Criss Angel : Mindfreak

**^R^ed-$py** · 07-25-2007 05:17 PM

Who likes the reality show Criss Angel Mindfreak ? Isnt he GR8 and all the illusions he create . Any comments .

**skysaw** · 07-25-2007 05:19 PM

Yeah, I've been watching his show for some time now. He's really pretty entertaining.

**~Erin~** · 07-25-2007 06:19 PM

At the start of his show I used to watch it all the time. Magic has always brought a smile to my face. Though, he is pretty amazing the stuff latley I find has been the same. Again, he uses Klayton music (from Celldweller)sometimes and Klayton did arrange the music for the main song so for that I love Criss Angel.

**Bayside** · 07-25-2007 08:10 PM

Criss Angel is my role model. He's amazing, and has really inspired me to work hard at everything I do, because I can see how hard he works and doesn't let anything get in his way or stop him. Quite an amazing individual.

**Snooze** · 07-25-2007 08:13 PM

there are better street magicians than him out there

**^R^ed-$py** · 07-26-2007 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by Snooze

there are better street magicians than him out there

Ohh yaa tell me one magician out there who is better than him ? i think he is da best of all

**Volcon** · 07-26-2007 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by ^R^ed-$py

Ohh yaa tell me one magician out there who is better than him ? i think he is da best of all

David blane

**skysaw** · 07-26-2007 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by Volcon

David blane

There may be better street magicians out there, but I'd easily give Angel the nod over Blane.

**^R^ed-$py** · 07-27-2007 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by Volcon

David blane

David Blane is nothing compared to Criss Angel .

**Ynot** · 07-27-2007 05:27 PM

noone tops Tommy Cooper

**^R^ed-$py** · 07-30-2007 10:44 PM

Do you guys know how Criss Angel did the Luxor light levitation ?

27 · 07-31-2007 02:13 AM

I like Blane more. Criss Angle just gets on my nerves for some reason. I think the whole show is preety cheesy.

**Snooze** · 07-31-2007 02:16 AM

^ Q F F T

**thegnome54** · 07-31-2007 02:24 AM

Criss Angel is not a street magician. He does his 'tricks' with paid actors and video cuts and all cheap tricks, really. David Blaine at least seems to be doing most of his tricks in front of real audiences and in real time, with no cheap tricks - just talent.

**Rainman** · 07-31-2007 03:31 AM

Chris Angel's whole show is entirely corny. But he's real. I've seen him and met him in person. I saw him live and can't even begin to explain some of his tricks. Others are easy to point out.

But David Blaine sucks, and he's crazy. He does all these gimmicky tricks. There is a video clip somewhere on either break.com or youtube that gives away almost all of David Blaine's favorite tricks. I will hand it to him that his show is a lot better organized, but Chris Angel is far better. But I like Tommy Cooper the best.

**thegnome54** · 07-31-2007 04:14 AM

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/152624..._half_a_woman/

That pretty much sums up Criss Angel, to me. Obviously a stooge, obviously just a woman born without legs... why would a non-accomplice bystander start crawling away at 40 miles and hour after being cut in half? Any truly unexpecting participant would stand there screaming. I'll grant that the audience members were either very good actors or real, but the trick itself is obviously just a cheap set-up and doesn't take any skill on his part.

**skysaw** · 07-31-2007 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by thegnome54

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/152624..._half_a_woman/

That pretty much sums up Criss Angel, to me. Obviously a stooge, obviously just a woman born without legs... why would a non-accomplice bystander start crawling away at 40 miles and hour after being cut in half? Any truly unexpecting participant would stand there screaming. I'll grant that the audience members were either very good actors or real, but the trick itself is obviously just a cheap set-up and doesn't take any skill on his part.

There are a number of examples of him doing this sort of trick, and most of them he does fairly tongue-in-cheek (but not this one, obviously). I see it as him having a little fun that can only really be effective on tv, and I've "caught" him a couple of times by careful study of the show. But he also does very large demonstrations outside where thousands of bystanders gather. These run the gamut from average magic to outstanding magic.

And I still think he has the best levitation bar none.

**Bayside** · 07-31-2007 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by thegnome54

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/152624..._half_a_woman/

That pretty much sums up Criss Angel, to me. Obviously a stooge, obviously just a woman born without legs... why would a non-accomplice bystander start crawling away at 40 miles and hour after being cut in half? Any truly unexpecting participant would stand there screaming. I'll grant that the audience members were either very good actors or real, but the trick itself is obviously just a cheap set-up and doesn't take any skill on his part.

Well, obviously this is just a setup. There's no way he could literally have people pull a woman in half. The lady on top is an amputee, and her "legs" is really a contortionist, which is someone who can contort their bodies in strange and extremely flexible ways. But if you think about it, none of this crap is real, it's just all for amusement value and getting that feeling like "How in the hell did he do that?". I'm into magic myself, and as soon as you start to see some basic principles of it, you realize it's all really coming from the same place, just fooling the mind into thinking something.

