Is this from Criss Angel's live show years ago?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5mOzPcJlJoQ

I've seen this before but was just looking to confirm that this was in fact from his live show on broadway. It's pretty bad in my opinion. There is a lot of unnecessary distraction and the switch was very slow. This is nothing like the one he did on his A&E show. That one was done with just a flash and executed at incredible speed. After seeing this old version I now wonder if the A&E version was manipulated a little to look faster.

The A&E version was done live in front of an audience of a few hundred people. I highly doubt it was manipulated.

Shot live in front of an audience doesn't mean it wasn't edited before broadcast. One doesn't prove the other didn't happen.

I don't think it was sped up anyway. He had plenty of time to do what he needed to do without extra "trickery."

True but some things are a little suspicious. The first is that he never appeared to perform it this way until his tv show. I may be wrong but so far that is what I am seeing. The second suspicious thing is the camera angel on the A&E version. It is intentionally placed close enough to the flash so the entire frame experiences white out. It is extremely quick but that is all you need to make an easy video edit.

It is possible that there was more than one flash. Maybe two or three but it was edited down to one to make it appear as if the switch was much quicker. If you catch my drift.

I doubt the A&E version was edited. If I recall they showed a few secondary angles of the flash confirming that it was indeed a single flash. However, the flash itself is several seconds long and is mixed with smoke generators, limiting visibility for up to 5 seconds (an eternity for such a switch).

criss angel's version of metamorphisis is probably my favorite of the variations.

Personally I prefer The Pendragons version better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXumzYarCJw&NR=1

The main problem with Criss Angel's performance is, how do i talk about this without exposure...Ok... Anyone remember Doug Henning's "Things that go bump in the Night "? effect?

Big Box... shapes come out? and at the end there is a big surprise? Ok, we all know how the surprise was done.

Some magicians are more subtle. In this because of the confusion factor, there is no way to tell what is really happening. Trying to not expose, but it sure is hard.

When the Pendragons do Metamorphosis, we see Jonathan go into the box in the beginning, we see Charlotte on top of the box.We see him on top in the end, amazed at the speed. We see her in the box at the end, and in a change of costume to boot. Mighty amazing. Even when you know how it is done, the fact that it is done so quickly is pretty impressive.

With the Criss version, there is a LOT going on in the beginning, a lot of confusion. The camera shifts away unnecessarily or maybe knowing Criss... necessarily. I mean do we really need to see the fingers on the guitar frets? Do we need an extreme close up that shows some clown in front of the box? but we see nothing else? And all I can think of as I watch is..." Doug Henning's Things that go Bump in the Night." except that :

Doug Henning's effect you see it empty before the last bit, and you don't see that here... It's just in my opinion not very entertaining, or amazing...

It's as if he were using the last part of the henning effect to fake the metamorphosis effect, except that he got an unentertaining mess.

The Pendragons have a stable shot that shows the box from the front... No need for all that smoke.. and confusion. They also perform the effect a LOT faster... and more cleanly.

Then again, the Pendragons have talent, and know how to perform. The Pendragons are both awsome magicians. Criss is...well, he's Criss. Nuff' said there about that.

I'm sorry but its fairly obvious Angel edited Metamorphisis on Mindfreak to make it seem faster by filling the screen with the flash. If you can watch the metamorphisis in slow motion, you can almost tell its edited because of the movement of things. Its like you can almost see the cut. In reality the flash lasted a lot longer, probably about the same length of time the smoke does in this video that was posted.

Here is a second reason as to why I think that, Angel used the exact same coreography (is that how thats spelled?) on Mindfreak doing Metamorphisis, so if he changed technique it would make it likely he would have presented it a little differently as well, and moved a little differently too, but he didn't do that, it was like he was performing something straight out of his stage show without any changes.

Though I'm a Loyal, I won't claim Criss Angel never used camera editing... but definitely not for the metamorphosis. He has an entry in the Guinness Book Of Records for being able to do the fastest metamorphosis illusion to date, in less than a second and without using a sheet. You can't bribe the guys who verify those world records. He will do the illusion in his upcoming live show, too.
Maybe I can explain why the older version he did onstage isn't that good: look, it's about 7 years ago. It was his first live show. It wasn't very fast and he needed a lot of distraction then. And, many people forget that fact, he didn't have a very high budget then! But during the years, he practiced and brought it to perfection. I guess to be the fastest in doing this is one of the reasons he won the Merlin Award 5 times now.



