Criss:
I wanted this to be as tough as it could be. It’s one thing to
get punched in the stomach by somebody that you don’t
know, but if you get punched by a two time or three time
heavy weight champion that’s 285 pounds, and I’m soaking
wet 165/166, and the guy gives you a shot, and you can
see it … it takes it to another level. So I had not only Frank
Mere, not only Chuck Lidell but Randy Couture as well give
me their best punch. All of these guys are champions in
UFC, and I studied for a bit of time, and it’s something that
I’m very fascinated with, something that I practice. I wanted
to showcase a higher level of getting punched, and hopefully not with the same fate of Houdini.
Criss then has a discussion with the editor about the footage
we just saw making a further tweak to the timeline. It really is
inspiring to see how he fully understands and controls every
aspect of the filmmaking process.
1989 Metamorphis trunk performance
Another clip, featuring female UFC fighter Paige VanZant, who
was featured recently on Dancing With The Stars, is mutilated
in hotel room! It starts off and it looks like a standard psychic
surgery style presentation and ends with a very gruesome
sawing in half/mutilation. Just think about the sawing in half
in the viral clip of Criss’ on the park benches and imagine the
same thing with Paige’s lower intestines spilling out all over
the floor and you wont be far off! I wish you could place a bet
on a clip going viral. One of your non-magic friends will be
sending you a link to this clip in the future, for sure.
“YOU CAN’T ALWAYS
EQUATE SUCCESS
WITH HAPPINESS,
BECAUSE TO
DO THIS THE
JOURNEY IS MUCH
GREATER THAN THE
DESTINATION.”
Criss gives the editor some notes about colour correction
and I make a comment about how impressed I was that
everything was done in house at Criss Angel Studios. They go
out with the crew, out on location, shoot it, come back and
edit it up. And this is all before Criss and many of the same
team head off to do two shows in the evening at The Luxor,
which is five minutes down the road.
Criss:
It’s edited here. I own all the cameras, everything, full
production company. Showtime the network rented, I don’t
normally lease it, but they rented my studio to shoot an
episode of one of their programs called DICE. The footage
I’ve showed you is just raw though, so it needs some work.
I’m trying to take in everything on the tour as I look around at
the same time as holding a conversation with Criss. I notice
behind me is The Grid. The Grid is basically lots of slips of
paper on the wall, each detailing an effect or routine and the
order it will run on every show. I notice that the word levitation is written down and after me gushing for some time
about the penultimate routine in his stage show, I ask him if
he will be featuring the levitation from his show in the up and
coming special.
Criss:
We’re going to have my levitation, that you saw in the show
last night. I do it for Paris Jackson. We’re going to do that
in the show as well so that people get to see part of the
full stage presentation. They’ll see me literally float right
30
1989 Criss Angel Band
through the casino, float
through the lobby where I
hold the whole thing. And
people are going watch
and go ahhh that’s bullshit,
and ahhh that’s trick photography, but you saw it
for yourself, so you know.
With Criss’ attention to
detail, based on what I saw,
I have no doubts that the
new special will really be
must-see TV. The full on
performance pieces are
incredible and the hidden
camera routines are incredibly bombastic and over the
top with hilariously shock-
ing results. You can imagine
how shocked you would
be, if someone performed
IMPALED in the centre of
a dining table, in a packed
restaurant. After balancing
on top of a steak spear Criss
is impaled and coughs up
blood! Cheque please!
We then moved downstairs
in unit one. This new area
is immense - 10,000 square
feet apparently. For as far
as I can see there are flight
cases, lighting and props. The
whole place is rammed! We
moved beyond this space
into an area that had staff
members rushing around