Richard Abowitz: In the past, I've heard you talk about how many hours of original magic you have put on television during your first three seasons of "Mindfreak." Has it been hard trying to create more material for a season four?

Criss Angel: Actually, no. I just opened up another place that I did not realize existed and have a wealth of material. I know people reading this will think I am saying that to hype up season four. But I am being honest. Season one for me was overwhelming. I was trying to figure out how to make a successful series that incorporates illusions, escapes, performance art with demonstrations of mind and body and spirit. Then I wanted to do it all in a way that was successful, because so many magicians before had shows or tried to have series and they never seemed to work. So, I really pushed the boundaries of my own abilities to the degree of hanging from fishhooks from a helicopter. I took a huge amount of chances to get people to notice me and think this guy is a lunatic. But then you scratch the surface and see that there is a lot more there. Then, season two and three, people wanted to know more about me. I still did nutty stuff like float in the Luxor light, which took me many years to figure out.

But this season I have a sense of going in a different direction. I've changed my team a bit. I got different people as consultants, and I am experimenting a lot. I think some of the best demonstrations I've done in my career, I've done in season four. If people were fans of what they've seen in the past, they are going to be destroyed by what they see in the future.

Q: When you talk about new places, can you give me an example that is specific?

A: I am talking about one continuous shot of me standing on the street, and you see a car come racing down the street and the car hits me and then I am the one driving the car. But literally one continuous shot. In a matter of seconds the thing takes place. Things like that I could not even comprehend how to do in season one and two or, for that matter, three. Well, in season three I was thinking about it, but I did not know how to bring it to fruition. So now, season four, I am able to do this.

You need to understand that I am not only creating the material and performing it, I am also directing and producing it. In this season I got a lot more time to prepare the shoots and block them out and working with my team before we got on location to do the dance. I call it the dance because, in every situation -- I shot yesterday in a firehouse -- you can't control the environment or the people. But what I can control are what I am going to present and the people who work within my organization having a strategy going into something and of how to modify stuff. That (organization plan) didn't even exist in season one or two. It was starting in season three. But now it is full blown and the machine is functioning at 100%.

Q: There is also editing. Have you become as familiar with the mechanics of television as you are with magic?

A: I've been incredibly familiar with directing and editing since I was in my teens, because I didn't have the money to hire people to do that stuff for me. Some of my first music videos I directed and edited and did for $2,500 and favors to get edit rooms on off times. I was always familiar with that. In my first three TV specials I would spend on average 18 to 20 hours a day editing with the editor doing that. Now, we have gathered six or seven editors who are great and who have been with the show for a while and know how I think. So, I just go to my warehouse here in Las Vegas, and I have a facility where I am able to communicate in California and Las Vegas at the same time, and we do editing. That saves a lot of time, and I am able to oversee it but yet not be there.

Q: One thing that has always struck me about you is your belief in yourself. But you were not an instant success. I was curious if you remember the point when you went furthest out on the limb, because of your confidence that you eventually would find success? Was there a single riskiest moment?

A: I do believe in myself. And I have been so fortunate to have the support of my family. But ultimately it is the belief in yourself that has you either wake up in the morning to pursue your dreams or stay in bed. And at times my trials and tribulations were so great. I was so frustrated with the Broadway producer mentality. They offered me so many deals and they promised me the world. But when it came down to it, they give me $30,000 and own me for life. It was such an onerous and stupid deal, I would never do it. I worked so hard. I said to my mom, "I want to borrow." So we put up, I think it was, $410,000. To get it, my mother mortgaged her house. This was after 9/11. Broadway shows that had millions in them were shutting down. Everyone thought I was insane. Friends and relatives talked to my mother, saying, "We know you believe in your son, but don't do this." And I was like "Mom, if it doesn't work, I'll pay you. I'll work 10 jobs."

And it was really frightening. After that devastation (of 9/11) there was no tourism and I am opening a show with money my mom is lending to me. It is such a critical amount of money for her future. My mom is 72 right now. It was frightening. I could not afford to hire people to promote the show. I would tuck my hair under my hat to hand out fliers and hope people did not recognize that I was on the flier.

One time I had to sell my 800 phone number because it was like some company number in England. I sold the phone number to the company for $30,000 and that was how I lived for a year. I lived and worked in my mom's den, which I made an office.

But I always believed in myself. I believed in myself because my dad enforced in me the value that if you believe and are willing to sacrifice and go through the trials and tribulations to achieve your dream, it may not happen on your clock, but eventually you will realize your dream, if it is realistic. I can't say tomorrow that I want to be an opera singer. But I have trained in magic my whole life. So it was realistic. It was just trying to find my own road. I didn't want to follow in anyone else's steps.

Q: On the flip side, was there a moment that you knew you had achieved success and that you would never be serving fast food to pay your bills?

A: I still don't feel like I've made it. I've made it further along the road. Look, the saying is true, the more money you make, the more money you spend. Now I have to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a week just to pay my bills. I have almost 60 people working for me. My track record is great. But I used to think making money would give me freedom to do what I want to do. And it is the exact opposite. The more money you make, the less time you have for a personal time. My mantra now is to try to figure out how to maintain my personal life. My schedule is still seven days, 12 to 20 hours a day, and will stay that until the show opens at the Luxor in September.

Q: On your personal life: Your private life, marital status, what women you were seen with on the town, has brought you tabloid attention in the last year. How has it been to have your private life and image outside your control in the media for the first time?

A: I can't sit here and bitch about the media or tabloids or about anything. If it wasn't for you guys and the people watching the show, I would not have a job. So, I am thankful to everybody. Now, do the tabloids write things that are untrue? Of course, all of the time. So if someone takes a shot at you for how you look or what you did, well, trust me, no tabloid or person is going break me based on what they say about me. I did not get here without having a very thick skin. I know who I am. I know my strengths, and I know my weaknesses. But at the end of the day, I am very thankful to everybody, even my critics. To be on their minds is a hell of a lot better than I was 10 years ago.

Q: I know that both you and Cirque like to be mysterious about upcoming projects, but what can you say about the Cirque show?

A: Each medium is a very exciting prospect. Television as an animal is a very different beast than live entertainment. In some ways television is more challenging. What I mean by that is that even though I am interacting with people, I have to remember how this will translate on television. I am floating in the Luxor light, I can't control thousands of people from shooting that with their cellphones, with cameras and from any angle they want, from a hotel room or whatever. But when I am on a stage in my own theater, well, that is a pretty controlled environment. What I am able to do in that situation will trump anything that I have been able to do before.

It will also be a more emotional experience. I have more than two to four minutes to connect with people. I have 90 minutes. I hope at the end of the day I will fulfill my ultimate goal, which is to have an experience for the audience that is very much like a song that they can connect to, reflecting their own life, and come away with what it means to them.

Q: Will there be a narrative to the Cirque show?

A: Each person who watches the show will come away with what it means to them in their life at this time. It is like a song. Certain lyrics in a song mean certain things to different people depending on where they are in their lives. I think the live experience will do just that. And it will be unlike anything people are expecting from me. I say this without arrogance but with confidence, and I say it on behalf of the Cirque staff and MGM and primarily myself: This show as an entertainment experience will be unlike not only everything in Las Vegas but in the world. It will be very unique.

Cirque has their own brand that connects emotionally to people. You watch a show like "O," you feel something because of these images and what they represent to you. Then you have what I do. And MGM is going to build an environment to house this dream we have. This is more than magic -- this is entertainment. You get the prospect of what Cirque is going to do for the first time with the art of magic, and it is a very interesting scenario about how it is all going to connect. The curiosity is going to be well answered when people come and see the show.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)