Criss Angel: challenges covering magicians
09:12 AM PT, Jun 6 2007
Last night I went to the premiere party for the new season of Criss Angel's television show Mind Freak. Angel arrived a few minutes beforehand to walk a backdrop red carpet that led nowhere. It was illusion. He had very little time to interview, and so he joined Robin Leach, Norm Clarke (from the Review-Journal) and me for a short group chat. Leach and Angel did most of the talking. And, I hate to use quotes that I didn't gather exclusively. So, I won't. But Leach got to the heart of my problem interviewing Criss Angel, or, for that matter, many magicians.In fact, shortly before the interview, I had just been whining to Norm that we are the only town in America where the media has to deal with covering celebrity magicians. Magicians, I have discovered, without fail are interesting people. They are all folks who discovered young how much they enjoy deceiving and tricking those around them. In Vegas we get the magicians who have proven best at doing this. I am not saying magicians are evil. They are entertainers. Yet, inherent in their art, there is the cravenness of tricking people and making people gullible.
In Vegas, I've always admired how Penn & Teller acknowledge that aspect of the art in their show. I also admire how Penn & Teller know how to draw a line between onstage and offstage: Teller speaks offstage, and Penn can talk about issues outside his onstage patter. Penn & Teller also do my favorite trick in Vegas: Magic Bullets. I love it, because no one else does it here. It clearly isn't an obvious stage prop or easy special lighting trick. It is the one trick in Vegas I am really in awe each time I see. I would love to know how they do it. But I don't ask, because I am sure they would not tell me, and, more importantly, I like thinking about the possibilities.
But I do not think when I interview Criss Angel he ever steps offstage at all. In Angel I always hear a guy in character even if part of that character is an aching sincerity. He wants to be liked and it oozes out of him. Of course, when you like someone, you let your guard down; and it is easier to be tricked by the person. Where does the artist end and the person begin? That is what fascinates me with Criss Angel, and, I think, it is something he is determined to hide.
With Leach doing most of the questioning, and me chiming in, Angel resisted the word "trick," claiming everything was real. What Leach focused on was relative danger. I found that a good choice. Obviously, some things, like escapes bound in water while holding your breath, are more dangerous than other tricks. For example, in the episode we watched of the television show, with the dude from ZZ Top looking on, Angel sliced a guitar string through his throat. I can't say that it wasn't real; I watched it on television, and, big surprise, saw nothing that looked fake. If I had figured it out, Angel would not be good enough to have a television show not to mention a major Cirque show on the way for next year. But that only makes me ignorant of what actually happened. Realistically, if he actually cut through his throat all the way back like that with a guitar string, well, then his head would have fallen off his shoulders, blood would be everywhere and he would be known as the headless headliner for Cirque. But his head did not fall off. No blood even. So, my guess is that this was a relatively safe illusion: a trick not as dangerous as the escape bound in water. Yet, Angel, by insisting it is all real and equally dangerous, sort of makes interviewing him a challenge. I don't want to purvey propaganda that furthers the illusion. I want to report on his show without being part of the process of tricking people. That would be the opposite of what I try to do.
Yet, I am no magic expert. I still don't know how the magician at a childhood birthday party pulled a quarter out of my ear. But I know the quarter wasn't in my ear. It makes me irritable. I don't want the guy's secrets anymore than I want to be told the answer to Magic Bullets. But I would feel like an idiot if Penn and Teller told me offstage they were really able to catch flying bullets at will with their teeth like Supermen. I would think they were treating me like an idiot. One thing is for sure, Cirque isn't going to put Angel's life at risk each night; they are building a franchise show around him. But he is an illusionist. Yet, he refuses to admit to me that he traffics in illusions. As a result, I find Angel to a challenge to figure out how to cover.
(photos by Sarah Gerke)
(photos by Sarah Gerke)
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I take strong exception with the characterization that:
"Yet, inherent in their art, there is the cravenness of tricking people and making people gullible."
Richard Abowitz is confusing magicians with con men (some of whom do in fact have sleight of hand skills, but pretend not to).
Instead I would say that magicians, provide an entertainment that has an edifying effect on the audience. Very, very few people go to a magic show and believe that they are seeing genuine supernatural powers -- they know that somehow it is all a trick.
Therein lies the value of the entertainment - it reminds us that we can all be easily tricked, and that we cannot believe everything we think we see - no matter how compelling.
Craveness lies with those who trick us, but do not label their game a magic act.
