Criss Angel Interview
Interview by Reg Seeton, contributing editor
Since its debut on A&E, Criss Angel: Mindfreak has become a huge
runaway hit. Not only did the series make Criss Angel a household
name across America, it also transformed the art of magic into
something new for a whole new generation of fans. Now in his second
season of Mindfreak, Criss Angel continues to push the magical
envelope while also raising his game with even more dangerous, death-
defying feats and mind-numbing illusions. With the Criss Angel
Mindfreak: Halloween episode hitting DVD shelves everywhere, we
caught up with the hottest magician on the planet to learn more on
how he balances the art of magic with his passion for music and the
Mindfreak series.
UGO: A couple of years ago, it seemed that all of a sudden you just
burst onto the mainstream scene. What were you doing prior to the
Mindfreak series?
CRISS ANGEL: Years ago, before the series came out, I had a run at
Madison Square Garden. I headlined their Halloween show and did about
500 performances for them. Then I went on to create, direct, and star
in a show called Mindfreak, which was the original Mindfreak in Times
Square on Broadway and 33rd. I was supposed to do three months there
and ended up doing 600 performances in just over 14 months. I started
in 2001 and then in January of 2003 I closed the show. That
experience spawned two television specials, one was self-titled
Mindfreak for ABC Family and I was very fortunate to have the highest
rated original programming in the 13 nights of Halloween. Then I did
another Halloween show for SCI FI Channel the following year, which
did just as well or maybe even a little better. After I closed the
show I was going through a transformation of experimenting and
evolving in material. I wanted to get away from the whole Halloween
theme and do something a little more versatile and accessible. From
there, we quickly went on to do the television series and the first
season of Mindfreak, which originally started off as 8 episodes and
we were very fortunate not to have to do a pilot. But after A&E saw
some of the raw footage that we shot, they went ahead and ordered 16
episodes, which turned into 21 episodes for season one. That was the
youngest demographic at the time in A&E's history and the show became
the number one best selling DVD for A&E as well. It broke all sorts
of records in demographics and became the number one show in its time
slot. Then we went to season two and there have been a lot of great
things that have transpired since.
UGO: On the Halloween Special, illusionist Franz Harary said that in
every generation someone comes along that changes the game. How do
you feel you're changing the game?
CRISS: Well, I think magic as an art form, unfortunately, doesn't
garner the respect that cinema does or that musicians do. It's
perceived as a hokey, cheap novelty, like a man taking a woman in
leotards and shoving her into a box. It's kind of behind the times. I
wanted to make magic very provocative and engaging. I also wanted to
connect to people on an emotional level. It doesn't matter how I do
something, instead it matters how you feel when you watch it. I
really think that's what Houdini was so successful in doing. Up to
50,000 people would turn out when he'd do his version of street magic
and escape out of a straightjacket. People looked at Houdini and saw
a man not necessarily escaping the straightjacket, but saw a man that
was symbolic of their own lives in that they'd ask themselves, "If
Houdini could escape the straightjacket, maybe I can escape poverty.
Maybe I can make a better life for myself?" I really think that was
the essence of his success and why his name is still synonymous
today. My goal is to have that same organic approach; to touch people
and make them feel, make people laugh or cry, or even make people
scared. I want to approach magic in a way that's much more
provocative and get rid of the things that are associated with magic,
like the boxes and the hokey presentations. Whether it's on the
street, on the stage, or public demonstrations, I want to present a
new form of the art of magic.
UGO: How has technology helped to take magic to a whole new level?
CRISS: Well, technology has been an incredible asset and it's been an
incredible curse. It's been a curse because today everyone has a cell
phone with a video camera in it and I'm in a lot of public places
with high traffic, like Freemont Street in Las Vegas or Times Square
in New York City. Without tooting my own horn, I'm doing things that
no other magicians have done, like levitating a girl while completely
surrounded by people below and above me in various buildings. All of
these people, in their own way, are able to shoot whatever they see.
It keeps me on top of my game and it's really what I get off on. It's
the fact that I'm challenged to be able to pull it off and be able to
do it so that people are mesmerized by it and don't understand how it
works. But if I blow it, it will be on the Internet before you'd even
be able to say my name and it would definitely have an affect on my
career. I think that's why I've been successful, because I understand
how to present magic in the day and age that we live and these
situations that no other magician has taken chances with outside of
doing card tricks. It's like making an elephant disappear or floating
from one building to another, walking on water in a public pool, and
the various things that I think are very challenging in a challenging
environment.
UGO: In many ways, you seem like the Bruce Lee of magic. How do you
balance discipline and the physical with spirituality and magic?
CRISS: I think that when the mind, body, and spirit work together,
anything is possible. I live my life with that belief. A lot of what
I do is completely real and there are no tricks. A lot of what I do
is pure illusion. That's the line I try to blur and it's another
element that engages the audience, because they discuss it among
themselves as to what is what. A lot of times they think that what is
illusion is what is real, and vise versa. That, for me, is something
that all stems from my father when he got diagnosed with carcinoma,
which is a stomach cancer, and was given a death sentence of three
weeks to live. He didn't care what the doctors said and was a very
strong-willed person with an incredibly positive attitude and outlook
on everything. He was not only an inspiration to me, but to everyone
he came into contact with, because here was a man who had a very
fatal disease yet despite being in tremendous pain, he always had a
smile on his face. He was always very positive and appreciated every
day. He believed that his body was a slave to his mind. He didn't
care what the doctors said and was able to live for more than three
years and really affect people in such a positive way that it truly
inspired me to look at my own fears, like the fear of needles. I used
to go to the doctor's office to have blood taken and I would pass out.
