http://www.entertainmenttoday.net/content/view/730/28/

From the comment above about the link to a mostly favorable review of BeLIEve, thanks for posting it. That was an interesting review from someone who looked at it with more than an open mind. At times it appears the reviewer was making excuses, but I guess it is probably the only good review I have ever read about Criss Angel's show (except for Robin Leach...but then again he isn't a theater review critic...now I come to think of it...he's not even a reporter neither..he's just a Criss Angel hanger-on).

I want to point out that if you were to continue on down to the comment section of that above article, those commenters basically badly slammed the guy that wrote that article, saying that all he was doing was advertising for Criss Angel because they had seen the show and said to the contrary that it was actually very, very bad. One comment even pointed out the fact that the guy that wrote that article, whose name is Travis Holder, was at one time the lead actor in a play/movie (not sure which) called "Masturbation: Putting the Fun in Self-Loving." Yeah. Right. Like I'm gonna believe THIS guy. I just hope I never meet this guy and shake hands with him. Sheesh.....

Again, nice article, Richard. I really feel sorry for reporters who are reporting on Criss Angel. Because they are trying to be more than fair and give him the benefit of the doubt on everything and anything....but they can't. There's no options left. The truth is there and it can't be avoided. To report anything other than that would be a disservice to everyone, not to mention put an obvious black mark on journalistic integrity for the reporter who tries to say anything nice about it. The show is bombing badly. And its not getting any better. Also, its controversial star ain't helping it any. And he is looking increasingly pitiful here in Las Vegas with his photo opportunities.

People see him in the usual obligatory pictures. One arm draped over a ditzy blonde Playboy playmate flavor of the week (which makes him look bad..because he's actually still married), the other arm extended out with fingers doing this non-sensical pseudo gang sign bit or secret sign to Loyals (not sure which), at the same time in a relaxed pose with this serious dudinal attitudinal look on his face, as if pantomiming the looks members of a second rate 1980s metal band whose music is forgettable do on their old album covers. Trying to do that looking cool bling thing that seems to be pointed at a younger audience; an audience that is WAY younger than he is. All this is done while wearing gaudy jewelry and fashionable clothes that even one of the best dressed homeless people in Las Vegas wouldn't be caught wearing. I know I can speak for others when I say it don't do nothing at all for anyone when you look at it. Especially when these pictures are the same thing over and over and over and over yet again. Most people skip over it real quick after rolling their eyes and going, "Oh, there's that idiot again." He really don't understand how comical he looks. A magician? An illusionist? Gimme a break. Don't get me wrong. He could probably get away with it if he had talent. But he ain't even got that. Definitely not Las Vegas entertainer material.

I just hope things don't get so desperate for him that he threatens someone again. Don't get too close, Richard. Don't want him bouncing off of you to get publicity again.

I do feel sorry for the cast, the production people, the stage hands and everyone that is being paid to put on this show (everyone except Criss Angel). Because from all appearances, they are soon going to be out of a job. And times are bad right now. I hope they bounce back and get into another show that's more successful.

Yet another obviously biased, against-Angel article! Why am I not surprised?

I am even more surprised that you have not "seen" any positive BeLIEve reviews, especially considering one of them is written by an LA Times writer which is where your blog is based. Allow me to post a sampling for your review.

thestar.com: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Theatre/article/553205

Entertainment Today: http://www.entertainmenttoday.net/content/view/730/28/

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-angel12-2008oct12,0,6382452,full.story

If you would like others, please let me know.

--Jessica

Why doesn't Criss Angel just vanish? I thought he was good about doing that?

Okay. Let's play this he said, she said game..... Jessica: Your first link I looked at it. Thanks. It was interesting. Don't tell me much though. Just confusing things about his show. I guess you have to be a mindless Loyal to catch it.

From that link article, here is a quote from Criss Angel: "I know better than anyone else the darkness that was inside me and I feel I've exorcised most of those demons, but I'm still someone who needs to push and control and contrive and provoke." This kind of reminds me of how a communist north Korean diplomat says things to demiocratic people and sounds incredibly stupid, because no one in their right mind can think like them. In Actually, Criss may be surprised, but most people don't care this blabber speak. They are not interested in this good/bad, heaven/hell, ying/yang crap. This is Las Vegas. They want to be entertained. And clearly they're not when they go to the show room for BeLIEve.

