This may be apostasy or just dumb politics but a recent in-house poll of the Inside Magic staff reveals we’re over Criss Angel.

This regretful admission comes on news of Criss Angel’s purchase of a $25,000,000.00 home and plans for the next Mindfreak season.

Could we be vaguer in our description?

Is “vaguer” a word?

At one time, we thought Criss Angel was doing great things for Magic and while we were not big fans of hanging by meat hooks as performance art, we respected his willingness to try new directions.

We were psyched he hired so many talented magicians as he readied his Mindfreak show. Johnny Thompson, Banachek, Steve Daly, Milt Larsen and others. They were the real deal, folks who know our art and have experience in big theaters and small close-up venues.

Yes, Mr. Angel’s use of the camera trickery was unfortunate but to paraphrase Chinatown, “It’s Hollywood, Jake.” We pretended not to care. Still, Houdini did not use camera tricks – even when he was filming his own stunts for the Houdini Motion Picture Company. There is no evidence that Robert-Houdin used video editing either.

There could be an argument made that David Copperfield has used cameras in a less than transparent manner, but his choice of a camera’s point of view or field of vision pales in comparison to the Criss Angel method.

We refused to contemplate too deeply the serial dating of starlets and wannabes proclaiming his undying love for each publicly with the abandon we normally associate with teen crushes.
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