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Criss Angel
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Criss Angel (born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, December 19, 1967[1] in East Meadow, New York) is an American musician, mentalist, magician, illusionist, hypnotist, escapologist, stunt performer, and the creator and director of the Criss Angel Mindfreak television series on A&E Network and Discovery Channel.
Contents
- 1 Career as an Illusionist
- 2 Legitimacy
- 3 Career as a Musician
- 4 Discography
- 5 References
- 6 External links
|
Career as an Illusionist
Angel made his first television appearance as a magician on the ABC special, "Talents ", in 1995. In 1998, he mounted "Criss Angel: World of Illusion" as the headline feature of Madison Square Garden's annual Halloween celebration. In October 2002, Angel debuted an hour-long television special, "Criss Angel Mindfreak", on the ABC Family channel. He has subsequently starred in several television specials. His Broadway production, "Criss Angel Mindfreak", ran for 600 performances at The World Underground Theater in Times Square, ending January 6, 2003.
"Criss Angel Mindfreak", Angel's half-hour television series, premiered on the
A&E Network on July 20, 2005. He is currently filming the third season. His illusions have included walking on water, floating between two buildings, and cutting himself in half in full view of an audience. Guests have included
Korn's
Jonathan Davis (who also co-produced the show's theme music),
Rob Zombie,
the Amazing Jonathan,
Mandy Moore,
Penn & Teller, and
Lance Burton.
[2]
Criss Angel guest starred on CSI: NY on February 28, 2007 in an episode titled "Sleight Out of Hand" as a character named Luke Blade, a famous magician whose assistants die in unusual circumstances.[3] He performed three illusions (being sawed in half, being lit on fire, and a version of his "Submerged" illusion). All three illusions have been performed by Angel on "Criss Angel Mindfreak".
Criss Angel has won the Academy of Magical Arts' Magician of the Year award a record three times: 2001, 2004, 2005 and the IMS Magician of the year for 2007 and 2008. [4]
Criss will appear in a new magic-themed Cirque du Soleil production at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. The new show is expected to open in 2008.[5]
Legitimacy
Angel often claims that several of the levitations, teleports and demonstrations of telekinesis are done through the power of the mind, body and spirit attained through meditation. Some of the other methods are well known within the magic fraternity and have been performed previously by magicians such as
David Copperfield,
David Blaine and the
Pendragons. Angel is writing a book entitled
Mindfreak: Secret Revelations from the Master of Surreality.
Many viewers and critics allege that Angel is only a "video illusionist," using camera special effects, post-production effects, forced viewing angles, and assistants acting as amazed spectators for the TV audience.[citation needed] During the second season, Criss Angel introduced a "Spectator's Point of View camera", a handheld video camera given to a what he says is random person in the audience to shoot the action in any way he or she wants. However, the camera has seemingly fallen out of favor as the second season continued, only showing up very sporadically. He has even revealed the methods for some of his tricks to viewers at home on TV and in Stuff Magazine (although the effects are usually very simple such as making a toothpick disappear, or making a styrofoam cup float.) Angel guest starred on an episode of "Las Vegas" in which he says "If it's real, it's not magic!".
Perhaps Criss’s most controversial illusion is his “splitting a lady in half” publicly in Sunset Park, Las Vegas. The concept and method for this illusion was taken, without permission, from World's Greatest Magic Show star Kevin James' routine titled Operation.
Career as a Musician
Angel was in an industrial rock band called Angeldust, which he started with Klay Scott (now known as Klayton of Celldweller) after Klayton's previous band Circle of Dust broke up. Angeldust released an album called Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusion in 1998 and performed in Madison Square Garden. He has also released several more CDs as Criss Angel.
More recently, Angel created the video MF2 featuring Sully Erna, the lead singer of Godsmack. The video debuted on Yahoo! videos.
Angel also released The Offical Mindfreak Soundtrack based on his A&E show Mindfreak.
Discography
All of these albums were self-released under APITRAG Records.
| Album | Tracks | Notes
|
Image:Ca-angeldustalbum.jpg
Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusion
(1998)
| 01. Come Alive
02. Down
03. Fear
04. Thrush
05. Procreation
06. Die For Me
07. Edge of the World
08. Darkest Day (JS)
09. Hate Me
10. Deadlove Calling
11. Do You Know
12. Metamorphosis (Theatrical Score)
13. Forever | As Angeldust.
|
Image:Ca-system1album.jpg
System 1 in the Trilogy
(2000)
| 01. Come Alive
02. Down
03. Fear
04. Thrush
05. Procreation
06. Die For Me
07. Edge of the World
08. Darkest Day (JS)
09. Hate Me
10. Deadlove Calling
11. Do You Know
12. Metamorphosis (Theatrical Score)
13. Forever | Same tracks as Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusion. Features Intro Dialogue of Come Alive by Clive Barker. All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
|
Image:Ca-system2album.jpg
System 2 in the Trilogy
(2000)
| 01. Hümbodik
02. Phantasm
03. Cocoon
04. Inhuman
05. Enrapture
06. Entranced
07. Metamorphosis
08. Tremor
09. D.A.M.
10. XTC
11. Underground
12. Perelandra.2 | All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
|
Image:Ca-system3album.jpg
System 3 in the Trilogy
(2000)
| 01. In Two
02. Nexus
03. Copycat
04. Rubber Room
05. Firestorm
06. Revelation
07. Disintegration
08. Epilogue
09. 2<0
10. U
11. Why Me
12. Amixtika | All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
|
Image:Ca-mindfreakalbum.jpg
Mindfreak
(2002)
| 01. Scarecrow
02. Phantasm
03. Cocoon
04. Enrapture
05. Perelandra.3
06. Delusions
07. Snow
08. In Two
09. Tremor
10. Metamorphosis
11. Revelation
12. Closure
13. Epilogue
14. D.A.M. | Intended as a soundtrack for his Mindfreak show. All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
|
Image:Ca-supernaturalalbum.jpg
Supernatural
(2003)
| Xristos
Hümbodik
Metamorphosis
Goodbye
N2 (Supernatural)
Scarecrow.2 | Unreleased, exact track listing unavailable. Soundtrack for his Supernatural special.
|
Image:Ca-mftvseries-soundtrack.jpg
Criss Angel Mindfreak
(2006)
| 01. Mindfreak
02. MF2
03. Mindfreak (Celldweller Remix)
04. Come Alive
05. Down
06. Fear
07. XTC
08. D.A.M.
09. Die For Me
10. Underground
11. Procreation
12. Do You Know
13. Mystify
14. Fly
15. Now I Die
16. Carmela
17. Awake
18. Fight
19. Mindfreak (Desert Remix)
20. Goodbye
21. Mindfreak (Season 1 Theme)
22. Mindfreak (Season 2 Theme) | Mindfreak television series official soundtrack. "MindFreak2" features Sully Erna from Godsmack and Nuno Bettencourt from DramaGods. "Mindfreak (Season 1 Theme)" produced by Jonathan Davis of Korn.
|
References
- ^ Born December 19, 1967 according to Public Records and Copyright Records, copyright.gov - United States Copyright Office.
- ^ http://www.aetv.com/criss_angel/criss_aboutcriss.jsp
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965331/
- ^ http://www.crissangel.com/news.html
- ^ http://www.happynews.com/news/3222007/magician-criss-angel-new-cirque-show.htm
