Angel to critics: ‘Believe’ is real
December 14, 2008
Photo courtesy Toronto Star
Criss Angel, in one of the first responses to critics of “Believe,” said snarky comments about he and new girlfriend Holly Madison don’t bug him nearly as much as comments about the realism of his show. He sat down with Richard Ouzounian, theater columnist for the Toronto Star, and said this:
“I’ve taken a lot of chances in my career and I’ve got the scars to prove it,” he asserts and – considering he’s wearing a leather vest and no shirt – it’s easy to see the validity of his point. “I’ve hung from four fishhooks stuck in my back from a helicopter in the past. And this show is insanely dangerous. I’m dealing with a wall of fire 30 feet wide and 15 feet high only 6 feet away from me. I could kill myself at every performance.”
Ouzounian writes his column poetically about Angel, but doesn’t reveal any new news about the confrontation between Cirque officials or the nature of the show’s upcoming break. But, Angel does say that, despite critics wondering whether Cirque and Mindfreak was a good combination, Angel knew it would be like Reese’s:
“I’ve been in awe of Cirque for years. When I saw ‘O,’ I was completely mesmerized. I felt more of a sense of magic there than I did at most conventional magic shows.”
Quick hits: Clipse immortalizes Blaine; don’t believe Angel rumors; Brushwood wins iTunes award
December 4, 2008
Time to break out the bullets. No, not this. These:
- David Blaine’s latest stunt is officially legit, now that it has been immortalized in a gangsta rap song with the likes of President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. Clipse, in a special release for Play Cloths (link definitely not safe for work because of offensive lyrics), raps the following in their song “Intro”: It’s the hood’s Obama shoveling McCain / Out the project windows, the drama’s insane / The rap game’s upside-down like David Blaine / You fans is Times Square for following them lanes.
- So, you might have heard some rumors that Believe, Criss Angel’s collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, is headed for early closure because critics hate it and Angel isn’t happy with it. As usual, iTricks sets us straight and breaks the news of what’s really going on: The show will break throughout most of January so Angel can take a vacation. But the show will also undergo a major revamping in that time.
- Magic Newswire reports that Brian Brushwood’s Scam School, a 37-part dissertation in deceit, was selected as one of iTunes best podcasts of 2008. Dodd Vickers also features a podcast interview with Brushwood.
Reviewers cast ‘Believe’ as bad beyond belief
November 3, 2008
Photo courtesy L.A. Times
At long last, the Criss Angel-Cirque du Soleil collaboration “Believe” is open to the general public. The show held a black carpet opening on Halloween. And how are those reviews that have been so hard to come by?
Reed Johnson of the L.A. Times says “Believe” is, in a word, unbelievable. Of course, he’s a critic, so he loves to use more than one word:
“Believe” suggests less an artistic marriage made in accounting heaven than a shotgun wedding of clashing sensibilities in which the shotgun messily discharges en route to the altar. Indeed, the smeared blood and entrails are piled high and deep throughout “Believe,” the most death-obsessed show to emerge from Sin City since “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
Doug Elfman of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (who has been openly critical of the show) said it was terrrrrrible (sic):
I had heard firsthand from some people who had seen “Believe” that it was abysmal and maybe unfixable, creatively. So my expectations were rock-bottom low (although open-minded), when I saw it Friday on opening night. And yet, it was EVEN WORSE than how it was described to me.
Is anyone going to back Angel up? Heck yes. Other magicians. Jeff McBride, Steve Wyrick, Lance Burton and Penn & Teller are all on the record in support of the Mindfreak. Said McBride:
“I think Criss has a really unique vision and an incredible commitment to trying something new and I think that will inspire other magicians to push the envelopes and take risks,” McBride said. “He seemed very focused on the work and very absorbed in the exploration and execution of the new effects in his show. He seemed very happy and pleased.”
The true judge of Believe’s success will be the ticket sales, of course. Until then, it’s good to see magicians backing up one of their own.
Luxor boss believes in ‘Believe’
October 27, 2008
Photo courtesy TVT
Last time we mentioned Criss Angel and his Vegas show “Believe,” things were in turmoil: The previews got bad reviews from early audiences, and there seemed to be creative differences between Angel and the Cirque du Soleil folks. Now that the show is three days away from opening, Luxor president Felix Rappaport (pictured above, right) is throwing his support behind the show.
