Nice to see Doug has been let out of the Tool shed,,,,get back in there and finish my product!

Also to hear that Harley is pleasing himself,,,over here we call it Mas********n

"get back in there and finish my product!"


no

I like a man who beats about the bush.

Regardless of what we think of other magicians, each brings their own unique style to the screen or stage for all to witness. I enjoy watching the magic specials on television and observing the style and demeanor of the magician. As Todd said earlier, some magicians do very dangerous stunts that he would not attempt. Because of these dangerous stunts, they rely on others to protect their safety should something go wrong.

Todd, you are a magic historian. Can you post some incidents where magicians had tricks, illusions or stunts go haywire and cause injury or death? I have heard of some events, but cannot remember the circumstances. Stay safe over the holidays.

Glenn

Glenn,
It's good to see you here. How's your ashtray collections. Please forgive me for that.

As for danger, there are two stunts that have killed more than any others: the Bullet Catch and Buried Alive. Ben Robinson and Larry White's book on the Bullet Catch told the story of the people that have died doing that bit. And who can forget the sight of the ground sinking in on the guy that died doing the buried alive a few years ago?

There's been at least one cut-in-half illusion, where that's exactly what happened. Some magicians might say, "Well, it was the assistant, not the magician", but in this day and age, I think it's considered impolite to share bodily fluids with your audience. The guy was tried an exonerated.

And I read of somebody drowning in a water-torture cell, a few years ago.

Todd, this will be relevent for you.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051130/sc_nm/ebola_
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Thanks Todd. My ashtrays are down to only two now. I am attending a departmental Christmas party with door prizes, only no ash trays given away there. Seriously, I appreciate your input. The one I heard about was the latter you mentioned. Good to hear from you and read your posts. Have a happy and safe holiday. Glenn

My $0.02.

I like Criss. His approach to illusion is unique. There are a few things which I'm not a fan of:

* His attitude. As has been repeated ad-nauseum, but my biggest problem with Criss' magic is that it seems to be all about him. "Look! I can escape from a garbage can!" "Look! I can suspend myself from huge meat hooks!" "Look! I can walk through a window!" It feels as though he has forgotten that magic isn't about amazing yourself, it is about amazing the spectators. I prefer to do my magic with spectators, as opposed to to them, or for them. Blaine knows this. Copperfield knows this. Angel seems to have missed that boat.

* The way his show is cut/looks. Take a look at Cyril Takayama's specials: That is how magic should look on television. Cuts are kept to a minimum, very much creating the "like you were there, in the audience" feel. Compare this to Angel's latest special, buried alive. I've never seen something that looked more fake in my entire life. Anyone with a backyard and a bunch of friends could replicate his "performance".

* Cheating for TV. Enough said.

Thanks Cary,
I'm heading out to Las Vegas in a few weeks to do some creative work on season two. There are a lot of things I would like to see done in this coming season and much of it is more than just new tricks. There's a great deal of learning to be done about what worked and what didn't, and building from there. It will be interested to see what can be done.

There seems to be some TV edits at work in this series,in the same episode as Hummer/bed of nails was a frisbee trick.Thanks to some hammy acting I guessed an impromptu frisbee game was leading to a trick.Sure enough he floats a frisbee from the ground up from where it landed! Then throws it to someone to examine(not in one shot I may add)Isnt this just as bad as Blaine?
Anyway saw the truck stunt and as someone posted on page 1 the board seemed above his chest and didn't look that impressive to me.The production assistant crying with amazement was too cheesy as well.

Just my opinion

Wilson/alan to henning to Copperfield to blaine to angel to ?

Mr. Robbins,

If there was one message that I would ask you to take with you, it would be that his magic needs to be more about his interaction with his spectators and less about him.

After all, what's the point of doing magic without spectators?

Magic WITH people, not magic FOR/TO people.

Oh yeah. I loved the woodchipper.

I think the problem with Criss is also the fact that he came to the publics attention after Blaine, this hasn't helped his cause especially as he does a simular style of street magic which I know Blaine didn't create however he did in many lay peoples eyes. They have limited knowledge and very short term memories these days with any celebrity.

In the UK Derren Brown doesn't get compared to Blaine or tarred with the same brush as his style is so different. Criss comes across as a more theatrical Blaine clone who does stage stuff as well.

Since my last post in this topic I have done five gigs and have asked people why they love or hate Blaine, the responses where 70% for and 30% didn't really care for him. The people that were for him said he's a strange guy who could walk up to you and just do something weird and then leave..

I took it that from that they mean he has no ego, he is almost like a modern day Shaman, wondering around doing amazing things. Criss is clearly not this, it doesn't came across that way, he clearly wants the "Your great!" responses. Also he has overstepped the beliveability factor.. The public watched Blaine do pretty standard close up tricks and where almost teased by this levitation thing with REAL reactions then at the end they saw it (Although an enhanced version) but it was theatrically beautiful in terms of leading them along to this one moment and then finishing the first special.

Criss bombards the audience with this stuff all the way through to the point where at least 60% of the people I spoke with who had seen Criss on E4 (UK Channel) simply said there's no way he could do any of that live, its all set up.

No one said that about Blaines levitation as it was on real people, unusual people, screaming girls and you just knew it wasn't stooged be you a magician or not.

