Criss Angel: Mindfreak

[jaguarr]

Let me preface this by saying that I absolutely loathe David Blaine. He single-handedly turned me off to magic and illusionists, which I used to really love. I caught Criss Angel's new show on A&E on Wednesday night and really enjoyed it. He's a bit over-dramatic at times, but that's a part of his charm in many ways. And he had me genuinely scratching my head at some of the illusions he pulled off (the butterfly from the paper one was pretty amazing if you caught it). The fact that he does so much of his stuff out in the open on the street and involving the general public makes it all the more remarkable.

Anyone catch his new show or seen him perform before? What did you think of him?

jag

 

[maxwell's demon]

all i know is i always used to walk by the NY theatre in midtown where he did his show and i got really tired of his face. he just seemed like David Blaine Goth™

maybe i'll check out the show though

 

[Valorman]

ive seen i think..2 of his shows and i was amazed by both of them.hes a pretty cool guy too and watching him do what he does is....chilling to say the least.its funny how calm he is about it too.just adds to the freakyness of it

lol and oh yeah..david blane sucks

"magic..you call that..magic..im david blane..watch me levitate...aauuaahhhhhhhhh"

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

wait, I haven't seen a David Blaine video for years, but the one I did see was amazing.
Why does he suck ?

 

[jaguarr]

all i know is i always used to walk by the NY theatre in midtown where he did his show and i got really tired of his face. he just seemed like David Blaine Goth™

maybe i'll check out the show though

Nahhh. David Blaine is just an arrogant ass. This guy's got sort of a punk rock thing going on, combined with some sometimes overly concerted mystique. His show's pretty entertaining. The favorite bit of mine that he did was just used as a cut scene between his major illusions he was doing. He was in a parking lot and approached a woman. He asked her if she had anything to write on in her purse, so she pulled a napkin out. He asked her to draw her favorite animal on the napkin, so she drew a butterfly. He then folded the napkin up and held it between his palms and acting like he was really concentrating. Then he unfolded the napkin and a live butterfly flew out and the drawing was gone. Pretty impressive illusion to pull off. Most of his stuff was live and with an unsuspecting crowd on the street, including full blown levitation of people from the crowd. They showed him walking around Vegas doing his levitation trick (he likes to put his arms out and throw his head back like Jesus when he does it, which is entertaining but probably not for the reasons he intended), freaking the general public out.

It's worth checking his show out.

jag

 

[maxwell's demon]

but aren't all those tricks just like david blaine? it seems like it's only the presentation that's changed.

 

[jaguarr]

but aren't all those tricks just like david blaine? it seems like it's only the presentation that's changed.

The presentation is definitely very different. Like I said, he's got more of a punk rock mentality that permeates what he does. Maybe I identify with that more. Some of his tricks are similar to Blaine's (let's face it, there's not a whole lot of new tricks and illusions under the sun, just different takes and presentations of them). The way he just roams around the street and does his tricks, though, taking away the element of being able to pre-rig gags in a more controlled environment, is what really impressed me.

jag

 

[Mr. Edward Hyde]

Man I had really wanted to see this show. I miss everything.

 

[Valorman]

The presentation is definitely very different. Like I said, he's got more of a punk rock mentality that permeates what he does. Maybe I identify with that more. Some of his tricks are similar to Blaine's (let's face it, there's not a whole lot of new tricks and illusions under the sun, just different takes and presentations of them). The way he just roams around the street and does his tricks, though, taking away the element of being able to pre-rig gags in a more controlled environment, is what really impressed me.

jag

and on top of all that.sometimes he does it blindfolded too..and i dont me.appears then ties a blindfold to his face i mean walking around new york for an hour blindfolded pulling random tricks.its crazy

 

[jaguarr]

and on top of all that.sometimes he does it blindfolded too..and i dont me.appears then ties a blindfold to his face i mean walking around new york for an hour blindfolded pulling random tricks.its crazy

Hadn't seen him do that. I wonder if they'll show him doing that on his new A&E series.

jag

 

[Equint77]

that troll was performing some trick where he stayed underwater for 2 days or something at Bryant Park across the street from my job.

By the time I got some interest to go check it out... he was already gone.

maybe I'll check his show out if it takes place in NYC.

