Obviously you were being facetious, but my point was just that Criss is a lot more than a "special effects" guy. YES anyone could do that, but he's filling time! Not everyone can do the rest of the things he does (consider meat hooks in back hung from helicopter...). Illusion or not...that was sick!

That was pretty sick. (But it was show business!)

And yeah, I take your point. He's a lot more than a special effects guy. But he makes himself appear less by using them. :-(

-Philip

Well, at least according to the reviews on TripAdvisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Re......ada.html the show hasn't improved appreciably. It is still ranked as one of the worst shows in Vegas coming in 437 out of 502 attractions

I have not seen BELIEVE but, artistically, I think combining a cirque production with any kind of magic show is a bad idea. The cirque performers are absolutely amazing at what they do, but they could care less about hiding the wires or traps they use in their show. To place this type of act in the same show as a magician would likely destroy the audience's temporary suspension of disbelief. They know the wires and traps are there, even if they can't see them.

I can't really comment on the choice of illusions within the show, the staging or the manner in which they are presented. However, it seems that an effort has been made to create some semblance of a plot line to tie the magic together. This may or may have worked, but the "effort" seems to be there.

In this sense, it is somewhat reminiscent of Doug Henning's theatrical efforts. In his shows, the scripting was painful and it was clear that Doug could neither dance nor act. The key difference however was that Henning's incredible personality and his mastery of cutting-edge illusions were strong enough to salvage the shows. By all accounts, this seems to be lacking in BELIEVE.

Kent