Mindfreak Season 4-Criss Angel

Matt Sconce

Matt Sconce

Veteran
Hello,
I am a filmmaker here on the forums and a mentalist/illusionist, and I have been waiting eagerly for Mindfreak Season 4 to come out. I was excited to see what Criss Angel would do with the new series. I was dissapointed in phenomenon, and in some of the other effects Criss did that just seemed to get bigger and bigger. I love David Blaine's up close and personal style and hoped I would see some similar things on Mindfreak Season 4. I have to say that the the frist two weeks, concerned me, as the nail gun stunt almost made me stop watching due to the fact, I watch to see spectator reactions, not someone doing daredevil stunts that (may or may not) have gone wrong. I decided to keep watching though and have to say that the last two weeks have been great in my opinion. Criss has returned to some powerful close up magic and some great "actual escapes" rather than the "now I'm in the box, now I'm 100 yards away" thing. I don't mind the latter, but there had been an awful lot of that on the show recently, and I was excited to see the close, one on one illusions. Here are some of the illusions I have really liked recently.

Ice Rink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY5qdKMB7xs&feature=related

Cremation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZH9hR2bIDg&feature=related

Walks through Metal Door:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siZ1TyDZ08U&feature=related

I'll post more of the ones from last night when they are posted. I am excited for the wedding ring, word from book, and coffee cup ones to come online so I can post them.
 
Matt-

I agree that a lot of his illusions are intriguing I can't help but wonder how much of it has to do with his talent and salesmanship versus outright fakery...hired audiences, actually stopping and re-starting the camera etc.

When I am watching him, I just can't help but feel like he's got a bag full of camera tricks up his sleeve.

EDIT: Okay, i just had a sec to watch the Ice Rink Card trick...that was impressive.
 
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Rick Meyer said:
Matt-

I agree that a lot of his illusions are intriguing I can't help but wonder how much of it has to do with his talent and salesmanship versus outright fakery...hired audiences, actually stopping and re-starting the camera etc.

When I am watching him, I just can't help but feel like he's got a bag full of camera tricks up his sleeve.

EDIT: Okay, i just had a sec to watch the Ice Rink Card trick...that was impressive.
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Yeah, I like the type of illusions like the ice rink. I want him to do more like that.:beer:
 
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At first thught, I wonder if somehow he had water appiled to the surface and then pressed the card down until it froze ?
 
There two different cards, check out the name, Martinez, the Z at the end of the name is in two different spots on both cards. Simple, he pockets the orginal, the 2nd is already burried in the ice, he puts his hand down on the ice which melts away the snow and the card is revieled.

There was a Criss Angel special on a few weeks ago, the one where he was escaping from the top of the building via helicopter before it was blown up. I said to myself, "I gurantee the building blows with him in it and he appears like 200 yards away" of course that's exactly what happened.
 
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JConnors said:
There two different cards, check out the name, Martinez, the Z at the end of the name is in two different spots on both cards. Simple, he pockets the orginal, the 2nd is already burried in the ice, he puts his hand down on the ice which melts away the snow and the card is revieled.
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which would have to mean, i assume, the girl was in on it. or the entire freaking AUDIENCE! Sheesh...
 
Rick Meyer said:
which would have to mean, i assume, the girl was in on it. or the entire freaking AUDIENCE! Sheesh...
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Yes, the beauty is you only need one or two to be in on it, the rest of the audience is blown away so you get genuine reactions. Also there are very simple things at play many times such as using duplicates. What separates the best from the hacks is how it's sold to an audience.

-Nate
 
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Nathyn said:
Yes, the beauty is you only need one or two to be in on it, the rest of the audience is blown away so you get genuine reactions. Also there are very simple things at play many times such as using duplicates. What separates the best from the hacks is how it's sold to an audience.

-Nate
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Yep, so many people get upset at duplicates and such. Who cares if it was the real card in the ice. It doesn't matter because the reactions are where the magic is. I hate discussing people's methods or assuming I have the answer. I like to enjoy the magic for what it is, a delightful trip into the realm of impossibility. Magicians have used people "in on it" for ages. I use them as well. The goal is not to create true miracles. The goal is to give the most people possible the impression a miracle was just performed. The reactions and childlike glee are what drives me and many magicians to perform. When an adult lets go of all the crap in their life and just for a moment wonders if the impossible can happen...that is true magic.
 
That steel door stunt blows me of my socks.
I watched it over and over and it drives me crazy that I have no idea how it is made.
But that´s what the whole "magic" thing is about, right?

Would you say it works life? I mean if it is all camera tricks it´s nothing.

Frank
 
Yeah, I believe I know how the door was done and it is able to be done live. It takes a bit of moolah, but it is doable. A lot of the stuff he has done the last two weeks can be done live. That is why I am enjoying the show more.
 
