Angel's illusion of corporate bonding
08:37 AM PT, Jun 15 2007
On March 22, 2007 a memorable press conference was held at Luxor to
announce a new show marrying the creative vision of Cirque to the illusions of
Criss Angel. For one thing, when this show opens (Summer 2008) it will be
the sixth permanent Cirque show on the Strip. For another, it was being held in
the theatre where Hairspray had crashed and burned so soon after opening. But
the most memorable thing about the press conference was the total lack of
chemistry demonstrated between principals: the Luxor suits, the Cirque creative
team and magician/star Criss Angel.In fact, Angel's use of an obscenity and longwinded and narcissistic speech
had some Luxor executives looking fairly uneasy behind him on stage. At the
time, Norm wrote similarly of the event in the Review-Journal: "In a too-long
speech Angel elevated the discomfort level by dropping an F-bomb during an
I-told-you-so rant against critics and doubters."
That bizarre afternoon is I am sure not how Cirque intended to announce a
new show in Vegas. Other press conferences by Cirque I have been to were notable
for being controlled, stage managed to perfection and very on-message. For
example, preview events for KA and Love spring to mind. Everyone was very much
on the same page by the time they stepped in front of the press and cameras. Of
course, all of that awkwardness was more interesting to me than the usual press
conference. I left wondering if Angel and Cirque would be able to collaborate as
their styles and cultures seemed so different, almost alien, to each other. That
was the reality of being at that press conference. But this is Vegas, and some
forms of reality can be adjusted. That one needed to be, and yesterday it was
fixed in pure Vegas fashion. I got in the mail a special delivery: a hardbound
and glossy, souvenir picture book of the press conference. I've never
received anything like it in all my time covering Vegas.
As with any vacation, all of that awkwardness has vanished from the
images into the good cheer of time's passing. So, I now get the "official"
message, indeed, the family photo album: despite appearing to be a bumpy introduction to those present, in fact,
this beloved press conference was so special to Luxor, Cirque and Angel that
they felt the entire Las Vegas media needed to have a coffee table photo album
memento of it.
(Photos of souvenir photo album by Sarah Gerke)
(Photos of souvenir photo album by Sarah Gerke)
Bookmark it:   |
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83452364969e200e00980304d8833
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Angel's illusion of corporate bonding :
Criss Angel certainly appears to be setting himself up nicely for 2008 and beyond. Given the amount of press he seems to get, and how little Hans Klok seems to even with his newly opened show, is this a reflection on their respective talents or is Angel just the beneficiary of being an American perfomer with a television show?
Posted by: Sean G | June 15, 2007 at 11:23 AM
I am very proud of Criss Angel.. he has came a long way and he deserves this. Hes been waiting for this his whole life and he makes people realize dreams do come true. I was there watcing the press conference from outside of the theatre and it was amazing
Posted by: Jen | June 21, 2007 at 09:33 AM