there are fair enough reasons to love angel and also to hate him. He does amazing things theres no doubt about it i mean it blows our mind. he is really original and unique. however, he can be really cheap. there is no doubt that he hires fake audiences. I have seen audiences in his vidoes appearing more than once with a hat or glasses. and he DOES use the camera to make it look more surprising and realistic whereas if we were really there we could in fact figure it out.

when watching mind freak, we see lots of tricks of Criss using mentalism such as guessing numbers or reading people's minds. When they look at a certain card he knows what card they looked at etc. He Does use cheap methods sometimes to make himself look so amazing. It is true. Just the fact that he totally stole the coin in the soda can/sinful, from the guy who created stigmata and sold hundreds without giving a credit to him was just unreal. I personally love Criss, he is so awesome but it is a fact that he often does not seem as what he really seems like.

Criss Angel had Wayne Houchin (the creator of Sinful and Stigmata) on the explanation video. Criss gives Wayne a lot of credit. Wayne actually teaches how to do the effect.

I like Criss Angel. He is a talented magician and musician. He is doing a tv show though. His main audience for the show is the people watching tv. That's true for any magician doing magic on tv. So yes, they take some creative liberties to make things seem better. But he doesn't need a hired audience. What many people forget is that many people in Las Vegas are interested in watching Criss Angel perform (remember that many are just tourists, and Criss Angel does have a huge fan base since he has had so much tv exposure) so they go to many of his performances. It should not be a surprise then that many of the same people are going to see more then one of his performances.

But something that should also remember, if anyone has ever seen the World's Greatest Magicians tv specials, then it should be noted that all of those audiences where hired, as is the same with most tv stage magic specials.

that makes sense. good call thanks for the comment.

he also films a lot of things at once and splits it into many different shows...so the same audiences will be there, also, he did not steal sinful from Wayne Houchin, as a matter of fact Wayne is the one on the DVD teaching it, Criss just gives extra tips, Criss just did it on tv to boost Waynes career and awsome product (he also did it on tv because its awsome) and he gives Wayne full credit for the effect, they just marketed it with Criss's name (and Wanyes) because more people are likely to buy it, so dont make stuff up

There are more reasons that people hate him

Camera tricks
Paid actors
Exposing magic
Apparent Cockiness
Attitude toward Blaine/badmouthing Blaine
Dancing around in a thong on Houdini's grave

lol, nice. i just like watching his show because it has magic in it. i could care less about the person as a human being, i just like watching magic.

You must be talking about David Blaine, right?


"I will master this or drown trying!"

hahahaha that last one was hilarious! nice one.

the sad thing is he actually did it.....

he badmouthd blaine?

Yeah, he insulted David right after Blaine gave him supoort at his Oasis stunt.

First, he doesn't use camera tricks. Just because you can't figure out how he does his stunts, that doesn't mean that he uses camera tricks. And if you want to talk about camera tricks, what about David Blaine's camera tricks? You know the one where he levitated like a foot of the ground? That was nothing more then camera tricks (in the form of editing). No disrespect to David Blaine though, he's still a good magician.

Criss doesn't use paid actors. There would be no reason. That just once again goes to the fact that you obviously don't understand how Criss does his effects. If you did, you would see that there is no reason for paid actors.

Exposing magic is nothing new in magic. Many famous magicians have done so on tv. Houdini, Blackstone, James Randi, Banachek, Penn and Teller, and coutless other magicians have done the same thing. Houdini made a living off of exposing magic. Many magicians expose simple magic in their performances as a set up to a larger effect. And some do it just to get the audience more involved.

Who cares if he's a little "cocky." Yes, he gets very excited after he succeeds with a stunt, but who doesn't. That doesn't mean he's cocky. I have talked to people who have met Criss, and everything I have ever heard is that he's a very nice guy.

I have never heard Criss badmouth David either. I remember Criss saying something about how he was glad that David supported him in the Oasis stunt. Yes, there is a running competition between the two. But just the fact that Criss feels that David is competition shows that Criss respects David as a magician.

I also have never heard of Criss dancing on Houdini's grave. Criss has a lot of respect for Houdini, which is easily seen if you watch his show.

Love him or hate him, Criss is a great magician who has done a lot for the magic community.

geez, do your research before you make a false statement like that.

If you think he doesnt use camera tricks and actors then I'll let you think that. By the way, you believe Blaine used camera editing for his lev, yet you think Angel's Building Float is real? Also Blaine only used one edit that was the lev, Angel, much much more. But you won't believe me so I wont bother.

Stooges, haven't you seen the "Bad Acting" thread and the "Asian girl in swimming pool" thread? Angel asked the girl what her name was and she didn't say anything, and Angel was like, "Emily? ok step right up", guess they met before. The same audience show up again and again in his shows. Also for his lev, in his DVD, he teaches the bad angles for the lev, yet he then shows clips of him doing it with people watching it from the bad angles and still acting amazed. There are so much evidence. The whole Hypnotism episode was actor filled, and more. Now I'm not saying everything he does is camera tricks and actors, but there are quite a bit and I dont like it.

Just because other people do it does not mean exposure is good or ok. People smoke weed, it is good? Also Angel exposed some every good effects.

He is cocky to me, not just proud or anything but straight up cocky and full of himself. Also, I remember one episode where a whole segment about 5 minutes long was about him being shirtless with 2 girls and them talking about his abs, what the edited is that? I thought it was a magic show.

As for badmouthing Blaine, he did do it, I cant find the link again, but he said "Blaine never did a live show in his life", when in fact, Blaine worked as a pro in resturaunts, bars, and private parties way before he was on TV. I'll try to find the link again.


To see what respect Angel really have for Houdini, http://www.penguinmagic.com/discuss/vie ... p?t=110163

The building float can be done with out camera tricks. There is no need for him to use camera tricks as he can do them without.

Also, as someone has mentioned, they film a lot of stuff and then put it in different episodes. It's not surprising that the same people end up in more then one clip. That's how they do filming. So it's not a big surprise. You are making it something that it's not. And there is no reason to hire paid actors, if you knew the methods, you would see this.

Also, his tv show is not a show for magicians. That's not who he is trying to attract, so he doesn't do just magic. He finds the clips that he and the producers think will get the best respones. Then that is what goes into the show.

Finally, your link does not show Criss dacing in a thong on on Houdini's grave. Yes, it shows Criss at Houdini's grave, paying homage, which is the title of the pictures. He does where a thong in different pictures, but that's paying homage to a very famous picture of Houdini.

Just to mention though, the hypnotism episode wasn't full of paid actors. He has both Banachek and Luke Jermay on his team. So it's not a surprise that with all of that help, he would have been able to find a method. And if you knew anything about hypnotism, you would know that it's possible.