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there were the people in the lobby pretending to freak out.

I have to disagree.

If you look, the people in the "audience" are - his mother, brothers and production crew.

In my opinion - the audience for this effect was the TV audience - not the people in the hallway. The reactions were to make the spectacle seem like it was happening - but the effect wasn't meant for anyone in that hall.

theaceofthespade wrote:what i meant about the stage thing was that if they make a mistake then its done and too late. if chris angel makes a mistake with that trick then he can just do it over again and no one is the wiser.

You can't rationally limit that to Angel. Have you seen the botch Derren Brown made of trying to get someone to give him their wallet on a seafront promenade in series 2 of Trick of the Mind?

@Tomo: i wasnt limiting that to chris angel at all, but we are talking about his trick.

@demitri: i see what your saying, and i can apreciate a trick just for the camera, however to me that still is no different than the magic that happened in evil dead two when he beat himself with his own hand. no camera trickery there. and i think that thats the fork in the road between you and i's perception of his show. to me, it is a show which (at least pretends) to film a magician performing for people. i wont speak for you, as that would annoy the hell out of me if someone did it to me . but, i am watching to see what incredible tricks he does for regular people.

I will concede that the hallway illusion wasn't pulled off perfectly, and it wasn't the greatest effect I've ever seen - but the fact that it takes no skill to do, doesn't make it an ineffective trick.

Are you implied Chris Angel has no skill?

OKBUN wrote:

I will concede that the hallway illusion wasn't pulled off perfectly, and it wasn't the greatest effect I've ever seen - but the fact that it takes no skill to do, doesn't make it an ineffective trick.

Are you implied Chris Angel has no skill?

I think he is implying that trick takes no skill.. nothing to do with Criss Angel.

The one thing I dont like is how people on the show, whether it be a consultant, camera man or family member, claim that he does a lot of his effects impromptu. That is a straight out lie. Yes, some of them are impromptu but not all of them. I was watching one the other day and I'm pretty sure someone referred to his walking on water as "taking place in a real, impromptu situation". That is what I am against. Blatant lies. I dont mind if a stooge or 2 is used either.. just dont lie to the audience

edit: Banachek said "It will show there are NO gimmicks in the pool.. because how could he walk through those people on the water?". I'm not revealing the method but there was a gimmick in the pool.

BizKiTRoAcH wrote:
The one thing I dont like is how people on the show, whether it be a consultant, camera man or family member, claim that he does a lot of his effects impromptu. That is a straight out lie.

wow, first of im surprised this thread still alive

an yeah I agree fully there, i think I already said earlier in this thread about them saying its something it isnt. glad im not alone in that thinking. ok, magic is pretty much the art of lying in some opinions, but surely you can carry out a decent effect without lying in that sense - it just makes him look bad in mine and im sure many others eyes. And its kind of insulting that they expect people to believe that.

i agree guys. i just hate that, with his incredible crew, he had to resort to completely staging an effect.

@ Demitri - I do watch the show I think he's entertaining to watch and they might have been said before but I do think the spectators overreact like they're being paid to do so and the camera tricks are misleading to magic in general. The audience for the deja vu trick were the audience watching it at home like you said so doesn't criss want you to watch it and interpret it as you will?

Bizkit - if you're referring to a comment that Luke Jermay made - he never said he can perform his magic impromptu - he said he could perform it live, in front of a real audience. These two things are completely different - and I feel this is why I think some problems/complaints come from a lack of distinction. At no point in any of the Mindfreak shows does ANYONE use the word impromptu (at least I've never heard it).

As for Banacheck saying there are no gimmicks in the pool - as I do not know the method for the walking on water illusion - I can only believe him when he says it. Perhaps a gimmick was used in the pool - but the pool itself wasn't gimmicked - either case, that's a semantics argument, and as I'm relatively sure Mr. Angel can't actually walk on water, obviously a gimmick was used. I also don't believe Banacheck ever referred to the water effect as "impromptu"

Misanthropy - yes, I would say Angel wants you to interpret the effect as you will. My question is - BEFORE you came on a board and read about how it was "faked" - I want you to tell me what your initial reaction was. What was the first thing that went through your mind?