As reported on iTricks.com, Las Vegas blogger Robin Leach reported that Rappaport, who bankrolled the $100 million production, has believed in Believe from the beginning:
“I’ve been through this before. I understand how the creation process works -– and all that it takes to go from idea to final execution. I was at our other MGM hotels when Cirque launched Mystere and Zumanity along with their other Vegas shows. I have never met a more disciplined hard working star than Criss to ensure this works as a huge winner. I have absolute belief in Guy Laliberte and his Cirque team of creators and that they are 100 percent behind this being a total success.”
Rappaport also mentioned those early reviews, which lampooned Angel for poor magic effects and cheesy lip-syncing of the “Mindfreak” theme. A lot of those problems can be blamed on construction problems and audiences paying too much attention to Angel. Hey, he said it:
“It’s come a mighty long way — 10 times better — since then. There were so many construction and permit difficulties making a new showroom specially for this show. It’s turned out to be an incredibly marvelous and beautiful theater. Once previews got underway all the additional new illusions could be worked in -– and now they are all working incredibly well in Believe. Some members of the initial audiences didn’t even notice the other cast illusions because they focused everything on Criss but now people are understanding the show they see all of its other aspects of creativity. There are over 20 magical elements in this production -– not as stand-alones but as an integral part of the storytelling -– and that’s a real first.”
Leach will continue counting down to the premiere on the Luxe Life blog.
Believe: Cirque show or Angel show?
October 9, 2008
Photo courtesy L.A. Times
The bad reviews keep coming in for Criss Angel’s “Believe,” his collaboration with the Cirque Du Soleil — although they aren’t actual reviews. Producers have asked for no reviews during the first few days, while the show works out the tweaks and kinks before its Halloween debut.
Agreeing with that detail, Mike Weatherford of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was allowed in to see the show. True, he didn’t review the show. But he did dish about some of the effects, and that the show has a long way to go toward living up to promises that it would reinvent magic. From his column:
Weatherford suggests that Cirque’s production approach might be the problem, in that they didn’t go to the right illusion builders. Weatherford’s biggest beef is that he didn’t see any illusions he hadn’t seen before.
That seems to be confirmed by a story in the L.A. Times, which states there is a disconnect between Angel and Cirque’s developers about what “Believe” is supposed to be. According to this quote from Gilles Ste-Croix, Cirque’s senior veep for creation:
“It’s a Cirque show where he is the main character,” Ste-Croix said by phone from Montreal last month. “We used this man who has the following of a star, but in our scenario. It’s not MGM with Criss Angel, it’s MGM with Cirque du Soleil. Because he is the main artist, we had him participate with input.”
Angel’s response in the story to the notion that it’s a Cirque show, not a Mindfreak show, is chilly:
“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.”
Rough week for well-known magicians
October 1, 2008
Man, what a week for magicians.
First, David Blaine’s spectacular, super-secret finale to “Dive of Death” bombs because of technical glitches. Now, Criss Angel is getting pasted with awful reviews for “Believe,” his new collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil folks on stage in Las Vegas. Though magicians regularly like to debate the differences between Blaine and Angel, the two have a lot in common this week.
Blaine has been getting ripped by countless bloggers, talking heads, comedians and even a snitty Anderson Cooper. Pretty rough for a guy who actually apologized the morning after the big jump. Still, none of it compares with the indignity of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog pulling a Mary Jane Watson on Blaine.
But Blaine has had it relatively easy compared to Angel. You’ve probably already seen Doug Elfman’s review of audience members’ take on the show in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Elfman eschews the show and opts to interview audience members who were, at best, ruthless. An alleged PR rep for Angel told the magician’s side of the story to Perez Hilton. Other bloggers and columnists have made the people quoted in the Elfman story look like soccer moms (too many links for linking, sorry). Unfortunately, a review written by a columnist who actually saw the show doesn’t give much hope for it, either.
Lost in all this is the magic. Angel’s fourth season of Mindfreak is improved from previous seasons, in regards to actual magic being shown. Tickets for “Believe” are selling fairly well. And Blaine’s “Dive of Death” featured some of the best magic since, arguably, his first, groundbreaking special. If your friends and co-workers are dogging Blaine or Angel, don’t get disheartened. Blaine and Angel are larger than life, because of their ambitious projects that don’t always pan out. That doesn’t mean you can’t still floor your friends with your ambitious card routine.
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