magicians in European countries that
even pose like me, they do the same
thing, and the reason why they do is
because they want to be successful, and
they don’t think the American audience
is gonna know what we’re doing here
and whatever country their doing it in.
The fact is the Internet is everywhere…
The people that diss me the most are
the people that are most guilty, because
they want everybody to diss me because
they don’t want to have that association, and so when people say like, who
was your influence, they wont say my
name, because they’re acknowledging
it. They’ll say someone that’s completely the opposite. It’s what Houdini did.
Houdini would only compliment the
dead magicians. At the end of the day
it’s okay with me because that’s why you
know, it might sound a bit conceited,
but I’m the number one guy out there.
David:
So what you just said there leads nicely
onto one of my questions … who were
your influences?
Criss:
Well my biggest influence was Richiardi.
Richiardi really had a major influence
on me because he showed the power
of simple objects like a broom suspension. We’ve seen the broom suspension
a million times, but how he did the
broom, it was really magic, because you
don’t even care about the trick or how
it works… you care about how it makes
you feel when you watch it. That’s what
makes the purest form of magic, that’s
the magic of emotion, and when you
have connection, with a trick to people
on that level, then it doesn’t really matter how the trick works. It’s like a movie.
If you have a great story, and you have
an emotional connection to the viewer,
it doesn’t matter if you just watched how
they made the movie, you still want to
watch the movie… but, magicians have
been guarding an empty safe, as Jim
Steinmeyer said years ago in a book, for
so many decades. It’s not about the trick.
It must be something more to the trick
and in Mindfreak Live, I’m so happy that
I’m able to ma ke people cry watching
magic. I’ve never seen a magic show
that makes people cry. I’ve never seen
a magic show that makes people stand
up eight times during a show because
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TOP PHOTO: Criss with actor Tony Curtis
BOTTOM PHOTO: 2008 BELIEVE at The Luxor