Another quote from Criss Angel in that article: "I know I have the most loyal fans in the world, but do you know why I do all of this? I selfishly do this for me, because I keep wanting to develop myself and my art. I'm out to do nothing less than reinvent and redefine what magic really is." Okay, Criss. I'll give you that. You do that for yourself. But not why you said...it's mostly to line your homeless dressing pockets. You go ahead on with yer bad self there. The Loyals understand it, but the tourists that come to Las Vegas to be entertained don't, and they suffer because they don't understand where you're coming from, nor are they interested. And you ain't reinventing anything. Nor redefining. Not unless you're an audience for five year olds at a birthday party that are fascinated by balloons twisted into dog shapes. This is the big time, Criss. Many magicians/illusionists do things in their shows here. And they do them flawless, with finesse and take extreme pride in their art. Not you. Criss Angel, this is Las Vegas. Most magicians here let the magic speak for itself. They don't have to come out with stupid I-love-me talk spouted out because the magic/illusion abilities are totally lacking. The audiences here are howling that your show sucks. You don't even come close to other magic acts in this town.

And again from that article, Criss says: "A lot of people out there who want to bring me down." False. They don't want to bring you down. They don't care. They just want to be entertained. They don't give a crap what your cat's name is or what toothpaste you brush with. Because of your false advertisement of your show, your clear demonstrations of no talent, no stage present and no rapport with a paying audience, they aren't entertained at all. And they feel ripped off. And they are angry. I know Criss Angel don't care. He just rakes in the money. That has been proven night after night.

Lastly, another Criss Angel quote from that article, Jessica:

"All that we can do on the Earth," he says before going out to face an opening night audience of both friends and foes, "is to grow and keep growing until the day we die."

Wonderful, Criss. My contention is that why don't you grow up somewhere else? Because you can grow like the bean from Jack and the Beanstalk and it still won't bear fruition, get anywhere and definitely it won't entertain anyone in Las Vegas.

That second link you provided, Jessica, is that Travis Holder whack off dude that I explained in my previous comment. Enough said. YOU shake hands with that guy. I won't.

The third link, Jessica, in your comments above is from the LA Times, put out while the “soft openings” (or before them...not sure) were happening. Way, way before that Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil clearly present an incredibly bad show. Since it is WAY, WAY before the grand premiere, this article is seriously overcome by events.

But now that you mention it, that article is interesting in that it showed that Cirque du Soleil has no clue what Criss Angel was doing and they definitely were not on the same wavelength with their star headliner at all. This mystifies me. Mainly because Cirque du Soleil threw 85 million dollars at Criss Angel and said do your thing. Gosh. I wish I was to that point where I could do that with 85 million dollars. With no strings attached? To quote from the article:

Never mind that until Ste-Croix began suggesting otherwise, Angel -- not Cirque -- had been positioned as the show's headlining draw. To wit, a 43,000-square-foot billboard of the "Mindfreak" star's face stares up from a side of the pyramid-shaped Luxor.

Backstage, Angel bristled at the characterization. Turns out Ste-Croix made similar remarks to a local newspaper that happened to be unfolded in the magician's lap.

"That's not the case," he said, looking to a coterie of managers, publicists, lawyers and illusion specialists in his room for confirmation. "We need to have a conversation with Mr. Gilles Ste-Croix."

Enough said. Serious friction between the people who are fronting the money for the show and the headliner. A match made in hell. And you can tell because everything is suffering from it. Even the tourists who are shelling out money for this crap.

The additional one? You posted the fourth one, Jessica? It was just a fast blurb about the night BEFORE the grand opening. The dude that wrote it liked it. Don’t mean nothing. The grand premiere happened and 99 point 9 percent of the theater journalists all rang in and pinched their noses with two fingers and agreed it stank worse than a skunk. Another article that was overcome by events. A mere whisper drowned out from howls and screams of utter rage and disappointment at this stinky show.

Keep searching, Jessica. All I see (and others do also) is a desperate reach for something, anything that says something, anything good about this show. Also, this tells me (and possibly others too) that you are paid to refute anything adverse about this show and you are desperate to get the word out how good this show is....even when the headlining star continues to make it suck, blow and hurl chunks.

