Criss Angel® Believe™ in Las Vegas

This last weekend I was in Las Vegas to see my brother and his West Point classmates from I-2. Everyone was great and it was fantastic to see so many guys I’d not seen in almost three decades, and to meet their wives and friends. We had a blast and Saturday, and eighteen of the group decided to go see Criss Angel® Believe™ on Saturday night. We hit one of the half-price ticket brokers and got great seats for under $100.

Many of you know that I’ve studied magic. I love seeing magic shows in Las Vegas. I’ve seen Lance Burton and David Copperfield. I love seeing other magicians perform in the variety shows. I count magicians like David Alexander and James Randi among my friends. Despite having heard lukewarm reviews of the show, I was interested in seeing it. After all, it is Cirque du Soliel. They never put on a bad show.

I didn’t know much about Criss Angel before the show. I was aware that he’d pulled a bunch of stunts and had a TV show. Without a TV, however, I’d not seen any of Mindfreak. To be fair, I’d learned the most about Criss Angel from the website Hot Chicks with Douchebags. One might believe that this had me biased against him, but I understand the whole “no publicity is bad publicity” thing that talent uses to get noticed; and HCWDB had me looking to see if he’s quite as bad as he gets painted in that regard.

So, the first metric on the evening, just to let you know how bad things got: of our eighteen, four fell asleep during the show. As one noted, “When I woke up, I wondered if I’d missed anything, then saw I hadn’t.” Across the board, all of us were disappointed by the show.

Cirque du Soliel manages, in their shows, to create this fantasy world that sucks the viewers in. You’re transported into their reality, and you have a great time. They have fantastic costumes, great characters, wonderful music, a great sense of humor. No single personality moves to the fore because it is a cast production. There’s a strong story and it really hooks you and keeps you in the fantasy throughout.

Not so with Criss Angel. Probably the best part of the show takes place before Angel ever appears. One of the three characters who act as his assistants throughout steps up and satirizes Angel’s act. It was funny and interesting to watch. But that ended, and the show’s star appeared.

The show starts with Criss welcoming an adoring fan who has made a sign for him, including a picture of Criss with his cat. Criss gives her a gift of a rabbit in a top hat puppet. She’s thrilled. He pretends to be magnanimous and touched, and we applaud and then he moves into the crowd to select a volunteer for a bit of a mind-reading act.

I’m not going to detail how any of his tricks were done, but suffice it to say about all of them:

1) There is not a single illusion he performed that was invented after 1926.

2) Harry Houdini did all of them better.

3) I’ve seen them all done better by other magicians in Las Vegas (Lance Burton for one).

4) Criss Angel is unforgivably slow and clumsy in executing all of the illusions.

The deal with magic is this: everyone in the audience knows it’s a trick. Many folks in the audience know how at least one of the tricks is done. So the magician wins only if he accomplishes the illusion faster than we imagine possible or does it with such skill that we marvel at his dexterity.

Angel was very slow in the vanishes or position exchanges. Chemical smoke covered all of them, and while it was really theatrical, the changes took forever. Seriously, a eighty year old magician waking from a coma could have done these things faster. And Angel’s dove production was painful to watch. I was able to spot him loading the doves into his hands. Granted, I knew what I was looking for, but there was zero misdirection to distract me.

The Cirque du Soliel part of the show was great. Wonderful costumes, great dancing, stunning music. I could have watched the villain of the piece—a gorgeous black dancer in a cat suit—prance over the stage for hours. She sold the evil perfectly. She was the Hot Chick to Angel’s douchebag.

The problem was with Angel. They made an attempt to incorporate him into the fantasy and despite his inability to act, the attempt was working. And then we have Criss out on the edge of the stage, talking to the audience, being himself again, not the transported character, which broke the fantasy, called all attention to him, and created something that Cirque du Soliel could not fix.

The biggest problem with Angel is that he lacks sincerity. Really good magicians learn that it’s about the audience, not themselves. They work in the realm of fantasy, are your host, your guide, and the trickster, but they don’t make themselves your master. For Angel, it’s all about him. This distinction—and magicians tend to break down into one of those two classes (entertainer versus power-tripping egotist)—is what separates those with longevity from folks who will have some success, but will get old, fast.

In driving back from Las Vegas, I was thinking about writing this review. I imagined someone responding to it with: “You’re just jealous of his success. Do you think you could do better?”

First, I don’t begrudge him his success. I’m glad he’s had it. I hope he continues to have the time of his life, and has a great money manager working for him.

As for the second point, I thought long and hard about it. The answer is, “Yes, I could do better.” Give me his budget, Cirque and two months, I’d have a show that would blow Believe™ away. It ain’t rocket science, after all. And, clearly, it’s not about the magick. Pull Criss Angel from that show, add a bit more story, and audiences would be transported, which is what we expect from Cirque du Soliel.