Interview With The Mindfreak Criss Angel

(Bits of interview)

Going off of that, I know you have a background in martial arts. In it you learn various breathing techniques, and different meditation techniques. I was wondering how having that martial arts background has served you in your work, and how you incorporate those techniques into your daily life.

Well I think everything up to this point that I’ve been exposed to in my life has had an influence on me in some way, shape, or form even if I’m not conscious of it. So I definitely think that my studies in wu-shu, kung-fu, karate, kenpo, taikwando, all of that stuff certainly has an affect. I don’t think I follow any discipline traditionally. I think what I’ve been able to do is have everything kind of mutate in some kind of perverted form that just works for me. I could try to teach it to somebody else, but it probably wouldn’t work for them because everybody will have something that makes them tick.

I am very in touch with who I am, and what I am. I kind of do what works for me, and it’s not like a specific type of meditation. It’s just my own type of meditation, if that makes any sense. When Bruce Lee came out, you know, everybody was doing one form of martial art and then he created a whole kind of mixed martial arts by combining many different styles and coming up with what works for him. I guess you could kind of say that’s what I do, and what I’ve done.

What are some of the other season three demonstrations that you’re particularly excited about?

Well obviously the Luxor Light, which I discussed a little bit. There’s one where I make a Lamborghini vanish, the first person to ever make a Lamborghini vanish while it’s going a little more than a hundred miles an hour, with me in it. I get run over by a steamroller. I walk on twelve eighteen-inch screwdrivers that are spread out over a twelve-foot area with my bare feet. There’s just numerous things that we’ve done in this season. I went to Nellis Air Force base and spent some time with the men and women there, and created an episode which I am very proud of from that venue. I get dragged by a quad by my ankles, escaping in Excalibur. I made Thai, the nine thousand pound elephant that vanished from last season; I got letters from kids saying Thai was an endangered elephant on the endangered species list so I need to make the elephant come back. So I made the elephant come back.

Was playing a maniacal killer on ‘CSI: New York’ as much fun as it looked? How did that come up, and has it whetted your appetite for other acting gigs, maybe even acting gigs where you’re not necessarily a magician?

Yeah, you know I had the incredible opportunity first to play myself in the TV show ‘Las Vegas,’ and that went pretty well. Then I got a call from the creator/producer of ‘CSI’ and [he] asked me if I was interested in participating. I said, “Yeah, provided I’m the killer.” He said, “OK.” I worked with the scriptwriters on the actual script, and went in. Actually the day that I shot that last scene, which is me confronting my mother, I had food poisoning. It was rough to get through that, but I never missed a day of work for anything, being sick or anything like that. It was an incredible opportunity and I’m really honored to say, and proud to say, that that episode of ‘CSI’ I was on playing Lou Blade was the number one television show for it’s time slot. It even beat ‘Lost,’ and that doesn’t happen frequently.

The reviews seemed to be pretty good on my acting, so I’ve just signed on to do a movie which I’ll be shooting at the end of this year called Mandrake. Which is based on the comic book strip. It’s gonna kind of be like a kind of cool realm of The Crow but different of Mandrake the magician coming to life. I’m designing and creating the visual effects for that, as well as going to be acting in it. So that’s a very exciting prospect that I’m looking forward to do.

Good for you. Is there indeed a time where you’ll say, “OK, now it’s time to not be a magician?”

Well, I signed a deal for four thousand six hundred performances at the Luxor with my partner at the Luxor and Cirque du Soleil for the next ten years, and they have a five-year option on top of that. So I’ll be doing that live show for quite some time starting summer of ’08 at the Luxor. So I’ll have to do that, I don’t have much of a choice. But I am going to have the opportunity since I’m doing a sit-down for that long period to try other things.

Good for you. It sounds you like you have more things on your plate than you know what to do with.

Yeah. The incredible thing is when you want success bad enough, and you have the days you struggle to get through it to pay your bills and get to do something you want to do, well when the day arrives that you have so many opportunities it’s really hard to say no.

That’s great news about the Mandrake movie. I remember that comic strip so that should be fun to see.

Yeah, it’s gonna be great.

Speaking of movies, last year we had two magic movies back to back with The Illusionist and Prestige. Were you a fan of either of those, and are there any other good magic movies that you think get it right?

Well you know the truth is, and I know this is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I am so insanely busy I don’t even watch my own TV show. I don’t, I just don’t. I did ‘Oprah’ and I didn’t even watch ‘Oprah’ until I don’t know how long later. I just didn’t have the time. But I have seen, the only one I’ve seen is The Illusionist. Which actually was better than I anticipated because friends of mine told me they weren’t really big fans of it. Then I saw it and thought it was actually pretty good. I mean they obviously used a lot of CGI, with nothing outside of that card trick was a practical affect. But I can appreciate that stuff because of where I come from. I haven’t seen The Prestige, so I’m looking forward to seeing that.

But normally magic hasn’t translated very well with storytelling. I mean live it’s been disastrous if you look at certain shows that try to incorporate it throughout the course of the last twenty years. But I think people are starting to get how to do it. I know that the Mandrake project really gets it. Being involved from the beginning in the creation of the script, and of the characters and effects, really gives me an opportunity to work with the director to make sure that it’s really seamless with how they coexist and work hand in hand, and how one supports the other and it’s not contrived and it’s not cheesy. So, I’m really excited about Mandrake and I’m hoping that they’ll get it right better than anyone’s gotten it yet.

Having you involved will probably help with that. Is the big problem, to a certain extent, the use of CGI versus practical effects when they do it, or too much camera trickery?

Well yeah, even in The Illusionist it was a cool movie. You can tell that, I mean I think Ed Norton did a really good job with the manipulations and the stuff that he learned, but I think just in general there’s a believability factor that you have to make people suspend their disbelief. I think with my show and how it’s based in reality it would be interesting to try and have that kind of transfer over into a movie. So that when you’re shooting this stuff it’s shot practical, and people can really get a sense of what’s happening and that it is really real. It has that quality about it, that spirit, you can’t get from CGI.


(More of the interview from link)