To create the impossible is one thing, to make people care is another. Geller in his hey day would tense and strain at a spoon or fork with people in sheer astonishment, the spoon would bend a few degrees and they were transifixed. Criss makes a women in the Vegas levitate in an incredible way and no one cares..

It's like watching your favourite singer mime on David Letterman, it just loses part of it's appeal. The moment an audience think camera trick you lose them. If they want to see special effects they watch Star Wars or King Kong. The thing that makes magic, mind reading, illusion and the impossible so beautiful is not just in it's methods but 100 times more importantly it's application.

Blaine doing the Invisble Deck with minimal words and his persona gets more reactions than the same trick done by some guy wearing a playing card print tie and waist coat saying all the same tired lines and unfortunately Criss trying to be dark and myserious is too much, it becomes theatrical and clearly a show which loses an real element.

Just my thoughts, I really enjoyed Criss's first Mind Freak but feel it is almost too much with a series. In the UK Derrens specials get far ore viewers than his series because with a series if you miss it you can catch it next week. A special is a one off event.

A.R.

Well said!

Andrew, great post and very interesting statistics! Interesting because you actually found people who had watched the programs and knew who Angle and Blaine were.

Way back in October I attended the Maryland Renaissance Fair. I watched Johnny Fox do his act three times. Each time there came a point that Johnny asked the audience (by show of hands) who watched Criss Angel. In three audiences (of over 300 spectators each) there were exactly NO hands raised!

I started asking the question at some of my gigs (especially younger crowd walk-around gigs). Many of my audiences remember Blaine (but not by name) and thought his show was cool. None had yet seen the Angel shows. Probably because it is shown on a network that attracts very few viewers and the demographics it attracts is not Criss’ demographic!

The difference between our two countries is interesting.

All that said I have seen only four of the Angle shows. The blindfold car drive (OK, a good turn), the Hellstroming bit (sort of ho-hum), The Hummer bed of nails one (great stunt and risky) and his barrel escape hanging from the crane.

The barrel escape was nice and had the potential of being a good show but the commercial breaks spoiled the ending – the ending was shown for or five times before that actual conclusion! That ruined the punch line! It is not Criss’ fault! That blame goes to the producers and the management of the special.

I liked the Hummer – bed of nails bit. I’ve done the bed of nails and had a 400-pound man stand on me using nothing more than a board to displace the weight. So I clearly appreciate the stunt. No camera tricks were needed!

I enjoyed the two shows I watched and wish Chris well. I would hope that his shows or some version of them (maybe an hour long special once a year) could get sold to a major network. More magic seen on TV means more gigs for me!

I always got an upsurge in gigs following a Blaine special, so far I’ve got nothing from the Mind Freak series.

The same thing happens in the UK Harry.. Derren love him or loath him has done us proud in terms of creating public interest in Mentalism, equally Blaine did the same thing over here..

The way I get honest views from lay people is quite simple, I call friends and tell them if they are not watching anything in particular to check out the magic show.. I always say apparently this guy is great.
Then after the show I ask them what they honestly thought.

Other times I simply mention to people at gigs, not all know the guys by their names but you can pretty much tell who they are talking about..

A really interesting comment came from a good friend totally not into magic (He's in recruitment) His comment about Angel was "I got the impression he was a stunt man that has been taught magic." Strange how people pass judgement..

I guess he saw the fire, the nails and the barrel and put Criss into that category?

A.R.

I tend to believe we as performers are too critical of others, sometimes it is adventageous to just let others do their gig and not be over <anal>ytical of anothers performance or methods. I've been to 4 of Criss' shows when he was doing his shows in NYC, for the size of the theatre Criss and his team did an awesome job, the performance was nothing but professional.

One thing did stand out about his shows, I strangely had this sense of Dejavu. I knew I had seen a similiar performance, and it dawned on me, this was very close to a lot of the Alice Cooper shows I saw as a teenager and young adult. I wouldn't have suprised me to find out Bob Ezrin was backing Criss just by seeing some of the performance so similiar to Alice Coopers. I'm not implying Criss copied any part, his stage presence and music is unique and probally contributed greatly to his success. Alice used a lot of "sideshow" style effects, combined with his music it made him one of the most successful music performers in music history and to this day, a lot of other sucessful musical groups contribute their success to the style of Alice Cooper.

I've seen all his specials, did I care for all the effects? No, not really but I'm not throwing stones as my own act has recieved rave reviews by some and horrible by others who did not like my method and presentation. I believe both Criss and David have tapped a market out there that has been ignored too long or maybe not even ignored, just overlooked. While even some laymen don't like his magic or presentation, if Criss and David can continue to WOW even just a few, they've created some magic in someones life or left them with a memory, that's a good thing. I just hate hearing others poke and stab other performers in a spiteful way as to try to demean or damage them. Both Criss and David have worked hard over the years to achieve what they have gotten. Have they maybe fallen victim to over hyped media playing? Maybe, but there are still millions tuning in to their specials, buying their backed products and dvds.

I look foward to the day when Criss starts his stage shows again, if he ever does. My children are now old enough to appreciate the new generation of magic he has to offer.


Jake

Wait till this kid from japan comes to the states cyrl he has talent

Isn't he from the States?
Steve V