how he made the trick better by doing a few minor changes.

Houchin didn't make any money off of him. Wayne invented the trick, not Angel.
I think a DVD by himself would have gotten just as much.
I'm pretty sure Wayne realized that Criss was way to controlling over his effect.

*This is my own inference*
My guess would be that Criss wanted to make another DVD by Wayne after sinful, since he used this one trick in his show. "Thread"(not released yet/ever)
I think Wayne stood up and said hell no.
It only makes sense to me because he used sinful in an episode and made it a DVD.
I saw him use thread on his tv show as well, and even Wayne himself clarified that it was indeed his trick they used.
So my guess would be that Wayne realized how controlling he was and put his foot down. (Is that why he's not a consultant?)
*High five Wayne*

 

[illusionist14]

Where did you hear that?
I saw Banachek on the show last night.

Wasn't the show filmed a while ago? I'm pretty sure that yesterdays episode was filmed a while ago. I don't remember exactly where I read it, I tink it was Penguinmagics Forums.

 

[Phenomena]

well i watched dog the bounty hunter...good tv show, real stuff.

then mindfreak comes on, and i instantly rolled my eyes, but i decided to give it a chance.

I turned the tv off at the suv scene because i was actually getting pissed off at the tv because the paid actors/audience, wasnt doing a great job of acting as if it were real.

do like 8 scenes with a different group for **** sakes, and take the best one...

 

[Michael Kras]

Being a guy who films a lot of live footage, I can tell you that spectators exaggerate their reactions for the camera. Not particularly sure why they do this, but it's almost always true. Looks to me like Criss gets that a lot too... I haven't seen him do a legitimate magic effect in years. Come on, the linking watches HAD to have been staged, it's just not possible to do it with two borrowed watches in mere seconds.

I have absolutely no respect for the guy... he gives magic a bad name. I shudder to think about the possibility that laypeople will think less and less of our magic simply because we can't do what they saw Criss Angel do on TV.

Here's something commonly said to me, and my response.

Spectator: You, like, the next Criss Angel!

Magician: But I'm not very good at film editing.

 

[Deleted member 2755]

In my school I commonly get called Criss Angel, Mindfreak, or Satan.

About a week ago, I went to a friends house. I walked in to see that he was watching Mindfreak. I forgot which episode was on. Anyway, after he did the insane magic stunt, my friend just says "Hey Doug, let's see you do that! Huh! C'mon Doug!" Well, After the episode was done, we turned off the TV and I performed the Biddle Trick. He seemed more impressed with that than watching Criss Angel.

-Doug

 

[RFDaguano]

You can't say Criss Angel is destroying the art of magic, you really don't know what is a magician destroying this art.
Here in Brazil magic is dying, it's the worst magician's nightmare.
The Masked Magician, also known as Mister M, was contracted to work on a TV program in the open television and everyday there are free exposures from stages illusions as vanishes of animals and cars to close-up tricks as the ambitious card (with all the double-lifts, passes and techniques), levitations, ninja rings...
What's funny is that he is so stupid that he was in a interview and did a stupid four ace location card trick and did a mistake, on live!

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=D_9oQcw-l9Q

(sorry about any english mistakes)