CRISS ANGEL SPILLS CIRQUE SHOW SECRETS—AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MAGICIAN OF THE DECADE!
Mindfreak magician Criss Angel has won Magician of the Year for the fourth time—and next year he’ll be presented with the Magician of the Decade award.
It’s the first time that one magician has won three-years of back-to-back awards from the prestigious International Magicians Society. A newly-bearded Criss picked up the gold “Merlin” statue in a ceremony at the Luxor resort casino where he is preparing for this summer’s premiere of his new $200-million Cirque du Soleil illusions spectacular.
For the first time Criss revealed some of the magic show’s secrets and what we can expect when the curtain goes up in the Luxor on its Sept. 24 world premiere. Look for a tornado to envelop the theater and for levitation that goes further than any magician has ever achieved in the history of magic. In a lengthy exclusive one-on-one chat Criss also reflected on his early days of hardship when nobody believed he would become the world’s best magician—and his journey to super-stardom in Vegas. It’s an interview you will read only here in Luxe Life.
He won Magician of the Year for the first time in 2001 for his Off-Broadway Mindfreak magic show—and then again in 2004. Then in 2005 the Magic Castle in Hollywood honored him. He won his third Merlin award in 2007 downtown at Fremont Street and now as the only magician to win for two-consecutive years he’s won a fourth time as Magician of the Year for 2008. International Magicians Society President, Tony Hassini, told me that next year his 37,000 worldwide members have already decided Criss will be named Magician of the Decade—and that award will be presented during a 2009 Cirque magic show performance. Said Tony: “Criss is the most talented artist of our industry. He’s the one magician with more TV shows than any other ion the history of magic. At just seven years of age he’d made up his mind to be the No. 1 magician. When he says something he does it. You can bank on him having the courage and persistence to do what he says he will do. In addition to him being a best selling author he has become the most downloaded entertainer on the internet.”
Criss joked that he’s got so many awards now that he’ll put them on display in his retail store at the Luxor or up in his hotel suite there when he lives. “If I run out of space I’ll have to ask the President if we can expand out to the room next door too.”
Mindfreak fans, known as The Loyals, attended the ceremony during a break in Criss’ final filming at the Luxor of the current Season 4 series on A&E. He told me afterwards that he will juggle a fifth season while still performing the Cirque show.
“I never dreamt that I would reach this point in my life” said Criss. “I struggled. I barely existed and I went hungry with 15 years of empty promises. But my belief in self and the support of my family and my father looking down on me from above kept me going all that time”
RL: So how bad was it through those early days?
CA: To think back to the days where I barely made $30,000 dollars a year and I struggled and everyone promised me the world. All of the producers in NY said they would invest in me ‘we are going to do your show.’ But it was 15 years with nothing materializing—except empty words. If it weren’t for the belief in myself and the belief and support of my incredible family it never would have been possible. I would just like to say to everyone that has a dream, everyone that wants a life, you get one life to live, it is up to you how you want to live it. You can live it and let it pass you by or you can take every moment you have and make the most out of it. That is what I chose to do.
It didn’t matter how many times people said no, the only thing I knew was yes. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger that really is true. It gives you thick skin. It also humbles you. Although I have jewelry, a couple cars, and a little celebrity you can do two things in life, you can do something positive, or you can do something negative. That choice is there for each of us to make. I made a very conscious choice to try to be positive, to try to utilize the blessings that I have, the love and support and power that you guys give to me to try to help those who are not as fortunate. Children (from the Make A Wish foundation) who don’t have many more days to take one last breath that we all take for granted.
I just ask all of you who are by far the greatest, the most loyal, the most wonderful, the most precious people that I call loyal, to be an example to those to show that you can help people, you can make a difference, you can live your dream and you can have a hell of a ride doing all of those things.
Today, being the recipient of the Merlin award for the 4th time, and magician of the year for the Magic Castle is unbelievable and I just say sincerely from my heart thank you so much to everyone at the Luxor especially its president, Felix Rappaport for believing in me, and my vision.
And now being in Cirque to present what I promise to be an experience in live show entertainment that has never been put on the stage before anywhere in the world. Not sounding conceited, but very confident—because I have the most talented partners and properties and the money that MGM is willing to put down on my vision. I invite everyone to come back and see the show, and party the night away. If you have a dream live each day, every moment live your dream. I am no different than you, trust me. I may have a beard but I am still the same person underneath.
RL: So how does it feel to discover you are magician of the decade after 15 years of going from ‘nobody’ to suddenly get that so-called ‘overnight success’?
CA: It will be more than 15 years that I was a struggling artist. To think about being named magician of the decade and my live show isn’t even open yet here at the Luxor with Cirque du Soleil. To think that we are planning on going into our 100th episode on A&E early in Season 5, which is now an official GO. My head is going to explode right now. I didn’t know it would ever come to this.
