I've always respected Criss Angel for being an engaging performer, but magic and illusions have just never done much for me.
I know that, after watching someone walk through a wall, crawl out of a giraffe's mouth, or any number of super human feats, I'm supposed to stare, mouth agape, in complete amazement. The problem is, I know it's a trick, so I can never muster anything more than just, "oh yeah, that's pretty cool, what else is on TV?"
Duh, Adam, of course they're all tricks.
Yeah, I know, Voice Inside My Head, my point is that I can't get ecstatic over Criss Angel's demonstrations any more than I could watch Jurassic Park and exclaim, "holy crap, how they did they bring all those dinosaurs back to life?"
So anyway, via Digg comes this shot-by-shot breakdown of a stunt Angel did on his A&E series Mindfreak. It's not one of his best tricks, and I don't link to hear to point out how lame he is, but only because I'm a sucker for peeking behind the curtain to see how things like this are accomplished.















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-25-2007 @ 10:24PM
patrick said...
I wish there were magicians out there with their own show like Angle who would realize that we all know its not magic and actualy show us how to do there tricks
-patrick...not to be confused with sketchy patrick who harasses brigitte
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6-25-2007 @ 11:09PM
Amanda said...
There is. They are called Penn & Teller. Other magicians hate them for revealing how tricks are done.
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6-25-2007 @ 11:26PM
Will said...
There was also that show a couple of years back that showed that 'masked magician' revealing secrets. Alot of magicians hated him for it but alot also liked it because it forced them to think up new tricks.
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6-26-2007 @ 6:00AM
Daniel W. said...
The industry is so small that they are not really competitive with one another. They are pretty much cooperating and competing with other industries, especially in Las Vegas. If someone like David Blaine or Criss Angel gets popular, the art as a whole gets popular and ticket sales go up for all the live acts. Penn Jillette might dislike David Blaine personally, but he is very happy that Blaine exists and is as popular as he is. Likewise, some magicians dislike that Penn & Teller reveal tricks, but they are also thankful, because P&T completely revitalized magic in the 80s and 90s (by sucking a lot less than everyone else).
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6-26-2007 @ 1:55PM
gt said...
yea this season is weak so far. i used my tivo and could clearly see how he did this. it's quite comical. the other one which is pretty clear is the steamroller one. there's a sheet spread out flat over a big sponge basically. he lies down over it, steam roller comes along and pushed him into the sponge (as you can see the sheet clearly all wrinkled up from his body bringing the sheet in)
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6-26-2007 @ 2:00PM
gt said...
also, if you look at the 'live audience', especially this past week, forget the trick, they're all freaks and wearing like black shirts and all, aka they're all family members of his crew
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7-24-2007 @ 11:20PM
Kana said...
Yeah I'll agree that most of his stunts are fake, but it's no fun to try and figure them out. Once you figure out how a magician/illusionist does his tricks, it takes the magic out of it.
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7-30-2007 @ 1:53AM
Quiz_Master said...
I am from India and just saw his show on TV 5 minutes ago. I have to say he is mind blowing. In todays show, he was floating in air 20 feet above ground. There was no support.
And there were around 50 peoples there...
It was amazing. Is there any way I can see how he does this.
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9-10-2007 @ 10:51AM
Jenn said...
omg r u guys really tht stupid i can kinda side wit u on this 1 but even though it looks lik tht tht doesnt mean crap nd if he is a fake thn how did he make the elepant disappear thn reappear this season nd in later in the episode above how did he make the lambo disappear explain these nd several others nd 4 who ever said tht he had steamroller thing about how he had foam under him HA! he was on a street u idiot nd there is no way vegas was gonna let him tear up 1 of their streets so he can do a trick ohh i got another 1 4 u 2 prove actually i have 2 the 1 where he swallows a quarter thn maks it come down his arm nd he cuts his arm nd pulls the quarter out thn the 1 where he put a guitar string through his neck swallowed a ring nd it ended up on the guitar string again u show me how these r done nd i will side wit u all
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8-24-2007 @ 1:51AM
Gabrielle said...
Many of his stunts are obviously trick, however many are probably the result of sorcery. This existence of ours is much more incredible than you can possibly imagine. Demonic forces are just as real as the nose on your face, and sorcery taps into that realm..
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8-30-2007 @ 10:53PM
Charley said...
Sorcery right. You idiot, how stupid can you get.
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9-04-2007 @ 6:15PM
Karen said...
I want to know how in the world he levitates between buildings and how he got the black lab dog to turn into a puppy after draping a coat over it for literally only like a second!! Does ANYone know at all?? I am a true blonde I guess cause I literally think it's like magic! Yes, I know it's a trick but I cannot for the life of me think of how the heck he does it...please share!! :) Thanks!!!
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9-04-2007 @ 11:28PM
jim said...
http://www.digg.com/videos/people/Criss_Angel_Levitation_Trick_Exposed_video
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9-10-2007 @ 7:13PM
Bryan said...
st off, I hate revealing tricks to you guys but the steam roller one was a sponge mat. If you didn't notice he wasn't on a street he was in an empty lot. The Lambo trick used mirrors placed in the middle of the runway to make it look double sided. In reality they had a very long strip of mirrors probably with a building coming off them that had good isolation to stop the sound of the car. As for the quarter trick you obviously haven't considered latex and makeup. If you were a magician you would know that there are many ways to make it look like you swallowed the quarter and slip into a fake latex strip. I don't know about the guitar string, but the elephant was mirrors too.
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