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.”
McBride’s Wonderground to close, find new home
November 9, 2008
Las Vegas’ home for closeup magic mixed with arts and nightlife has about two weeks left.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that Jeff McBride’s Wonderground will close and follow him to Asia, where he will be touring over the next year. It and McBride’s show “Magic At the Edge” won’t return to the Palace Station, but will find a new home on the strip, McBride said.
Reporter Melissa Arseniuk gives a pretty interesting account of what it’s like inside the club. You can get a glimpse online live, every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m. Pacific, at www.streetofcards.tv. For the next two weeks, anyway.
The big question: Did McBride create enough of a success for some other entrepreneur to emulate in McBride’s absence? And would it be as cool?
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.
A glimpse inside the Wonderground
October 17, 2008
It’s a club for magicians in a town that loves magic. It features new performers every week in a town that loves magic. And it serves as the perfect afterparty for a new magic show.
If you haven’t seen Jeff McBride’s Wonderground, you can get a glimpse online live, every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m. Pacific, at www.streetofcards.tv. The Master of Masks is now the master of ceremonies for the unique club experience, which features all sorts of performance art, music and magic inside.
McBride talked to Dodd of Magic Newswire this week; the interview is featured in a podcast where McBride talks about the unique magic experience, including the magicians-only area, for which you have to show your “pass.”
Some of the early performances of Friday night’s live broadcast included Scott Hitchkock, Jordan Wright, Paul Draper, an incredible piece of closeup work from Jean-Pierre Kraft, rare closeup magic from stage magician Greg Gleason and an interview and great silent card routine from Bizarro. Even McBride and wife Abbi did a routine to a Kahlil Gibran poem. Awesome.
Editor’s note, 10/21/08: This post has been corrected.
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.”
McBride: Magic success comes simply from practicing
September 16, 2008
You can tell Justin Robert Young used to be a newspaper journalist, because he gets his interview subjects to say awesomely profound things. His interviewing secret: Ask a question, then shut up and let the subject talk.
Jeff McBride, celebrity judge on VH-1’s CelebraCadabra, star of Magic at the Edge and the new Wonderground night club in Las Vegas, was featured on a recent iTricks Magic Week in Review. During the interview, he talked about the magic scene in Vegas: Specifically, how the competition is tough, how the audiences have already seen a lot of great magic and that it is best to be invited there, rather than just showing up and hitting the streets. Oh, and “TV is for suckaz.”
Back on point, McBride, who has a long history of training magicians, said all is not lost for someone with big performance aspirations:
“The good news is this. To make a name for yourself in the magic industry, you don’t have to four-wall a room in Vegas. You just need to practice and get really good.”
McBride cites the lecture notes of Rudy Coby and says that there are only two things you need: Original material and strong character. The latter takes priority, because it takes years to build.
While you’re waiting to scoop up Tattoo Joe, check out the podcast with McBride and prepare to have your world rocked.
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