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It's hot all over Youtube.

I know most of you guys are spared from Criss Angel's Mindfreak programs. Just to give you a jist, all of the stunts he does on the show are taped and viewed by "special" audiences. I don't have the right or credibility to say they are "stooges" because I don't have any basis.

However, he kept mentioning that his latest stunt will be done LIVE at the Spyglass Resort in Clearwater Beach, Florida. This new stunt will involve escaping a bulding that was about to be demolished using intense explosives. Apparently, the fans at the spot were very early and recorded the event which was supposed to be shown live on July 30th 10pm at A&E.

The local Fox news team also reported that they saw Criss come out way before the building exploded, no dust on his precious blings and come back after it's done. I guess at this time, they have shown Criss that was supposed to be inside the building, trying to get out of the cuffs but then it was all pretaped as well. They just covered him with dust when the building exploded.

This is not a personal expose'. I don't even think this would even help change your mind about Criss. I just shown you guys what the fans discovered. Check out all the vidoes in Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk-DBLVNxHQ

Local Fox news team expose'
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7108115&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Just one tip for Criss, never attempt to do something LIVE when it's pretaped (or the LIVE cameras inside the building are pretaped).

No matter who the magician is, no one should expose any stunt or magic.
Criss Angel a great escape artist does really risk his life, but sometimes it is fake, but that doesnt mean you must tell everyone you that you know.

I just hate it!
A great stunt and already everyone gets into revealing it.

They should seriously stop.

Magicislife wrote:No matter who the magician is, no one should expose any stunt or magic.
Criss Angel a great escape artist does really risk his life, but sometimes it is fake, but that doesnt mean you must tell everyone you that you know.

I just hate it!
A great stunt and already everyone gets into revealing it.

They should seriously stop.

But Criss ain't no escape artist... he's a joke.

Besides... Copperfield escaped an imploding building when Criss was still in diapers and it looked far more legit that this hype.

Craig Browning wrote:

Magicislife wrote:No matter who the magician is, no one should expose any stunt or magic.
Criss Angel a great escape artist does really risk his life, but sometimes it is fake, but that doesnt mean you must tell everyone you that you know.

I just hate it!
A great stunt and already everyone gets into revealing it.

They should seriously stop.

But Criss ain't no escape artist... he's a joke.

Besides... Copperfield escaped an imploding building when Criss was still in diapers and it looked far more legit that this hype.

Yeah Criss Angel is just c*** (not the best) these days. I loved him when he came out with his mind freak. However I think his ego has gotten to him. Plus the 8 screen view of him excaping is kind of stupid he should of just had one. Pretty simple in my opinion however I won't put a method out. I liked Copperfield's much better and more real. Furthermore he performs all of his magic live not like criss angel any more. Just the same act everytime I see Criss Angel on tv. Just a tv star/Magician and rock star. I know he has talent I don't know why he doesn't use it. He is famous but he should his knowledge and try and make it real as possible. Because isn't that what magic is all about.

Magicislife wrote:No matter who the magician is, no one should expose any stunt or magic.
Criss Angel a great escape artist does really risk his life, but sometimes it is fake, but that doesnt mean you must tell everyone you that you know.

I just hate it!
A great stunt and already everyone gets into revealing it.

They should seriously stop.

Easy on the rpeaching there mate. A live audience sees him clearly walking away from it and expose it?!?! Whats the problem. If it can only work pre-recroded and edited format it's little less than Hollywood stunts and therefore doesn't belong on this forum.

I used to think that there was nothing wrong with tailoring a routine to fit the environment in which it's performed. Meaning that you could play to slightly different rules for a TV show than you could for a live event in front of flesh and blood people. But back then, I was thinking about frame boundaries, depth of field and composition to provide the magician with safe zones of misdirection.

Criss Angel and his like have taken things too far.

This case, for example, has no place in a 'magic show'.

Calling Criss Angel a magician or escapologist on the back of this (and similar) performances, is much like heralding William Shatner's ability to be beamed from one place to another.

If Criss Angel's show is ever cancelled, maybe the networks could fill the spot with reruns of Bewitched? I can just imagine a whole new generation of teen magicians trying to deconstruct the magic of Elizabeth Montgomery!

I would now like to get to my point on bringing this up.

If Criss wants a LIVE stunt. Please do a LIVE one. If you can't do it, then stick to the old pretaped routine. Nothing wrong there. You could use all the "tricks" and camera illusions you want.

The best Mindfreak shows are from his first season. Where he is not "famous" yet. The ideas are good and fresh. Stunts have a "real" feel into it. Oh well.

I'm wondering whether the increasing naffness of Criss Angel might have something to do with meddling from networks, advertisers, investors and other non-creative moneymen, trying to make every show bigger, crazier and more impossible than the last - to a point where it has to stop being a magic show...

But watching the actual televised stunt, my wife came up with a very good comment:

'is this supposed to be exciting?'

And, sure enough, aside from the promise that the building would fall down at some point, the whole thing was dull as dishwater.