This version was edited for a tv special of the live show. With all the cuts and so on, they wanted to create a certain athmosphere. The show was not only about the illusions, it was like telling a story from a fictional scenery called "Amystika". All those creepy creatures were characters from that imagined world. To that time, the tv special was supposed to cause people watching it live, so I even guess they did more cuts than necessary to make people doubt and create the I-want-to-see-that-live-effect...
Clarissa35f, I remember that you wrote anywhere that this is the only illusion you have seen of that show, I don't remember in which topic it was, so I hope it's ok to reply to it here. Also it's an example for how he brought illusions to perfection during the years. This is "In two", the former version of him cutting himself in half without boxes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdBtD1q-GSs

Then look at the version how he does it now and will do in his upcoming live show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbRbPjJ-RFA

Of course there are cuts, but remember, he will do it live! But maybe now you also get what I said about the changes of metamorphosis.

Ok? And?

Whats your point? None of that explains what I said.

The cut is obvious, its there, Angel uses flash and smoke to cover cuts all the time on Mindfreak, this is no exception. Deal with it. I have a hard time believing he can do Metamorphisis faster than anyone else, but if he has a legit record then well anything's possible, but that doesn't change the fact that he used camera trickery to speed it up for television. And that makes me wonder if it was truly Metamorphisis he performed to claim the record, and not something very very very similar to it so that the people watching were fooled into thinking it was indeed Metamorphisis. I mean I don't know if that would be possible, I doubt it would be, but I know absolutely nothing about how they judge that either.

The movements were the same from his old metamorphisis, and it was the same trunk I think too, the same assistant, and everything, so what makes you think it was a faster newer method?

It was the same way he performed it a long time ago on tv, with a nice long flash that filmed the camera's view to cover a cut. Its fairly obvious. He did the same thing for the very first episode of Mindfreak when he was on fire and even admitted to cutting it to make it faster if I'm not mistaken.

I actually have seen Criss do the metamorphosis the fire way long before Mindfreak. He appeared on a show called "Science of Magic" hosted by Harry Anderson and he did the sub trunk with the fire and everything. There's was a slight flash of the method but it could only be seen upon repeated veiwing.
I also saw him do the CO2 version live and I know a bit about sub trunks and I have to admire the way he did it. The way the seating was I was like 4 feet from the stage and could see all the way around it yet he pulled it off.
I know he's a "TV" magician but that one he can pull off without edits

The ambulence part was BS though. Kinda weird when a paramedic looks and has the same name as your costume designer.

I didin't want to start a big discussion again, just give my opinion and add some facts that hadn't been mentioned yet. Thecooltonto, I didn't reply to your arguments, I replied to jverrone who asked the question and then to clarissa35f. If you have read my comment carefully, how can you not understand what my point is? My point is that it wouldn't make a sense to fake something where everybody knows he can do it. I never claimed that he never used camera edits- I am a Loyal, but I'm not stupid. But in this case facts speak for him. He really holds this record, if you don't believe it but want to know, just get a Guinness Book and look it up. Criss also had another record for the longest body suspension, but that record was beaten by someone this year. In the metamorphosis, his record is less than a second, like it is shown in the video. And he will do it in his upcoming live show again, so why argue? He'll prove it again to all the doubters.
What you said about the movements, all we see is him suddenly standing on the box. That's the effect, but nobody knows what happens in the second he is invisible. That's what he brought to perfection during the years, not the visual performance.

I definitely don't like to argue with people who just don't like Criss Angel, but ignorance and a narrow-minded state make me angry- don't take that personally, I mean it generally. I already mentioned the fact that if he had no skill and would always use camera tricks, he wouldn't be that big. He wouldn't have won the Merlin Award 5 times. He wouldn't have the Guinness Book entry... and so on.

Oh, almost forgot something.



Never heard of something like that. And I'm pretty sure I would if it was true, because there were so many people, and most of them will have watched it on tv later again. In this case, so many people would know it that it couldn't stay a secret for a long time. I mean it's one thing to use a hand full of stooges who will not say a word later, but it's impossible with such a big crowd where are people with cell phones and cameras all around. Also I can't believe Criss admitted anything, because to date he claims that he never used camera tricks... I know it's not true, but I understand his reasons for staying obstinate. But that's a different discussion.

And yet you're one of Criss' "Loyal"?

Adjones, can you please explain me what you want to say? I'm getting tired of people who want to provoke and argue on a personal level. Yes, I am a Loyal and always will be and I have my reasons for that. They are many and most of them are personal, and I don't feel a need to explain them anymore to anyone.

But I came back to this topic for another reason:



Just got curious about that and watched that part again. But I don't know who you mean, the faces of the paramedics are not shown close-up and not mentioned with names?

You'll learn that adjones is the least likely person to want to start an argument. What he's trying to point out is that you're calling others "narrow minded" and "ignorant", but are doing the same by not budging an inch on Criss.

I'm not taking a side on this because Criss Angel has no effect on my life or magic whatsoever, I just dislike when people pointlessly go back and forth about something and neither will admit that the other is right about anything.

-JT