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theshapels
Reviews
Criss Angel Mindfreak (2005)
Super cheesy, but super innovative
Initially, I was turned off when I saw previews of this show, even though I have an avid interest in magic. The reason was that I was incredibly cheesed out by the Criss Angel persona; everything from the Hot Topic clothes, Tommy Lee haircut, to singing his own theme song (I'm not a big Korn fan, but Criss is...) to the very name of the show:"Mindfreak." I basically ignored this show and never sat through an episode until a caught a re-run after the first season, and I have to say, I was really blown away. At this time, I would also ask you disregard the uninformed opinion of the previous review, called "MindFAKE", because the person writing it obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. I have been to several magic conventions, seen many, many magicians perform live, been to lectures and workshops, and have done magic as a hobby for 7 or so years, so to say all the tricks are based on camera editing is stupid. If this were the case, Criss Angel would have no career.Prior to having a television series, I'm sure he had to have built his reputation with live re-creations of many of these effects, so attributing it all to camera tricks/stooges/editing is silly. Not all of the illusions are earth-shattering, but a few (his levitations, both self and spectator, and walking up and down the Aladdin Hotel really, really blew me away. His float from building to building wasn't too shabby, either) are very mind boggling, especially since many of his presentations of these effects are unprecedented. You would be surprised how many modern magicians are still basically ripping off Harry Blackstone Sr. Criss Angel is one of very few magicians that I've seen that do things that are truly innovative. So despite the image, that guy has serious skills, and deserves recognition as an outstanding contributer to the art of magic.