Criss Angel does indeed sometimes use stooges, definitely not always, but yes, he does. I'm almost positive David Blaine does as well, unless he really won someone the lottery in that video that I saw of him, and I highly doubt that he used his "magic" powers to make that lottery ticket a winner....

One of the reasons why I don't care for David Blaine, is because he seems too arrogant, and he doesn't really seem to have any passion about doing his magic.

Oh, and back to the Criss Angel video for a second.... I wouldn't say that it doesn't take any skill on Criss' part, because he still hast to come up with this stuff. He still has to make sure every little thing is perfect, and that there's no way anybody is going to be able to take one glance at it, and say "This is how it was done, by...". He needs to make it believable to the people watching.

**thegnome54** · 07-31-2007 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by Bayside

He still has to make sure every little thing is perfect, and that there's no way anybody is going to be able to take one glance at it, and say "This is how it was done, by...". He needs to make it believable to the people watching.

...But we did take one glance and know how it was done, didn't we? Maybe I don't get out enough, but I haven't seen any tricks by him that seemed to take actual skill to pull off - they've all been stooged and obviously fake. I like David Blaine because you have to think about the stuff he does a lot before getting any idea of how it's done.

**Bayside** · 07-31-2007 11:31 PM

Obviously some people are going to be able to take one glance at it and know. You can't fool everyone all the time. I didn't know how he did it the first time I saw it, and even in your previous post, you never made any preposition stating how her legs than got up and started moving around, I filled that point in myself. But obviously, Criss Angel is a master at fooling as many people as possible most of the time, evident from his huge booming career, one of the biggest TV shows of our time, tons of loyal fans, and winning several years in a row now the Magician of the Year award.

Besides, just because someone thinks they know how a trick is done, doesn't mean you do know. There are tons of theories on some of Criss Angel's tricks, but who knows which one is right, or if any of them even come close.

As for all of his tricks being stooged and obviously fake.... Well, magic IS fake. There's no such thing as "real" magic, per se. And I know for a fact that not all of his stuff is stooged. He has many live demonstrations, some with even full broadcast times, such as the cement block escape, where from the moment he was put inside of it (and even beforehand for several hours), audiences had full view of him, as well as millions of homeviewers watching on the live cam from inside the block and all the cameras surrounding it. I don't know how you could get that many stooges in on something.

Once you really start getting into magic, you start to see where it all comes from, and a lot of magic tricks actually stem from very similar principles, and you no longer have to question how a lot of things are done. You may not know exactly, but you have a damn good idea.

Anyway, like I said, I don't care for David Blaine's attitude, and I find him just as full of stooges and whatnot as Criss Angel. I recall seeing at least two that are obviously set up, one where he wins a man the lottery, and one where he throws cards at a window after having someone pick a card, and than magically the card ends up stuck on the other side of the mirror. I didn't have to think about that at all to know it was obviously just all set up.

**thegnome54** · 08-01-2007 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by Bayside

and one where he throws cards at a window after having someone pick a card, and than magically the card ends up stuck on the other side of the mirror. I didn't have to think about that at all to know it was obviously just all set up.

Actually, I think I read somewhere how that was done. He had an accomplice inside that restaurant, and waited until someone was walking towards him from the other side, then met them in front of the restaurant - this made it seem like a random encounter to the subjects. The guy in the restaurant then saw the card they picked by virtue of Blaine's instructions to the subjects, and smeared a little bit of something sticky on an identical card in his deck. When Blaine threw the cards, BAM he stuck his on the window and ran.

I thought that one was pretty clever, actually.

I guess I have less respect for tricks with fake audiences. I really haven't seen enough Criss Angel to have an opinion on his non-stooged tricks, though.

**Bayside** · 08-01-2007 01:19 AM

I heard something very similar to how you said David Blaine did that trick. Only, I heard that the card was forced, I don't know if you're into magic yourself, so I'll explain that briefly, forcing a card is when you push the card upon someone, while making them think that they really have their own choice of card. So, I heard he did that, and had another person inside with an identical card, he already knew exactly what card it would be since it was forced, and then he just sticks in on the window before or as David Blaine throws the cards. So yeah, basically the same explanation.

I don't think Criss Angel does that many tricks with fake audiences, personally, because he often has large audiences of apparent random gatherings of people, and it just seems hard to me that he'd be able to get so many stooges and not have any of them go ahead and rat on him.

I haven't really watched much David Blaine either, to be honest. I've only seen a few things with him, mostly because I never know when or what channel his show is on....

**thegnome54** · 08-01-2007 01:53 AM

I propose we both concede ignorance and vow to try watching the other magician a bit more :p

When is mindfreak on, and what channels?

**sloth** · 08-01-2007 03:02 AM

Originally Posted by thegnome54

Criss Angel is not a street magician. He does his 'tricks' with paid actors and video cuts and all cheap tricks, really. David Blaine at least seems to be doing most of his tricks in front of real audiences and in real time, with no cheap tricks - just talent.

Uhh...
...Proof?
...Evidence, even?

...Please?
How do you know this?
The words "I know..." are best spoken by fools.