I have received an email this morning asking me for permission to send my work to Steve Banachek so he can give it the once over happy days

It's a trap! Banacheck consults for Criss Angel, don't do it you don't want your hard made work to be more fuel for the Angel ego!!!!

No but joking aside that's awesome. So awesome I officially hate you.

I think that I have found someone who hates Angel more than me

I don't like his performance style it screams stooge!!! Wires!!! gimmicks!!!

banachek dosent work for angel, he got fired lol

Since we have an entire forum (names in magic) devoted to bashing Angel I'll be brief.

I don't hate Criss I'm just totally indifferent to him. His TV show is to staged to be street magic (it lacks the impromptue feel that even the most staged close up magic should have) and not glamorous enough to be actual stage illusions, in short it does nothing for me.

Although I joke about his ego I actually refuse to comment on his personality based on what the media say about him. Anything printed in the press always has a spin. The press are even better mentalists than we are as they sway the opinions of people of the world on a daily basis. Criss may be a douch in person but I wouldn't know I've never met him.

With regards to stooges and wires I'm ok with them as long as your entire act isn't dependent on them. Within reason I believe you should be able to reproduce any effect you do with a stooge on your own, the stooge should only serve to eliminate a weak phase or create a more direct effect.

Getting back to the point have you heard back from one of our crafts greatest minds?

Not as yet mate, hes going to read the books might take a few days

Why employ stooges??

If you are a decent performer you can make someone a stooge without them even knowing they are, if you add a touch of perception control, you can make the 'instant stooge' impressed (they see a different thing entirely to the audience, but it still impresses the sh*t out of them) there reaction further sells the fact to the audience they are not stooges

It is very hard to explain in words.

A line from EZ (thanks for this) 'Instant stooge just add patter'

got booked for a private close up dinner party last night I went all out was great

I know several effects where the person on stage gets something slightly different from the rest of the audience though it's not something I've really researched in depth. Still I do see the appeal of that over paying people to help, still I doubt we could whip up an instant stooge to be levitated lol.

Depends how ballsy you are I suppose? ha ha