Come on. If you're going to take so much control that you need to cheat the whole darn thing and use prerecorded footage, at least put some drama and excitement in there!

On the flip side of the coin, I remember Paul Daniels doing a Halloween special many years ago, in which he closed the show with an escape from an iron maiden. He was chained in, and a paper screen was placed in front of him. The idea was that after a couple of minutes, the door of the iron maiden would slam shut, before which, Paul had to escape and tear through the screen to thunderous applause.

Time ran out, and the door slammed shut to the sound of screams from the crew. The house lights went up, and the audience was quietly asked to leave the theatre.

End of show.

Some hours later, the BBC had received so many phone calls from distressed viewers, they made Paul Daniels get up out of bed make a live broadcast to prove that he was really safe and well.

Now that was a stunt - and a real reaction - all from a magician considered to have none of the 'edge' associated with mr Angel.

And I don't think Paul Daniels had to cheat any of the iron maiden escape for TV - although I have occasional doubts about the spontaneous downpour that concluded his Houdini seance..

Noodlesoup wrote:I would now like to get to my point on bringing this up.

If Criss wants a LIVE stunt. Please do a LIVE one. If you can't do it, then stick to the old pretaped routine. Nothing wrong there. You could use all the "tricks" and camera illusions you want.

The best Mindfreak shows are from his first season. Where he is not "famous" yet. The ideas are good and fresh. Stunts have a "real" feel into it. Oh well.

I will agree with that point of view... most of that material is stuff Criss had been working on for over a decade at that point vs. all the slap-it-together crapola he's introduced since... much of it blatant rip-off from older Copperfield stunts (such as this building implosion thing and his outdoor levitations)

When Criss was still hungry, as we say in the trade, he was far superior a showman and innovator than he's become as the result of a misguided ego and the unique "high" fame can render. I've seen this kind of success (and even experienced a modicum of it) destroy people who were rightly awesome... the delusion of success can be very destructive.

As To the Idiotic Idea That Criss is a "Rock Star"... I've yet to see anything of his hit Billboard or "the charts" but have heard from music industry insiders that he's an even bigger joke on that front than he is in the magic world. In other words, he knows squat about music and said industry and most see him as being little other than another wannabe garage band that's barely suitable for local bar gigs.

I'm wondering whether the increasing naffness of Criss Angel might have something to do with meddling from networks, advertisers, investors and other non-creative moneymen, trying to make every show bigger, crazier and more impossible than the last - to a point where it has to stop being a magic show...

This is a huge chunk of truth pc... I remember watching Copperfield suffer from similar in-put in the early 80s; especially as his contracts with the corporations that "owned" him, were coming to a close and they were working him to death... quite literally -- the goal in such instances, is to burn out the "property" so it cannot continue onward and profit from the advantages laid in place by said "sponsors"... this is an old game in show biz that was most common in the music world but found its way into other aspects of show biz in the late 60s and early 70s. A look at the horror stories of child stars from that era will give you some insight as to how cruel this scenario can be.

On some levels Criss is a "Victim" of such scenarios but at the same time, it is his own ego that has allowed him to volunteer for the position of pawn (drone/worker bee) for these backers whose ONLY interest is the financial bottom line, not whether Criss survives or is seen as being a "genuine" artist, etc.

Frighteningly we are all susceptible to such things in that so many of us host deep felt fantasies of becoming the next big mega-star of magic and thus, we're easily blinded and become perfect prey for such "investors". Ironically, it is we who seek them out first, busing our butts in creating a solid sales pitch for winning them over

That was the most boring video I've ever seen. What a terrible illusion.

Mahoney wrote:That was the most boring video I've ever seen. What a terrible illusion.

I wasn't impressed either.

I figured that with all the advantages Chriss Angel works with (ie without the reality of performance and the benefit of choosing exactly what shots to use and what people to use) he could have made something more impressive than jumping up, dirt covered, from a ditch and yelling "boo".

just another poor working effect with a budget from Criss Angel

Not only that, if they're going to pre-record the whole escape procedure, make it more than one locked door after another and a pocketful of lock picks.

How about setting fire to the inside of the building and have him contend with that?

It's controlled, it's stage managed, it can be absolutely anything you want it to be!

But the Mindfreak team decided to go for borning.

Ho hum.

pcwells wrote:Not only that, if they're going to pre-record the whole escape procedure, make it more than one locked door after another and a pocketful of lock picks.

How about setting fire to the inside of the building and have him contend with that?

It's controlled, it's stage managed, it can be absolutely anything you want it to be!

But the Mindfreak team decided to go for borning.

Ho hum.

Copperfield was in a safe and then, as all hope seemed lost, reappeared on a flat sheet of steel setting on top of a couple of construction horses.

... not bad for a Jewish kid from Jersey...

Yup, as much as much as I dislike Copperfileld's Mister-Smooth persona, he does have an understanding of drama.

And drama is something that Angel's 'remake' was sorely lacking.