Iain, sincerely appreciate your honest discourse in exchanging ideas and thoughts. Best wishes!

I am surprised not to hear any reactions to the tasteless nature of the "raise the dead" segment of this show.

Criss draws parallels between the work of Houdini and himself, while I believe that Houdini's "debunking" would have probably targeted charlatans who attempt to do such things as...raise the dead. This comparison is laughable.

I have my ideas on how this effect took place, actually, I have three or four different explanations in my mind- old regurgitated material mainly.

If a cadaver was actually used: there are some serious ethical issues at hand- I don't think I need to clarify too much- from exposing autopsy scars, an open mouth with liquid coming out of it, handling the corpse, etc. I doubt this is the case though, as nobody in their right mind would allow a family to see the dead face of their loved one appear on television with fake blood oozing out of its mouth.

If the cadaver was really a living human: 1st. Just appearing to be unethical and demonstrating that you "are"- is indeed unethical. 2nd. Criss is an illusionist. I've never seen him claim to ACTUALLY be conducting miracles. Except for now. I hold little respect for those who claim to be "real," rather than just impress people with their abilities and acknowledge that there is a clever trick involved- let suspension of disbelieve take over for a while.

If he's acknowledging that his work is not real, then creating illusions with dead bodies is a disgraceful desecration. If he wants us to believe it's all real, then that's just d-baggery, not much better than John Edwards. And I think this applied equally to whether or not the body was really a dead guy.

We're all assuming it wasn't a real cadaver, right? Though I can think of ways to achieve the same thing with a cadaver.

I was VERY shocked to see Banachek's involvement in this "demonstration." It's awfully "icky."

Robvs:

I watched the episode with the cadaver and didn't find it all that interesting as it just seemed like a big 'stunt' of sorts. I would partially defend him by saying that I think he is trying to play both sides of the fence. I don't remember exactly what he said but I think he was trying to word things in such a way that many people would think he is claiming to be doing something supernatual, while not actually saying that and using more ambigious terms to stay on the natural side of things. But I only watched it once and was barely half-interested in what he was doing and saying, so who knows. I would be surprised if Banachek would be involved in a show claiming to do something supernatual.

Criss' raise the dead stunt was on par with a Haunted House - totally didn't believe any part of it. Now having watched his crocodile escape and his "photo op" with a Presidential Look-a-like and even MORE stunts with stooges and spliced together reaction shots VS special effects, I have lost any shred of respect for him as a magician.

He even said on his show that there was no difference between street magic and stage magic - and I thought... "Yes there is! There is a HUGE difference!" The reason Criss doesn't think there is a difference is because he doesn't do actual close up or street magic. He treats all his effects (even his escapes) like stage effects. It's totally rehearsed, no surprises, everyone is in on it and in the end it's just a show about Criss waving his hands and breathing heavy.

Yet, you had to see them flock to him at Magic Live this year.

Yet, there was a team of "paranormal experts" on hand to "prove" that something supernatural had occurred.

I actually found that quite humorous. I'm a forever "skeptic" (though I'm sure there's a better term for someone who is "in the know" with various types of charlatans/scams/etc). I had a great idea of how Criss' effects were done, and the addition of these bozos telling us all how it was a supernatural power totally and humorously reinforced any skepticism I have about the paranormal and paranormal investigations. Was actually a good experiment in proving that those guys will believe anything. Criss should have embraced that. Penn and Teller would have.

I admit I am not a fan of Criss.

But didn't he make a big deal a few years back of how much he hated people who claimed to contact the dead and manipulate peoples attachments to dead relatives/friends. He did a whole episode on it, debunking them and their supernatural claims. Even calling them scum, or was that just him bashing a member on the Café here who appeared on his other series? Who claimed what he did for his effect was spirit communication? Almost getting into fisticuffs over it?

Seems Criss has been looking in the mirror too much.

Did anyone not think this was geared towards Halloween and put in Spike's rotation for that particular night as it aired a couple days before Halloween?

Does that make a difference? I did a live Halloween cabaret show this year. At a after party for emering heavy metal label 'The Black Wreath' Halloween Heavy metal pool party. It was a theatrical story telling production based on various Halloween myths, incorporating various imagery a d urban legends. For instance the urban legend about razor blades being in Halloween candy or apples. I built a 7 minute razor blade eating routine on this with my assistant playing a shape shifting witch, who ends up feeding me the razor blades, ending in erotic BDSM influenced escape finale of me duct tapped to a chair with the razors strung between both our mouths.

The live audience of hundreds of people and the venue owners (who are well known 'swingers') appreciated this multi layered story. Asking us back for more shows and offering free drinks and their 'services' for the rest of the night.

There is more to Halloween than gore and dead bodies. At least David Blaine has class.

On the MO exposed to Katie, by convincing her that he'd shown both sides of the cards at the beginning he changed the effect from what he claimed "I knew you pick blue" into an effect of 'I'll make writing appear on whichever color you pick'. Proving I suppose that he really doesn't understand what he's supposed to be doing.

Well, this is what Magic has become. At least for the masses.

Criss "The Mindfreak" Angel.

Sad really.

Well...

This is true and why they're having such a hard time with the live stage shows as the same stuff isn't easy to re-create live on stage.

Just referring to the above comment. One of the top managers just came back from an overseas holiday with his family from Las Vegas and was ranting about how fantastic it was, the casinos, the food the shows and people in general. The only disappointment was the magic show they went to by Angel. It apparently was crap. That, straight from a lay person who's only interest was being entertained, and the only low point of their holiday.

Am I wrong? Wouldn't you expect, whether laymen or magicians, that when you watch a magician (or whatever title he chooses to go by) on t.v. and then go see them live, that they would expect more of the same thing? That's what they expect to see live.That's what they're paying for.

It baffles me in the scenes where you see Criss and his team of "masterminds" (I'm sure he'll take that name) sitting there brainstorming about the greatness they can achieve, that not one of them (c'mon Banachek) won't say "first and foremost lets create something that can also be performed live on stage in the show people are paying $100 a ticket for."

How about instead of going out on the streets, on rooftops, to empty parking lots and throughout the casino, they focus more on doing some performance pieces from on stage on the t.v. show - without editing or t.v. tricks. That would drive his live show and connect the t.v. show and the live stage show. This is a financial windfall if done properly and would assure his place in Vegas and magic history for years to come.

It only stands to reason, for Criss Angel or anyone. My creed would be - if it can't be done live on stag, Bruce Jenner and Ann Jillian and other non-magicians do wonders with the help of t.v.

I see nothing wrong with TV magicians doing 'TV magic' here and there, they are using that medium so why not exploit it? Yes some go overboard and plain 'cheat'. That is not the point being argued here.

It's that Criss has multiple times disparaged others for doing exactly what he is doing in this new routine. He has basically gone against his own 'values', which he publicly stated in one of his earlier shows.
Also almost getting into a physical altercation with another performer for claiming/doing much less than this, a Café member who performed a beautiful and in no way offensive routine involving 'spirits'.

Can someone more explicitly cite this "altercation(s)." I'd like to learn or read more.

Wow, Bard...well put!

Doug

His Mindfreak "show" was aired originally in A&E. It´s a medium (no pun intended) to small channel at best that specializes in "reality shows" And still, they wouldn´t take him back. Now the new show is on Spike TV, and even smaller channel with an even less audience universe. I wonder why??

His 'fight/feud ' with Jim is touched on in this thread. If Criss did 'agree' to it beforehand, he came out looking like a ass, even more so now.

Why hate Criss Angel