Criss Angel Interview

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Criss Angel, the master illusionist and star of A&E’s “Criss Angel Mindfreak,” to talk about his highly anticipated new show, “Criss Angel Believe,” that celebrated it gala premiere on Halloween at Luxor Las Vegas.

Criss joins forces with the Cirque du Soleil in an amazing production that’s fantasy, allegory, and a highly theatrical tableau of mood, reverie and emotion set against a backdrop of darkness and light. “Criss Angel Believe” takes the audience on a fantastic journey of self-discovery deep inside the inventive mind of a man with magical powers as he hovers unhinged between the land of the living and a surreal world uniquely woven together by the distinctive imaginations of Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil. The production features an intense troupe of characters, puppet creatures, and dancers who mix a multitude of styles into a high-energy visual feast, punctuated by moments of grace, sensuality, danger and drama.

This is no ordinary magic show and will change the way you think about magic. Criss performs impossible illusions right before your eyes while paying homage to traditional magicians and the history, tradition, props, and conventions of their craft. The spectacular illusions are not presented as standalone elements, but as integrated components using iconic imagery, a gallery of phantasmagorical creatures and impossible feats of legerdemain, all of which are woven into the dazzling, colorful fabric of the story.

“Criss Angel Believe” has a distinctive look, tone and mood and features impressive contributions by Cirque du Soleil’s extraordinary creative team that includes directors of creation Pierre Phaneuf and Christiane Barette, set designer Ray Winkler, lighting designer Jeanette Farmer, image and projections designer Francis Laporte, costume designer Meredith Caron, puppet designer Michael Curry, and composer Eric Serra. The character and story driven choreography by Wade Robson is raw and primal. The sound design is by Jonathan Deans, one of the most sought after sound designers in the musical theatre world.

Criss Angel has single-handedly brought about a major resurgence of magic in popular culture. Today, he is recognized as one of the most provocative artists in the world. “I always felt that magic was a beautiful art form, but magicians killed it because of their hokey presentations,” he explained. “But I believed that if you presented the art of magic outside the box it would be limitless and finally garner the respect that it deserves.”

Criss emphasized the importance of establishing an intimate relationship with the audience. “Houdini was a pioneer in a lot of ways,” he said. “When he performed his straitjacket escape in front of enormous crowds, people identified with him. They felt that if he could escape from a straitjacket, maybe they too could escape from their constraints and achieve their dreams.” Like Houdini who is the inspiration for the show’s title, Criss Angel likes to create moments of wonder. “Magic is an art that should provoke and touch people,” he said.

Criss became interested in the art of magic at the age of seven when he learned his first magic trick from his Aunt Stella. When he was 11 or 12 years old, he started performing his first shows. “I started at birthday parties, and moved on to Sweet 16’s and corporate events,” he explained. “Then, when I was 14, I was performing in bars and clubs, riding my bicycle to work.” Criss has never lost touch with his inner child. “There’s an inner child in all of us,” he told me. “Some of us choose to let it out, and some of us choose not to show that. But, it’s a wonderful feeling when you have that wonderment. You feel like a child again.”

In 1994, Criss made his prime-time television debut in the ABC special Secrets. In 1998, Criss Angel: World of Illusion headlined Madison Square Garden’s annual Halloween spectacle. The sold-out 12-day run attracted an audience of over 80,000. His next major project, 600 performances of his critically acclaimed Criss Angel Mindfreak, brought a new kind of entertainment to Broadway. In October 2002 the television special Criss Angel Mindfreak debuted on ABC Family Channel in which Criss submerged himself -- chained and shackled – in a 220-gallon water torture cell. His third one-hour television special, Supernatural, aired on the Sci Fi Channel.

The undisputed master of street magic, Criss Angel is currently the star and creator of the A&E network series Criss Angel Mindfreak which premiered in 2005. The illusions have included walking on water, levitating above the Luxor Hotel, floating between two buildings, making a Lamborghini vanish and cutting himself in half in full view of an audience. Mindfreak is the most successful magic show in television history. Criss has received numerous awards and is the first five-time recipient of the coveted Magician of the Year Award (2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008). He has also recently been named “Magician of The Decade” by the International Magicians Society.

Criss was excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Cirque du Soleil which currently produces and runs 18 shows simultaneously all over the world and next year will open three new shows to add to that legacy. Since 1984, close to 80 million spectators have seen Cirque du Soleil performances around the world, and 20 million of those individuals have seen Cirque performances in Las Vegas. “Criss Angel Believe” is the newest addition to their Las Vegas repertoire.

“Many, many years ago, I had the opportunity to watch Cirque, in one of their first television productions, and I was in awe of the artistry, the poetry, the emotion that was evoked,” he told me.  “Cirque du Soleil is best at the magic of emotion, without even doing illusion. And, my dream was to do what Cirque did, and try to really bend the perception of how you want the public to think about magic, as Cirque did for the circus.”

When Criss made his first pilgrimage to Las Vegas, he remembered watching a show by the Blue Man Group at the Luxor Theatre, seeing billboards on the strip for Siegfried & Roy, and watching “O” which he’s seen at least 16 times. “It’s my favorite (Cirque) show. Well, my second favorite show now,” he laughed. “I just had a big dream, and I always believed, as my father told me, that there’s nothing in life that you can’t achieve, if you work for it. And, that’s exactly what I did. Fifteen years ago, I dreamt it, and today, I’m living the dream. It just goes to show you that anybody can live their dream, if you believe.”

