Criss Angel has a beard now. That was the first thing I noticed yesterday when we sat down to a 30-minute interview (no cameras) in the suite where Angel lives at  the Luxor. But it isn't a trendy strike beard; it is a work beard for fans to see on season four of his popular A&E show "Mindfreak," which he is filming now in Vegas.

 

 

"I don't have time to shave. I've been really intensely training on my close-up stuff like cards and different effects. The purest form of magic is close-up. There have been things I have really wanted to do for years and have been playing with for three years (on 'Mindfreak') but that I never mastered. But now I think I have it under control."

Angel's suite is near the top of the Luxor's pyramid and has been fully decorated for his comfort to include his miniature trains, a pinball machine, a drum set (given to him by a member of Godsmack) and a Pacman. There is also plenty of memorabilia from Angel's rise over the last decade from unknown to one of the hottest names in Vegas entertainment. Later this year he will become the first person to star in a Cirque show. Even though the show isn't opening until September, the Luxor already has dedicated display cases on the casino's ground floor to Angel's motorcycles, not to mention the souvenir store that sells all things Criss Angel. I don't recall during my time in Vegas anything comparable to the interest and excitement that Angel generates.

 

Certainly, Angel has become a shrewd marketer of his brand. Some would say that he is even too shrewd with his ability to command tabloid attention through his public interactions with Cameron Diaz, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and others. But Angel become famous not through who he hangs out with but through hard work and going his own way, sticking to his very specific vision for himself as an entertainer.

On Monday, I will have the entire transcript of the interview up on the Buffet. In our conversation we discussed Angel's lows and highs and his future with Cirque.

But for today let me share with you one thing I was curious about. I asked Angel to describe his ideas for Britney Spears' disastrous comeback at the Video Music Awards show in Vegas in September. Angel had been working with Spears on ideas for the performance that would have required a lot of rehearsals and effort from the star. Instead, Spears opted for more traditional choreography in a performance that, rather than announcing her return to the stage, marked the beginning of her total meltdown over the months that followed. But if she had gone with Angel's approach, what would we have seen?

"With Britney I presented concepts to create, within her performance, illusions that would happen in the open. You would see Britney and then she would split into two Britneys and then four Britneys with no boxes or covers. It would just be a visual effect using no screens. People in the past have used the art of magic in music performances but mostly in a cheesy way. Magic has not kept up with popular culture and technology.

"Other things I wanted to do with her was to literally transform her into birds and then for her to reappear in the audience. I also thought of having her levitate over the audience. It was going to be really visual moments that were all epic tableaux that were beautiful, artistic, elegant and, most important, unique -- things MTV hasn't seen in music. I wanted to captivate people in the moment. That was the essence of what I wanted to do with the Britney performance, because I think the performance she did with the snake was a highlight of her career and I wanted to trump that and I thought we had it."

So, what happened?

"Britney is really strong with her own ideas. And what I had planned wasn't an easy thing to do and would have required a lot of rehearsals. Ultimately, I told  her I needed 100% commitment or I wasn't going to be able to do this. I told her that, 'You have to feel comfortable.' So, we explored it and she decided it wasn't for her, and I completely understand."