Good point DerZauberer.

-JT

Thank you guys for the warm welcome!

Well, that phenomenon thing is something that really seems to have caused huge discussions and still does. In my opinion Criss was right here with what he said, but I won't argue about the fact if it was a good decision to do. I mean, actually it worked for Jim, didn't it? But you have to consider the fact that he didn't only make this claim on the stage, but also in his daily life, in chat rooms and so on- just like Uri, I never liked that guy. And I definitely don't believe Jim Callahan could really talk to dead people- if you had such a gift, such an ability, would you go out there and do it on stage to win a price? I don't think so. It wouldn't disturb me, but the problem is: when credulous people see it and believe, they will be willing to pay people for doing seances because they hope to be able to talk to beloved people they've lost. And there are so many fraudsters out there who make the big money that way. Btw, Jim would had have still a chance to make the whole scene look better for him in that moment when Criss asked him to prove his "powers". He could have stayed calm, do a little monolog like "it doesn't work this way, I'm to exhausted right now" and so on. But how he freaked out and even tried to start a muscle fight made him ridiculous in my eyes. I know fans of his would probably hate me for saying that, like some Loyal would hate you for comments about Criss... I'm so happy to see that in this forum it seems to be possible to discuss in a respectable way!

I think Criss is just misunderstood by many people. Some things he does or says may be disrespectful, but I think that I understand his reasons. (That may not be an excuse for some behaviour, but for me it makes me respect him even more.) First, he still didn't really get over his father's death, so he knows about the huge want-to-believe-feeling that causes people to fall for those fraudsters. Second, yes he did do a seance in his show, and for people who don't know much about him I guess it looked pretty real. But if you have seen other episodes like "Sucker", and if you have read his book, watched interviews and so on, you get the fact that he did it to show how easy it is to make people believe what they see is real. What he did in the seance episode was good acting, combined with nice illusions. Also it was for Halloween, it was his trick to cause that believe in the moment, even though everybody should already know he doesn't believe in seances!
He has a huge ego which of course has a positive and a negative side. I really guess he plans those putative inconsistencies because as an entertainer for him a negative response is better than no response.

Lol it seems I'm definitely not able to make it short, I really tried my best!

Agree to disagree I guess. Welcome again, and keep contributing!

-JT

P.S.: I totally agree with you, Zauberer, about the inspiration. For example, I'm looking forward to the day when a skilled magician will be able to do the building levitation, live on tv and without camera trickery. To date it seems impossible, but I can literally see the image... somebody talking about Criss Angel like he now talks about Houdini, showing the old video of Criss doing it... explaining that at that time it couldn't have been done without camera editing, though it caused huge discussing. But with increased technology, he will do it... It may take centuries, but the illusion has a good chance that it will be able to be done in the future, if there is somebody with huge skills (and, let's face it, enough money) who dedicates his life to find a way. There is already a technology the military is working on, that could be used... but to date it's far away from working the way they dream about it.

Criss Angel can be a jerk sometimes.. read this story below

i was watching phonomenom or w/e that show is.. and they were having auditions or performances by a bunch of random people. This 1 guy had a truly brilliant act, it was mentalism. This guy said that ever since his grandpa or w/e died he can talk to him in heaven and stuff. so he goes on stage and has a box with around 20 items in it, and he goes into this like shaking phase and is going nuts and asks a volunteer to pull out one item (he is still shaking) the person pulls out an item and he writes down a prediction he wrote down (a box with 4 wheels) and sure enough the item the volunteer picked was a car (dinky car). and criss angel wasn't impressed at all so he decided to be an [edited] and put him on the spot. he said " i have got a word written in this envelope, if you can tell me this word right now i will give u 1 million dollars" he said something like that while holding an envelope... meanwhile this guy is still shaking and like freaking out (part of his act) ... I feel to do something like that is a total jerk move.. the guy should have said "WHY DONT U LEVITATE RIGHT NOW OVER THAT BULIDING CRISS ANGEL, GO WALK ON THAT WATER"

btw.. the only person criss really liked was a decent looking girl with a terrible act.

i saw this a while ago some1 plz correct me if im wrong though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1KM8U--QUU

thats what i am talking about, thanks adjones

No problem. There are tons of videos about that little incident on YouTube- took me a few minutes to get the right one.

its probably been brought up on this forum before to.

Many times, my friend... many times.

It's also the one I mentioned on Page 2.

-JT

figured.. this was was one of my first times on this thread, so i didn't really get a chance to browse. But that was so immature of criss angel.

Everybody has a different opinion of that incident, at last it worked for entertainment, and definitely for the viewer levels of the show.

By seeing it's still discussed so much, I remember that Uri tried to "recreate" an emotional incident like this in the german version of the show!
Did you know about that? Here it was called "The Next Uri Geller" and the format was a little different. It was actually more about making Uri popular in Germany again than about the contestants...
However, if you are interested, watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IftuacYW_Qc

Quite different situation, and it didn't cause long-lasting discussions as in America (I guess Uri hoped it would). Sorry I didn't find a video with english subtitles, but it's obvious that Uri is angry about a contestant who performs an effect that looks dangerous. It was a version of nailgun roulette.

Yea, i've seen that before doubt i'd want to take his place though...

I don't understand why people dis Angel all of the time, look at what hes done. Sure, he may or may not of used camera editing, but look at the escapes his done. Can you guys remember what he had 4 (I think) fish hooks placed into his back and then he dangled from a helicopter while getting flown over the desert (Again, I think that is right).

Come on, look at the Steamroller Illusion. That was not a camera effect because I know how it was done. Who ever thought of that has a very creative mind, and it takes some balls for Criss to perform. If they missed by a centimeter, Criss' body would have been crushed.

Just stop bashing him is all I'm asking, you don't have to love him.