Of course the spectators overreact, and not because they're being paid. In some cases, yes - they are paid. In other cases, they're prodded to give a more emphatic reaction. If you're going to point this out as something to be attacked, you'll also have to point the fingers at every sitcom ever produced that uses an APPLAUSE sign. But why bother? It's like going on a board to complain about the level of applause on a joke on Seinfeld that you didn't find especially funny. Yes - spectators overreact, but that's all part of television, and it's something you can't do without. But to put it all on Criss Angel is ridiculous when EVERY magician on film/TV does the same thing. Again, I point to David from the L&L videos. There's no WAY that's how he normally acts. Complain about one - you HAVE to complain about all of them. You can't cherry pick.

Ace - the show DOES perform for people. In some instances, the audience is the crowd of people around him - in others, it's the television audience. You have to differentiate between the two - and to build your argument against everything based upon one effect is, I'm sorry to say, wrong. Not a different opinion - it's wrong. You can dislike the effect, that's fine - but you cannot lump everything into one pile and make a decision based solely on one instance.

Also - my main problem is how people continue to refer to it as a camera trick. It was NOT A CAMERA TRICK. There were no edits/cuts/post production bits done on the hallway segment. Please stop referring to a trick performed on camera for a TV audience as a CAMERA TRICK.

As for doing tricks for regular people, I've seen quite a bit of this with his on the street segments. Dove productions, card tricks, cell phone in bottle, coins across - etc. He's been doing quite a bit of this.

I would like examples of Criss Angel flat out lying, as Bizkit and Down have claimed he does. I'm not daring or challenging - I would just like an example of when Criss Angel or any of the consultants have come right out and claimed that all of his material is impromptu (or have even uttered that word on the show). Personally, I haven't heard anything of the sort - but I could be wrong.

Before I came on a board and read how it was "faked" (I hadn't noticed anything about shadows when I saw it) my initial reaction was "thats not that great they just could have walked backwards while he was covering the camera" What was your initial reaction when seeing it?

Dave Baram (Criss' Manager) said "Now what he wants to try is absolutely unpresidented (probably spelt that wrong). Not just walk on water for a moment like he did on that episode. But he is going to attempt to walk the entire length of the pool with a live crowd iin the water with him the entire time"

John Farrel (Production Designer) said: "Its difficult because he just wants to walk in.. Very impromptu.."

Misanthropy wrote:Before I came on a board and read how it was "faked" (I hadn't noticed anything about shadows when I saw it) my initial reaction was "thats not that great they just could have walked backwards while he was covering the camera" What was your initial reaction when seeing it?

I never noticed the shadows that were pointed out by the comments - I spotted the method in a different way. Since it's out in the open and Criss himself exposed the method on the radio (on Penn Jillette's radio show, in case anyone was wondering) - I noticed that the girl in the couple closest to Criss moved to her left (TV audience's right) just a SPLIT second before Angel fully blocked the camera's view.

My initial reaction was - "oops, timing wasn't right there"

Bizkit -

At no point does Dave Baram say "impromptu" - and his comment is exactly what happened. As for John Farrell - he's not actually a magician, so the use of impromptu is quite telling there (ie - I don't think he realizes the difference between live and impromptu, either). My point is, no magician on that show uses the word - because magicians only tend to use impromptu when talking to other magicians.

Do you walk up to people on the street with a deck of cards and say "I want to perform a card trick for you. No set up - this is completely impromptu"? Of course not (at least I hope not ).

I've only ever heard a pro on that show refer to it as "live" - but naturally the idea is to build the illusion that it's all "on the fly" or "impromptu". We all know it's not, as we have more knowledge on the subject than his audience. Had he actually said the water or hallway illusion was impromptu (he didn't) then I could see making a point about it.

Thank you, though for pointing out that it WAS said.

Well I wasnt going mad.. SOMEONE said the word

I was wondering as i had seen the latest mindfreak episode from the current season as criss performed a sweet sexy trick.
He has the usual crowd around him and ask a spectator to choose a
girl from a pin up calendar.
Then he takes a can of shaving floam and sprays the floam on the window of the store behind him.The choosen girl is now appearing in shiny colours on that floam.After this,criss gets a his huge hankerchief to get covered in front of this mirage,which is hold by 2 spectators.He counts 1...2.....3 the covering coat gets raised in the air ...and woop! the choosen pinup model stands in the front of criss. nice trick but take a look at the attached png´s (Note from Mods: As unauthorised publication of such images may contravene copyright, they have all been removed.)
nuff said ? pretty poor to take that inside the show ....instead of re-capping this illusion.

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