So, what did I do? I confronted probably the most obscure and painful
scenario with hooks; to have four hooks placed into your back with no
painkillers or anything and hang by a helicopter more than a thousand
feet above the Valley of Fire. That's what I try to illustrate in the
demonstrations of mind, body, and spirit so people can see that. It's
incredibly rewarding when you get people to watch these things and
they say, "You know what? I couldn't get on an airplane or I couldn't
go in an elevator but I just saw you do the craziest thing I've ever
seen. I can obviously deal with something so simple and I'm going to
get help." When art affects people in that way, it's just an amazing
feeling.
UGO: With regard to the musical side of your career, how did you hook
up with Jonathan Davis from Korn?
CRISS: What's interesting about the art of magic is that so many
people love it. It appeals to the child inside all of us, except
there haven't been too many people that have the sensibility of
popular culture to be able to put it into a presentation and a form
that people can relate to. When people think of magic, they're often
thinking of some greasy guy pulling rabbits out of a top hat. Someone
like Jonathan, who I've been a big fan of, he obviously loves magic
and loved what I did with it. The same company I'm managed by managed
him and we hooked up years back, hit it off and have been friends
ever since. You know, people like Jonathan from Korn, Sully from
Godsmack, Ice Cube, Minnie Driver, Pamela Anderson, the list goes on
and on, they're all people who appreciate magic and I guess I've been
fortunate enough that they appreciate the way I present it.
UGO: Musically, you've recently worked on the Mindfreak soundtrack
with Jonathan, Sully and Nuno Bettencourt for MF2. What can fans
expect from the upcoming soundtrack release?
CRISS: Well, it's 22 tracks and the official soundtrack of seasons
one and two of Mindfreak. As you know, MF2 features Sully, Nuno, and
myself, plus in the video there's also Vince Neil and Shannon from
Godsmack. That's the single, but there are other tracks with the
theme song and other variations of the theme, plus tracks from the
show and tracks that haven't appeared on the show yet. As well,
there's also a DVD with a 30-minute behind-the-scenes making of with
all of those artists, from Jonathan and Sully to Shannon, Nuno, and
Andy Davis, who produced Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Van
Halen. It's a great product that I take a lot of pride in. I have a
lot of credibility from people that do music for their living that
would never lend their name to something that's cheesy or hokey, so
I'm really proud of that fact. Considering that it's a soundtrack, I
think it's great start. The single has been released and it has done
well in a few key markets, so the fans seem to be anticipating the
album and I hope they enjoy it.
UGO: In the second season of Mindfreak, you've been raising the bar
on yourself even more. In upcoming episodes, you're keel hauled under
a boat and you're also performing inside a shark cage. How do you
mentally prepare for the danger?
CRISS: It's weird, because in season one it was about whether I was
going to live or die each week. With season two, I really made a
conscious effort to say something different and try to grow and not
become a caricature of myself. I tried to do things that were much
more diverse in season two and show that maturity. Whether it's the
celebrity seance that will air on Halloween where I take five or six
celebrities - from Steve Valentine from Crossing Jordan to Deborah
Gibson to 36-Mafia and a Playboy model - and put them in a location
that is said to have more paranormal activity than anywhere else in
the United States, to making an elephant vanish, to walking on water,
the key for me was to really do things that were diverse. In that,
though, I still had to do things that had a life and death scenario.
With the keel haul and the underwater sequence, it's incredibly
challenging because it's never been done. I'm dealing with two
elements - water, which has killed a lot of escape artists and a
straightjacket, which unto itself is challenging enough. If you
combine them together, it's a situation where I think I have it
worked out, but until I'm actually strapped to the harness and
attached to a boat, I don't know if my theory is going to work 100%.
I do little tests, but I really need to keep myself focused because I
don't know what's going to happen and any obstacle that arises I have
to keep myself calm, cool, and collected to deal with it. Hopefully,
my physical and mental training, even spiritually what I believe,
allows me to address any hurdles that might arise.
UGO: For this generation, it seems that there are two guys out front
on the scene right now, you and David Blaine. What's your take on
what he's doing?
CRISS: Honestly, I don't even think about it. I just look at what I'm
doing and I don't really spend any time thinking about anyone else. I
just do my thing and I don't look over my shoulder; I just look
ahead. But, I wish everyone else the best in what they do.
UGO: With the increased exposure and deadlines on the series, how has
the show affected your approach to the magic and your concepts?
CRISS: Obviously, it's a challenge that no one had to deal with
before. We've done more hours in prime time with magic than any
magician in the history of television in the U.S. It's a challenge
that I'm still trying to figure out in the process. It's becoming
even more challenging because as the show gets more successful and I
become more of a personality that people recognize, what we used to
do doesn't work anymore. Now when I walk down the street, I'm
bombarded, which is fantastic and I'm very grateful to all of the
people who support Mindfreak, but it becomes one of the logistics
that you have to contend with. I'm also trying to do other projects
that I have the opportunity to take on, which I couldn't a year or
two ago. I'm going away this week to Mexico to write the third season
and I basically have to come up with about 300 demonstrations to have
a kill ratio built in there. There are people out there who don't
learn 300 effects in their entire life, but I have to come up with
it, figure it out, design it, bring it to fruition, and then perform
it like I've been doing it for a hundred years. It's incredibly
challenging, because my time is much more limited than it used to be.
This season, I shot as many as two episodes in five days, which is
insane. It's interesting, because I don't ever want to repeat myself.
If I don't have anything to say or create I just don't want to do it,
because it's never about the money to me. I really want to push the
envelope and take people in a different direction. It's challenging
to come up with that material and it's challenging to figure out how
to shoot it within a very tight schedule between an album, a book
coming out, and working on my live show. There are a lot of different
projects that I'm working on and the television series is just one of
those.
|