But, in conclusion, all this stuff don't matter. It's the regular people. The tourists who have seen this show. The people who work along the Strip. They are all talking. And the overwhelming majority of them are relaying this information on. And that is....this show is lacking...it should not even be on the Strip. To put it in the vernacular? It sucks. You could make bigger billboards, complete with blinking neon lights, and it still won't make a difference. Those billboards will pale and dim compared to what people are saying.

All of these shills who are paid to throw things out there make me mad. Because tourists need to know what shows are good and what shows are bad. And they are just misleading them. Because of mis-direction, tourists come here and waste their money. And in turn, this proves to be bad for all of Las Vegas. Because by this misleading, self serving information, tourists get mad. So mad that they don't want to make Las Vegas their tourist destination any more. Las Vegas suffers because of money grubbing, one sided information. BeLIEve that. Avoid that show like the plage. BeLIEve that.

What is so comical is that Criss Angel's PR rep Steve Flynn also represents Holly Madison.
A love match made in hollywood heaven.

The BELIEVE show maybe continously bombing but not many globally will ever learn that beause all they will see is the happy duo amongst all the gossip rags throughout the United States.

Just because "BeLIEve" is on the top 10, doesn't really make it a success. I see Donny and Marie beat him this week.

Aside from that, they are giving Luxor patrons discounts to go see the show and some of the seats are like Payless Shoes. "Buy one, get one." So the ticketmaster is not really accurate.

I really would like to know how much they are actually in the red. That would prove how big a success it is. And if those Cirque people are coming for a "fix" they need to pull Crissy aside and tell him to start using duct tape over his mouth so he doesn't use the profanity and to remember there ARE children in the audience.

Aside from that blabber, David Blaine is on The Travel Channel. Those shows are old from 1999-2001, but take a look at that. Criss Angel is nothing more than a cheaper copy of Blaine. It is poor taste to dress like Blaine in one episode and make fun of him.

As some professionals have told me, "without David Blaine, there would be no Criss Angel."

Here is a rather positive review.
http://www.entertainmenttoday.net/content/view/730/28/

Back again with a quick note. I seem to have stirred things up a bit.

Just wanted to apologize to Jessica. I always try to stick to what is in the article that is posted and not wander off to address comments and blast into people. I was kind of in a foul mood yesterday and did not mean to attack you by implying you were paid by Criss Angel to say those things. I take it back. We differ in our opinions and I respect for that. I do actually read your posts and enjoy them and wish you the best of luck as a fan of Criss Angel.

I do want to point out about BeLIEve show being in the top ten is probably correct. But something has to be explained about that. Those statistics cannot be properly figured out right now because of the time of year it is. People have to understand that not only BeLIEve, but all other shows are suffering right now. In Las Vegas, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas has always been a slow time (due to people getting ready for Christmas and spending money on that rather than coming to Las Vegas...which is understandable). I guess what I'm trying to say is that any and all statistics during that time period really don't mean anything at all. Because it don't matter if a show is a success or if it's a flop, it's just that time of the year when ticket sales are down. And that's all across the board. So, you'll see shows doing that 2-for-1 and other promotions right now to drum up business. That's been my understanding.

"I invite anyone who finds a published positive review of "Criss Angel Believe" to please send it to me. I am curious what someone found to like about the show holding a decade-long contract at the Luxor."

Ahh Richard, but there is positive reviews about "Criss Angel Believe." What about the people that have gone to see his show and posted very positive remarks that they loved the show on your blog??? Look on your own blog and there you will find the proof you need. In my book that definately counts as a published review. Everybody is a critic, and to me the people's votes definately count. Celebrity's would be nowhere without the fans and the people that make their career rock. So look at your own blog and you will see published positive reviews of "Criss Angel Believe" from the people that have taken the time to comment and tell you that they loved the show.
Jenn
jweepingcrow

Okay every1 whom is saying he is a fake and stuff u have no idea wat ur talking bout!!! he is amazing and honestl if u want to say this stuff... U DO IT! I hope that u would get hit by the car or get burried in the ice!!!