While I was a lukewarm towards last week’s shows, this week, I thoroughly enjoyed Criss Angel’s extreme take on Houdini’s milk can escape and his bed of nails. I’m either warming up to Angel or his latest shows are noticeably better than his debut last week. I think it’s more the latter.
The first show was built around Angel’s Wine Barrel Escape. And lending his presence to the event was none other than Lance Burton to provide commentary and the great Johnny Thompson. Here, Angel attempts to top Houdini's well known 1908 milk can escape by locking himself, handcuffed, inside a wine barrel that’s filled with water and suspended eight stories up. The catch is, after two minutes, the barrel will release and plummet to the ground.
Reality, a Concept
This episode featured the same reality TV approach used in earlier shows that follows Angel around and sits in on production meetings. Angel performs a “deja vu” effect in a hallway with some volunteers. The effect is astounding, but I sure would like to see this one live. In another sequence, Angel conjures with some beverages. And in the strongest sequence, Angel performs card on the window with a powerful twist. Some year’s back, David Copperfield performed a similar effect on a moving train. If you’ve never seen this before, it’s a shocker.
The Wine Barrel Escape itself was tense and entertaining. Angel showed some excellent showmanship that was complementary to his performing, public persona. Houdini would have been impressed but angry that he didn’t think of the stunt first.
Getting the Point
In the second show, Angel not only reclines on a bed of nails, but allows a single tire of an SUV to drive onto and rest on his body. Adding to the difficulty, the nail bed is constructed of eight-inch nails that are spaced three inches apart-according to Johnny Thompon-twice the typical distance that allows for equal weight distribution, the physics behind accomplishing the stunt. Angel’s performance on the bed of nails is downright painful to watch and most will cringe when they view the puncture marks on his back.
Supporting effects include telekinesis with a pen and a frisbee and sideshow stunts that include blockhead, walking on glass and more. In the best sequence, Angel performs an outrageous version of Hindu Needles and makes an outlandish effect even more bizarre. This is a stunner.
Instead of entertaining with magic in the traditional way, with drama, humor and music, Angel seems focused on raising the bar with stunts. Is this what it takes for magic to now compete in a television world where we can watch people consume drinks made of blended rats, eat live cockroaches and perform amateur high-wire style stunts on Fear Factor? I hope not.
Angel may be contemporary and hip to appeal to a younger, next-generation magic audience, but I’m not convinced that the traditional way of presenting magic, ala David Copperfield and Lance Burton, is out of date. I like my magic dramatic, warm and funny, as well as impressive and outrageous. And I think kids can enjoy it this way as well.
This past week, I have gained enormous respect for Criss Angel and his creative team. Angel is, after all, a magician who was able to successfully sell a series to television and has one of the few magic shows of late to air. I haven’t been able to procure ratings for his show, but I hope it is doing well and making an impact. When Angel succeeds, all of magic benefits.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto
