TV Review - Criss Angel

By

Succubyss

When I saw the previews for this show, I thought this was some kind of punk-freak guy, doing side show tricks. I was wrong.

Criss Angel is an experienced, highly skilled illusionist. His show, Criss Angel Mind Freak, is on A&E every Wednesday night at 9pm, central time.  Criss has been doing magic since he was six years old and is also a musician and a performance artist. I want everyone to read this review, so guys, you can scroll past the next paragraph. This next bit is for the ladies.

This guy is smokin’ HOT! He’s an Italian from New York, with dark, gorgeous long hair, intense eyes and a beautiful smile. Fit, but not overly muscled.  He’s confident without being cocky and has a very soothing, yet commanding presence.  I’d do‘im in a heartbeat.  Back to the show…

I’m one of those people who wants to believe that magic exists in this world. I don’t want to hear about “illusions” or “up-close magic” or any of the politically correct terms for it. I want to think that there are people in this world who have the ability to warp your everyday reality and use it to prove that there is more to this existence than a nine-to-five, followed by a TV dinner and golf on the weekends. For me, Criss Angel is the real deal.  Don’t send me messages about, “I know how he does that”. I don’t’ want to know how he does it – for me, its’ magic.

The trademark of this show has Criss performing little miracles in everyday situations. My favorite so far was the card trick on the bus. He was traveling on a public bus with his crew because their RV had broken down.  While on the bus, he decided to try a little card magic. He went to the front of the bus and picked a random lady to help him. Criss brought out a deck of cards and had her pick one. He handed her a pen and asked her to sign her name to her card, and then put the card back into the deck. Criss shuffled the deck around a little and then WHIPPED the deck at the front wind shield of the bus. The lady’s card appeared on the OUTSIDE of the windshield. They stopped the bus and had her go get it to confirm it was the same card, while the rest of the deck was out there, flying around in the wind.  Magic.

One of the things Criss does that completely freaks me out, is when he’s levitating. He levitates other people, but he also levitates himself, which is the freaky part. He just rises up off the floor in the mall or levitates off the ground in the park. Only angels and demons are supposed to be able to do that, but he pulls it off. It scares the hell out of me to see it, especially when he does it out of nowhere, with strangers standing around, watching.

The Mind Freak also has one BIG trick that he does in every episode. The big tricks are cool, but seem more like smoke and mirrors “trickery” to me. He did one where he set himself on fire to burn for 45 seconds as a birthday present to his mom. (What did his brother say? “Yo, that’s what I was gonna get her!”?) This was just bizarre.  Criss was soaked in some kind of flammable gel, lit on fire, after which he stomped around a circle that was cordoned off in the streets of Las Vegas.  Finally he fell; face first into some boards where a guy sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. It was then revealed that HE, Criss, was the guy with the extinguisher. There was the obligatory “how did he do that” moment, but watching him walk around on fire was a little boring. More like a Hollywood stunt, than magic.

The show also introduces us to Criss’s family. The real one, and the one that lives in his mind. His real family makes up his crew and support staff.  His Mind Freak family consists of the characters he imagines as he develops and performs his act. The real family is pretty much what you’d expect from a close-knit, hot-blooded family that works together. The Mind Freaks are definitely freaky. They add that circus side-show vibe I mentioned before. One shot had them in the desert, sitting in folding chairs, laughing and clapping while Criss “drowned” during a performance.  Very bizarre and surrealistic.

I like this show and will continue to watch it every week. The only thing I don’t like, is that it’s only a half-hour long. I would like it to be an hour, so they could show more personal interaction, get a story going on those people in Criss’s mind maybe. It’s not just because I just want more shots of him with his shirt off. Honest.