Posted by: Carey Sublette | June 06, 2007 at 11:44 AM
I don't think it's right that people judge Criss on the way he looks. It's like the saying, "Don't judge a book buy it's cover." Everyone has a unique personality and his way of describing it shouldn't affect anyone. I know that Criss is a great guy and it shouldn't matter what he looks like. Everyone's the same, and it really shouldn't matter how they dress or wear their hair. After reading his book, "Criss Angel-Secret Revalations." It made me realize that how people judge me shouldn't matter. It's how you live that matters. He's a great magician that I look up to, he's my idol. Everyone knows that he's a great magician. But no one should judge someone just by their looks. If you do at least keep it to yourself and then someday you'll see how that person really is. That's my word within judgement.
Posted by: Mike | June 06, 2007 at 01:19 PM
Criss telling reporters that his illusions are real and dangerous is condescending and makes me not want to see his show. There are plenty of entertainers in Las Vegas that actually respect the intelligence of their audience.
Posted by: David | June 07, 2007 at 12:44 PM
To comment about what Carey said about judging people by their looks, I completly agree. But In my opinion and I know a lot of other peoples opinion too CRISS ANGEL IS FREAKIN SEXY!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Alaina | June 21, 2007 at 11:26 PM
The word "craven" means cowardly. How is a magician-entertainer cowardly?
The magician is tricking people in the sense of providing a mystery, not in the sense of being a con man. Magicians are actors. They do not expect people to seriously believe they have magical powers, any more than an actor playing Hamlet seriously expects you to believe he's the prince of Denmark. Magic is a shared make-believe experience, not one of predator and prey.
Having said all this, if Angel really never steps out of character, then he is being foolish. Houdini, who took himself and his act very seriously, took pains to say he did everything by natural means.
Posted by: Eric | June 26, 2007 at 09:18 AM
Well, most people do expect that what they're seeing is illusion, but the point of a magician, in a weirdly spiritual way, is to make us question the quality of the illusion. There are such things as spiritualist leaders (mind I'm not saying religious) who can control the aspects of our active dimension in such a way as to bend the elements to their will. Jesus was not the only one to know how to walk on water, yet back then, when such things happened, you assumed it was the messiah. When spirits spoke to these people and dictated entire books of religion, we gave them the title of prophet. Today, we would label them schizophrenic. 2,000 years ago, Criss would've been a messiah, not a magician, and thats exactly the line he intends to blur. Personally, I believe he is an illusionist, but one with the frame of mind to know what the monks know. Besides, we use, what, 12% of our brains on a really good day? Who's to say he's just not utilizing more of his, and being that our bodies run on electrical fields of energy, that somehow his brain is more practiced to tap into those things.
Thats all he wants, for us to realize we have what it takes to break the barriers. We all have the ability to walk on water if we can just let go of the wall and go with the flow. Read Illusions by Richard Bach. It'll make you realize that what we give the honor of being real is really the illusion and what we dispense with as imagination is actually the reality.
Posted by: Cella, NY, NY | June 28, 2007 at 12:46 PM
It would be more accurate to say he has the frame of mind to know what youthful TV audiences, who grew up on patently phony reality shows, want to see.
If he had magical powers, he would be studied at MIT, not performing on late-night cable TV shows.
The hint that performing magicians don't really have magical powers is that they can't do anything useful, such as cure the sick or dematerialize nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Eric | July 06, 2007 at 10:28 AM
i will only believe you when i see it for myself.you are gorgeous but im not stupid.if you make a believer out of me then you make a believer out of alot of people here in winnipeg manitoba,canada.my address is #10-290 beverley street.my # is 1-204-282-0369.hope to see you here in the peg soon. love sandra.........
Posted by: sandra | August 08, 2007 at 12:54 AM
I KNOW CRISS ANGEL IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FLIPPIN AWESUM!!!!
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOV HIM!
OMG I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF HIM OR HIS AWESOME MINDFREEEEEEAK SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: sam | December 15, 2007 at 09:04 AM
Maybe Criss Angel can conjure up some Valium for sam.
Posted by: Big Karl | December 15, 2007 at 02:52 PM
criss angel is so hotttttttttttttttttttttttttttt he can date me anytime i can be his lover for ever and ever
Posted by: ashley | December 31, 2007 at 04:06 PM
Criss Angel is so hott. I wish culd come to Australia!! That would be awesomee! It wuld be even better if he culd cum to Sydney [in Australia]!!=]] He is so hott lo0ve u CRISS.<3
Posted by: Courtney #1 Aussie Fan | October 10, 2008 at 08:09 PM