Matt Sconce said:
Magicians have used people "in on it" for ages. I use them as well.
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Don't get me wrong...I am totally hip to audience plants and doubles and all that jazz. Thats part of the illusion. With Chriss Angel, the part I can't figure out is how authentic he is as a magician versus how much he is relying on the camera and ENTIRE audience being "in on it". I don't mind 1 or 2 in the audience that are "in on it". But when its an entire audience...giving him the leeway to stop and start the camera...I feel cheated and I feel the art of magic has been cheated. I'm not saying he does this. I'm just saying sometimes it seems like he does. I can't tell. But, he's obviously very skilled.

Believe me. I love magic. Not enough to take it to the next level. But, as a kid, I used to check every magic book out of the library and practice on my brothers and sisters. When I got older, my buddy and I would drive to Woodstock to this great magic shop that was there and we'd make a deal with the owner/magician/proprieter "you tell us how you did that, we'll spend $10 more dollars". And, he'd take us to the back and show us some really cool stuff.
 
On a side note, I saw David Blaine's tour bus broken down in North Hollywood a while back... it was one of those double takes... and at the time I didn't know who he was. Once I found out, I thought it was pretty funny.
 
The cremation one is also quite cheap. I am not so impressed by him.

He just slips from the table the moment they hold the white sheet in the beginning and put something else on the table. There is this second camera view when they show his head again. That's just fake. Recorded afterwards. How they move the sheet is different from front and back.
 
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Spoilers:



Criss Angel is really good, but very fake.

Camera tricks, camera angles, people in on it, props made just for HIM, gimmicks, you name it.....That's why I like David Blaine better, more hands on with the cards.

Most of Criss's tricks are ridiculously stupid.

When criss walks through that window......notice how the guys inside with him? He's the one that pulls the glass open for criss to walk through. The glass simply slides up.

Are you talking about the one where he turns the coffee into money?

There's already money in the cup, and he does something to the cup so that the coffee goes away, I forget how thought it's online.

The Ice trick is kind of explained in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5W2fm4HG1k&feature=related

The cremation video- has to be the dumbest trick I've ever seen. Just my opinion.

A very neat trick is when Criss lies on that fence, and the spikes shoot right through his body. That's very neat.

Some possible explanations for the metal door:

"too easy, first the glass part is the same as the trickbusters say, there is a hole in the glass. The door is actually two seperate parts, the top and the bottom, the seam is covered by the push bar. When the newspaper covers the bottom, the stagehands behind the door replace the bottom the the door with a replica with a hole for his leg."

"Please, you really think it's a genuine door?!
The glass is gimmicked (it's the same technique used in "walk through glass"). The hole comes from the left, when the girl (stooge) slides the paper from left to the center of the glass. Watch again. The door has been changed before the performance by a gimmicked one, with tight plastic openings for the arm and the leg. Then, when the sheet, at the end, hides ALL the door, he takes his members out from the opening and opens the door.
TB."

For any other tricks you'd like to know, just gimme a PM. I figured out MOST, but that's because I know some basics to this kinda stuff, and I've seen explanations.
 
Robbie Comeau said:
Spoilers:



For any other tricks you'd like to know, just gimme a PM. I figured out MOST, but that's because I know some basics to this kinda stuff, and I've seen explanations.
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The change in the cup was Blaine, not Angel, but anyway...

Here lies the problem with the public and magic today and maybe always. You obviously see Magic as saying it is "Supposed to be real" when in reality it is there to entertain (Of COURSE it is not real. You see it as a puzzle to figure out, and in doing so lose any imagination or "amazed moment". That is okay, as some people feel this way, but the thing I find sad is when people start to expose magicians tricks for their own unknown reasons (Come on man. Don't ruin the fun for other people because you can't experience it). (I am not saying this next statement about you but I think this is why so much exposure happens on youtube. Some little punks, most of the time a young teen with a crappy camera try to expose a magician's method. Maybe it is to feel cooler or the same motto that putting people down helps others feel big, or to seem smart because they are not "Fooled" when of course this is not the goal. All magic tricks can be explained if you try hard enough, and if that is what you want to do, then that is your right. But a magician/illusionist is attempting to create a moment of amazement in the audience. It is not so the magician seems awesome, it is so the audience has a great time and a memory that lasts a lifetime. What is more altruistic and good hearted? Exposing how that moment is done and ruining the awe for people, or creating the moment and providing it for them? Sigh, people who do what you did in the last post make our job as entertainers in this field more and more difficult, because people start becoming unable to imagine and dream like they used to as a child, which is exactly what this type of performance is supposed to allow. Telling people how magic is done is like telling someone the ending of a movie before they see it. If you can't tell...I despise exposure.
 
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note to self, never ever invite Robbie to my birthday party. Wow, what a downer. Robbie, magic tricks have always been fake. Like Matt said, from the dawn of time, magicians have used plants, props made for them, etc. Hell, when Hoodini did the escape from chains in the water, he used to kiss his wife goodbye "in case he didn't make it back," and she would slip him the key from her mouth to his.

It's like going to the movies and saying: "Wow, that dinosaur can't be real!" We all know it's not real, but it's fun to be fooled.
 
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