 

[Son Of Logan]

Street magicians suck. All the stuff they show you on tv is edited down to make peoples reactions show at the right moment. Plus they take little bits and things they do during the trick and edit them out to make the tricks look more fantastic. My wife watched Criss Angel the other night. I couldn't take it.

And David Blaine sold his soul to the devil...j/k

 

[jaguarr]

^^^
I know what you're talking about, but a lot of what Angel was doing was done on steady shot camera with no cutaways while he was doing his tricks.

jag

 

[maxwell's demon]

^^^
I know what you're talking about, but a lot of what Angel was doing was done on steady shot camera with no cutaways while he was doing his tricks.

jag

but again, isn't that just what blain did? i remember seeing two specials, each with lots of steady cam, live-on-the-streets, tricks, including a variant of the butterfly trick (blain's version involved asking someone to write down their favorite word and then immediately pointing to a cab that was driving by with the word painted on the side of it!). he's also done the levitation thing a number of times on the streets. (i even know how it's done)

i think the part of the key is in what you can do wiht a lcutch of live material and "faked" live material added in later.

 

[jaguarr]

but again, isn't that just what blain did? i remember seeing two specials, each with lots of steady cam, live-on-the-streets, tricks, including a variant of the butterfly trick (blain's version involved asking someone to write down their favorite word and then immediately pointing to a cab that was driving by with the word painted on the side of it!). he's also done the levitation thing a number of times on the streets. (i even know how it's done)

i think the part of the key is in what you can do wiht a lcutch of live material and "faked" live material added in later.

As I alluded to in one of my previous posts in this thread, I really think there's relatively little that's new in the way of illusion and trickery. What makes each performer unique is their presentation and the personal spin or take they have on those illusions. David Blaine's really done nothing new in his tricks and illusions, either, other than his presentation and his particular spin on them.

That said, I'd love to learn how to pull off that levitation trick in public. I'd do it at work in a meeting when someone was disagreeing with me in a meeting. LOL!

jag

 

[maxwell's demon]

ok- so i saw the first ten minutes of the levitation episode.
I'll have to watch the rest before i decide ( i didn't see him "teach" a regular person to levitate- as he said he wanted to do), but i'd say he's got *something* going on.
While the opening levitiation bits were almost identical to ones i'd seen blain do a while ago, Angel did add a new "bit" to it, (i think- it's been a while since i saw the Blaine show).
Still, it didn't take long to figure out how it was done.

 

[Valorman]

How?

 

[kane9321]

i saw the show..liked it alot

 

[Superman]

Well someone tell me how the levitation thing is done. I've watched both of them do it and have no ideal how it's done.

 

[Superman=Routh]

This tv show looks like crap, has anyone heard his sucky theme song?

"minndddd freeakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk"

give me a break!

 

[Incrediblejeff]

I just watched the levitation episode yesterday,I was very impressed.I just find Chris Angel annoying ,and over-dramatic.

 

[jaguarr]

This tv show looks like crap, has anyone heard his sucky theme song?

"minndddd freeakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk"

give me a break!

It's not any worse than most of the other television theme songs on the air. At least the guy composed and performed it himself, which is more than most people who have their own television shows can say. Besides, I have a feeling he'd have named the show "Mind F**k" and had his theme song reflect that if the FCC would have let him get away with it.

jag

 

[Superman=Routh]

SINGS

lllllaaaaaaaa llaaaaaa Superherohypeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Spider-Who?]

criss angel is okay. i saw a special on him a couple years ago. he did some tricks and the major one was him under water in a giant tank for a few days. it was pretty disgusting, the water got REALLY murky and he was a giant prune. havent caught the new show.

 

[maxwell's demon]

i don't want to give the whole thing away, suffice to say that its actually 3 different techniques and ,unfortunately, the most impressive one is completely faked. a crane is used. this is why you'll notice that in the crane shots (where he goes up several feet) he generally has far smaller crowds of "real people" around. I don't mind revealing this because i don't consider that kind of trickery to be ""magic".


For the others, IF you're curious, look up the balducci effect and or "king rising" technique.
I won't post the explanations here.

(If you'd prefer it to remain a mystery- more power to you. i think belief in magic is a great thing- and i sometimes kick myself for trying to "figure out" how it's done.)

as for criss angel's "addition" to this trick, when you see him levitate up onto a chair, he really "is" using only his body to "levitate".

But if you watch closely, and if you look up those other 2 techniques, you can probably figure out how he does it pretty easily.