You know better than to even ask this question, don't you?

Yes, I do know better and I knew an answer wouldnt come of it but it is driving me insane !!!!!

BIG reasons Cyril is so much better.

First his performance is MUCH better.
His image is better, not the crusty greesy Gothic crap.
He uses the structure of 3 for all his performances, which is put in every magic book written.
He uses principles in his first 2 phases that most people who do magic know. Then he does the sucker effect for the end.

All his effects still tell a story of some type.

Criss Angel just does a effect.
Lets look at it, HMMM Split a lady into 2..
Phase 1 pick someone
phase 2 Pick someone else cause she is too short.
Phase 3 Split her in 1/2 and let everyone fake scream as the Top 1/2 of the lady runs off and the camera has a perfect track to roll on to follow her.

OR hey lets bring up is Disappearing Episode, he disappears a girl sitting on a Patio Chair using a sheet. YET at the end of his DVD he disappears someone else in front of a live audiance and makes a HUGE deal out of it.. SORRY but where is the climax again? Isn't it the same trick?

Cyril
Coin/salt shaker through glass
Phase 1 Barrowed Coin passes through glass, Most magicians will notice Cyril's ring and also know you don't need Stooges to do this trick.
Phase 2 Pulls a salt shaker through the glass. Most magicains at this point might be able to come up with a OK idea of maybe how it happened. But would mostly be a little lost.

In most of his shows he will RECAP at this point, because people have short memmories.

Phase 3, Makes a coin get stuck in the middle of the glass, between 2 spectator's hands. Once again a sucker effect where you believe it passed through but ended up with an unexpected twist.

Cyril always includes people, and puts his effects together in 3's Even when he does a effect like Dropping his head, he still does a phase of 3 building upto it.

Where criss angel would run out into the street and try to scare the crap out of people with no buildup at all. So his effect ends up like a lightbalb blowing, the magic orgasim happens but it is over in a second.

This blew my mind away when I first saw it I also liked the one he did with the alligator

Yes-- Cyril has MUCH BETTER SHOWMANSHIP than Criss Angel or David Blaine.

I had to watch the coin through glass many times before I got it.
And his cigarette manipulation routine is beautiful.

I don't know enough to criticize Criss Angel, so that's not what I'm doing, but I hate the idea of stooges. My kids like Criss because he "looks cool." I've never really seen him do sleight of hand, just prepared stuff.

Does he have a background in traditional magic before his Mindfreak show?
Just wondering.

Criss does have a background in traditional magic, and he's really quite good. Like most of us, he's being doing magic for a long time. He does one of the best Metamorphosis around. With his Mindfreak gig, he just happened to hit on the right thing at the right time.

Jim

Shame the demo vid has been deleted by youtube

Ok, can we safely say that everyone would benefit if A&E replaced Criss Angel with Cyril?



-Vinnie

Replace? Why not add.

I love watching this video! We all use gaffs, we are magicians. In my opinion using a gaff strictly for the camera and the "crew" is not as respected by magicians as using a gaffed tank with a stooge in front of real laymen, live shot on film and done so,so well. Some of Angel's show is pure "crew" at the filmings. It is still great work and I love the show, but Cyril uses stooges differently. I love watching them both. Cyril may have ALL crew in some of his work as well but, even as a magician, I couldn't tell! There is so much more art than if they used a stooge. Most of all, Cyril simply makes me look at my own magic closer.

DC uses more stooges in his current show than probably in other time in his career, but it's the way in which he and Cyril conceal that fact that set them apart from CA. A friend of mine commented on the first episode of MF that was on the other night saying that the group of people that were present for his decent from the top floor inside of the Luxor were "all his people". The friend is a non-magi so I don't know, I guess with CA it's just more obvious that a stooge is employed. He's seen lots of Cyril videos and has never made that comment and that goes for DC too; in 16 years he's never once thought that DC ever used CT or stooges. Criss could take a lesson!