Las Vegas Weekly

July 7, 2010 · 1:19 PM

Criss Angel’s new-look Believe to include 40 illusions

By Robin Leach

Criss Angel and his mother Dimitra.

Photo: CrissAngel.com

Illusionist Criss Angel is in the final stages of the current changes he’s making to his Cirque du Soleil show Believe at the Luxor. He has five more illusions to introduce into the show, and that will put him around the 40 mark, more than any other magic show in the world. When he returns from his long-planned two-week break from the elaborate production, in my opinion it will look a lot more like his A&E hit Mindfreak than a Cirque production.

When the final five are woven into the show over the next three months, he’ll be ready to unveil the new look tied to the second anniversary in October. During a 4-hour interview and lunch at his new estate Serenity, we talked about the changes -- and the difficulties with construction, permits, testing and computerized synchronization that has made it such a lengthy, time-consuming process.

Criss told me: “You are simply never done when it’s live. I have about five more left to get in there. It is all constantly evolving and changing, so until the day I die, I’m always going to try to be better and take things in new directions. With the content that I want to get in there, we should be finalized, completed and done to the point where I will be really excited about it all in time for our second anniversary on Halloween.

“The show will continue to be constantly evolving even after that. But the show right now will continue to be a great show. Last night, we were at 90-plus percent in the middle of the week in the middle of the hot summer slow season.”

The latest Strip box office statistics put Criss in the lead of all Las Vegas magic shows, and he’s ranked No. 4 in the Top 20 Las Vegas spectaculars.

“People love the show. People are telling their friends about the show. It’s amazing to have that type of support and love. I’m giving people more illusions, more of what they expect of Criss. That means a lot more of me with onstage illusions and a lot more of the intimate stuff that people don’t know -- and even with them right in the audience beside them and above their heads.

“It’s a process that will continue to go on and move forward. I encourage everyone to come out and see the show. I’ve seen probably more magic than most magicians have in their lifetime. I will go on the record to say that as far as what we are doing, we have the greatest magic technically. It’s never been done before, and I’m really, really proud of it. A lot of people say you can cut a girl in half with a box or cloth over her. On my stage, I cut a girl in half without any cover over her at all.

“I walk down a wall that’s never been done before. I levitate a girl, and she vanishes in midair. Even though I’m very pleased with the illusions, I want to always go on giving people that wow factor. We have twice as much magic in this show than any other magic show in Las Vegas. You get so caught up in it, you don’t even want to think about how it works. It really has become more about having a great time and being really entertained.

“The show continues to grow. If you have that passion to make it better, you will always do better. I don’t remember how many illusions we started with, but when we’ve put in the next five, that will take it to more like 40.”

Criss revealed for the first time that he’s also been directing the show for the past 12 months and changed its direction while adding more stage magic.

He said: “I think the difference was the way we were presenting it. It’s now a very entertaining show with fewer stories and more of me like I am on television. It’s been that way for a while now, and the fans are really loving that approach. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the ones I get are from people who buy their tickets and love the show. The only thing that really matters to me is what the public thinks.

“I don’t care if I’m critically acclaimed, just like I never set out to win awards. I care about the opinion of the spectator who worked hard just to buy a ticket. I really care about that person and want to make sure they get an amazing experience. Critics have predetermined opinions, and I always say the best analogy is you could have God himself literally appear and summon the seas to part, and they’d still rip it. It’s just the way it is.

“We’re now using high-level methods I came up with that have never been employed before. I have seasoned magicians come up to me and ask me how I do it. There may be only seven things you can do in magic, but the secret is in the way you present them and take them to the next level. We’re loving the response we’re getting to what we’ve done. The crowds are fantastic, and the cheering and standing ovations blow me away.”

Many of his fans have returned to see the show several times: some six, others 10 and even several 30 times!

“I want to keep it fresh, so when they come see the show again and again, they always discover something new. I want to pour more into the show all the time so that people know it’s never the same show. I think when I lose that passion and that drive and that pride that I take and put into my illusions, that’s when I will retire. I really do care that deeply.”

I asked Criss if he was now satisfied that Believe had gone in a direction that he wanted all along. “Absolutely. It’s almost at the destination. We’re right there. We had to redo the entire structure that keeps the ceiling on the theater, just to do the things to house the elements I want to do for the audience.

“I’m still working on vanishing into the crowd so I wind up sitting right in the middle of the audience. I’m also working on using my skeleton bike affectionately known as The Enemy so that it will appear with the audience all surrounding it . That chopper is a one-of-a-kind motorcycle, so it will appear in a one-of-a-kind way in the show.

“The show is completely different now from what it was a year ago, and a year from now, it will be completely different again. When you have a 10-year contract, you never want it to drag, so it’s exciting every night. Last night, I tweaked something to go into the next show. I have not missed one show yet for any reason. We are almost 1,000 shows into the run, and we still love doing it every night with something new. I’m hoping all these new things will be in well before, but the October anniversary itself will be a nice tie-in.

“It’s a constant work in progress rather than unveiling a new show. Every Cirque show has changed from its opening night. Every one has tightened and added over the years, reinvented its artwork and marketing. We’re doing the same thing. I think it’s very important to keep things fresh. Siegfried & Roy constantly evolved their show over the years and changed their marketing campaigns. This is just what happens with these shows over time.

“We will never stop adding the newest and improving what we already have.”

Criss gave me a full tour of his new mountaintop estate Serenity after our interview. It is truly beautiful and inspired by an old world Mediterranean Tuscan castle. It houses a magic museum with antiques and artifacts from magicians Houdini, Doug Henning, Richiardi , Siegfried & Roy and other legends. The gardens and statues along Whimsical Way are a charming and calming delight, but it’s the breathtaking 2,200-square-foot luxury pool and spa that is the ultimate knockout, and the entire back of his home opens to it.

We have more than 80 photos of every corner of the property inside and out, and when we’ve got that all into shape, we’ll post the third part of our Criss Angel exclusive before the end of the month. Meantime, we posted our interview with Criss about Season 6 of Mindfreak yesterday.

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.

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

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