RL: How do you juggle another season of Mindfreak television at the same time as the new live Cirque show?
CA: I will be working 18-19 hours a day as I always do. It is important to keep things going and be creative and artistic in the many different mediums and only when I find that I run out of things to say artistically then I won’t do that show anymore. However Season 4 is by far the best season we have produced so far and I am not saying that to hype anybody. As a human being and an artist I always strive to be the best that I can be and I think that is the attitude to have and I remain that way that I can always be better till the day I die. I
always try to offer people an experience they haven’t seen that’s not inside that magic box that we are all familiar with that’s cheesy stuff that has been done. I am looking to see what is possible. There is a vast space that I have tapped into very lightly and where it will travel and where it will go. I am excited about the journey and we’ll explore all that in Season 5 to make it even bigger and better.
RL: This year the filming was more dangerous than the previous years. You almost drowned in a pool. I saw you shackled in handcuffs inside a steel box at the bottom of the Silverton fish tank.
Are you going to ease off the dangers of are you going to increase your dicing with death?
CA: I just want to show people that I am not complacent, a little bit of
success, a little bit of celebrity, and a couple of dollars, can’t change the burning fire, that passion, that quest to be and stay the best. I didn’t get into this art form for money. It was too risky to do it for money. I would have better odds if I played blackjack downstairs. I got into it because I have a love and a passion for this business as an artist and in turn if it raises it as an art form that is fabulous. I don’t care whether I drive a Hyundai with 200,000 miles on it that I used to drive wondering where and how the next gas fill up would be—or if I am now cruising around in my Lamborghini it is still me and my attitude is the same. Yes success changes you for the better and the worse I always try to remain the person I always was.
RL: Why the new bearded look then?
CA: I don’t care about what I look like at this point. I care about creating the best season that I can. If you consider the lack of sleep that I have and the time it takes to shave. In a sense it’s a time-saver! But I have some characters and types of things I want to explore that really lend themselves to me with a beard—its so much better not being the perception or the caricature of what you expect from Criss Angel. I never want to be pigeon holed to anything. I want to be an artist that can explore everything and so long as people love me for that then great.
RL: Is Sept. 24 the date now set in cement for the gala event?
CA: It is always changing but it’s definitely in the middle of September. I start rehearsals in the theater April 14 full time with our early previews at the beginning of August. The show is not yet at the 98 percent mark and it wont be there until after the show opens. It is a process of evolution. You can think of the illusions and everything else that holds the show together on paper and in your mind, but until you have it in front of you, you don’t know what it is going to finally look like. It will be being in that space, that environment that is really going to answer a lot of questions. We can theorize all we want.
RL: Are you comfortable and confident that it will be the best show Vegas and the world have ever seen? Even better than the Mindfreak TV shows?
CA: I am, without sounding conceited, incredibly confident and I am putting my reputation on the line. Mindfreak is a TV show—a different world. I am working in a live medium. This show will not only be my best work in my career, but it will set a precedent in any show that involves the world of illusion. Forget about magic—this will be a live experience. Cirque has created its own brand of magic but this has taken Cirque in a different direction. I am pulling them in a different direction; they are pulling me in a different direction that is what is so magical about it. We are raising each other’s bar. We are trying to get out of the safe zone.
We doing things that aren’t what anybody has seen or thought possible before. Consider a tornado that will come out of my mouth and wrap around the theater! You will see the things that you see me do on Mindfreak, so to all those skeptics and naysayers that say all those things can’t be done live I challenge them to come and see my live show and you will see everywhere the most insane demonstration of illusions and connect on an emotional journey with me within the show. It is like a song, 50 people can listen to the same song, but all come out with something different that it means to them —and everybody will have a different emotional experience with this.
You will see me do extraordinary things in the live show—for example the art of levitation. You will see levitations in the show that even magicians will wonder how we do it. The things that I do are not typical or what you expect. When people watch the show they will not care about how it works, just how they feel. I think they will get chills, some may cry, some will be excited, but I know they will react. I am there trying to be methodical with Cirque and connect on an emotional level and everybody has something unique that appeals to them on an emotional level. I just want people to leave the show and think…think about the show when they are laying in bed about what it means to them.
RL: The 10-year contract with Cirque and Luxor for twice-nightly shows is unheard of in showbiz history for one man. Is the thought of 3650 nightly performances pretty daunting?
CA: First let me say that it has become a great marriage with Cirque. It will actually work out to 4,600 shows. Admittedly that’s a lot of shows but I don’t think about it in that capacity. Each performance in that theater will be for an audience that has never been together before or will ever be together again so it is very unique. I have to give 110 percent, I cannot walk through the motions, I have to think about that audience—they came to Vegas, they saw me on TV, so it has to blow their mind away. It has to be more that they ever anticipated or believed possible—and I promise it will be.