“Criss Angel Believe” began development nearly two years ago, and Guy Laliberte, the visionary founder of the Cirque du Soleil, played a pivotal role. “I’m very grateful to Guy for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime,” Criss said. “Because, honestly, this is even beyond my dreams -- to work with the people of an incredible organization, like Cirque du Soleil, who are at the pinnacle of entertainment and who have redefined entertainment, and to work with such incredible artists -- from Wade Robson (choreographer) to Meredith Caron (costume designer) to Eric Serra (composer, musical director and arranger) -- the list goes on and on and on.”

Criss also had high praise for the show’s Co-Writer and Director, Serge Denoncourt. “He’s been an amazing director,” he told me. Cirque could not have picked a better person to do this show with me. He really understood the vision and worked together with me, harmoniously. We tried things that one of us thought would work, and the other one thought didn’t work, but at the end of the day, we were a team. Hopefully, we will redefine, together, magic as we know it. I’m very proud of what we have accomplished in this show.”

Criss initially wrote the Believe show and the illusions 15 years ago, but it was not a practical possibility until the Cirque du Soleil became involved about 3 years ago and provided an opportunity for him to realize the lyrical beauty of his artistic vision. “Cirque could take it to a whole other level. Serge and I went through that grueling process together, evolving and developing the show. It continues to grow. It’s a never-ending process, and I’m just very fortunate that I have this man to take what I did many years ago and redo it. He brought a lot to the table that wasn’t there, and we did it very harmoniously.”

Criss talked about some of the challenges he faced bringing the show to life. “For me, speaking from my perspective, the biggest challenge was that there’s only X amount of things you can do in magic. You can make something appear, you can make something vanish, you can make something levitate, you can cut something, you can put it back together. Those are the physics of nature. That’s what you can do.” And he wanted to present those concepts in a way that had never been presented on a stage before. “I wanted to get rid of the boxes and get rid of the typical presentation that would be associated with those things, and present the most sophisticated versions of cutting a human being in half without any boxes and without any props, and give people a presentation that has the illusions woven into the fabric.“

He continued, “So, the greatest challenge was, how do you do that? How do you take something that typically would be performed in a self-contained box and have it in the open? Well, you have to involve other art forms, like the costuming, the lighting, the special effects. There are so many other things that have to seamlessly work together, in order to pull that off. And, there was a long period of time that we had to do a lot of due diligence, and prototypes, and trial and error, and garbage bag tests, in order to figure out if it was even possible because it’s never been done before. And so, for us, that was incredibly challenging, and we’re very happy to have gotten through that process.”

I asked Criss if it was difficult moving his illusions from television to a live stage show. “To transfer from television to live [performance] was very easy for me because that’s where I come from,” he told me. “I’m a creature of live performances, more than television. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. I actually did about 600 performances on Broadway and 43rd Street. It’s actually helped me because doing nearly 100 episodes of the television show has really honed my chops and allowed me to explore a lot of very diverse illusions and also my presentation.”

I wondered if the illusions were already done and the story written to fit around them, or if it was the other way around. Criss explained, “I would say probably 85% of the illusions I originally had in my first treatment. But, working with Serge, we took that same illusion and created a different incarnation of it, to fit in the Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz world. So, the base was there.”

“One of the things with these illusions is that it’s not something you’ll see in any other magic show in the world,” he continued. “I spent many, many years evolving and developing and trying to figure out, with John Farrell (director of illusions) and Michael Curry (props and puppets designer), how to bring these things to life, before I was involved with Cirque. There was a lot of research and development that was done. We wanted to make sure that we could present the most sophisticated versions of these illusions, and we stayed on course with that. There were accommodations made, but I would say that the majority of it, even though it was unfinished, was in the first stage.”

Growing, exploring, and diversifying as an artist is important to Criss. “The success of the television show and the incredible fans, worldwide, has really given me the platform to do the show, and to try some things,” he told me. “It’s very easy to stay inside the box and do what works. But, I try to do what hasn’t been done, and try to push my own envelope as an artist, to be the best that I can be. Until the day I die, I want to learn and I want to grow, and Cirque has given me the opportunity to do that.”

“This show is about expecting the unexpected,” Criss explained. “The title is not ‘Criss Angel Mindfreak Circus.’ It’s ‘Criss Angel Believe, Cirque du Soleil.’ For me, it’s about showing people that there’s much more to me than just the Mindfreak thing. Doing the same things gets a little boring. You become a caricature of yourself, and I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in being the best I can be as an artist.”

“Criss Angel Believe” takes magic in a whole new direction. “The live show experience will be unlike anything that anybody’s ever seen before,” said Criss. “This show brings to life beyond my wildest dreams an original concept that I created over 15 years ago. It’s an experience that truly represents the magic of emotion that members of the audience can connect with and reflect on in their own lives. The images on stage will ignite responses that cause people to reflect – and I think that’s the truest form of magic.”

A special thanks to Criss Angel, Guy Laliberte, Serge Denoncourt, John McCoy and all the wonderful people at the Cirque du Soleil that made my visit such an enjoyable experience.