Las Vegas Weekly

February 25, 2010 · 12:59 PM

Criss Angel’s new $100,000 bike is made from human skeleton

By Robin Leach

Criss Angel with Big Bear Choppers owners Mona and Kevin Alsop.

Photo: Robin Haldane/Motorcycle USA

A new $100,000 motorcycle made from human skeleton will be delivered to Mindfreak magician Criss Angel this weekend at his Cirque du Soleil show Believe at the Luxor. The folks at Big Bear Choppers made the custom super bike from bones dipped in stainless steel for the frame. A Georgia foundry cast the purchased bones that had been discarded after medical purposes.

Kevin and Mona Alsop from Big Bear Lake in California manufactured the machine and were featured on last season’s Mindfreak. It’s the seventh bike they’ve built for Criss, who plans to add it to illusions being created for Believe starting in mid-April and then keep it at his home. The other six are on display at the Luxor.

Criss also is celebrating A&E’s just-released 15-DVD boxed set Criss Angel: Mindfreak, with nearly 37 hours of entertainment. Each disc features three to eight of the TV episodes, plus six never-before-seen episodes. Each episode features a single death-defying stunt and several shorter illusions. In one, Criss prepares to set himself on fire, but there’s a trick ending of the actual immolation. In another, he performs levitation in the open to show that no wires are hidden and even has another person duplicate the levitation.

My favorite is where Criss rides on a moving bus, gets a volunteer to select a card from a deck and signs the card. Criss then throws the deck at the front window and that one card sticks to it -- on the outside of the bus!

This week, Criss is the fifth-best-selling show in Las Vegas at the box office behind Cher, Barry Manilow, Blue Man Group and Ka and ahead of Le Reve and Love, according to Ticketnews.com. Watch for Vegas DeLuxe upcoming stories as Criss adds seven major illusions to Believe starting in April to total 30 magic segments.

Incidentally, Sunday marks the start of the World Magic Seminar here running through next Wednesday. It will feature a star-studded tribute to Siegfried & Roy, plus Max Howard's one-man show. World master magician winners appearing include Shawn Farquhar and Soma, Fielding West, Tina Lenert, Shawn Anthony, Henrik Bothe, Abigail McBride, Howard Hamburg, Joshua Jay, Bizarro and Hiawatha.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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