I don't think anyone here believes that these people are a new breed of Merlin. It's fairly clear that they are performing illusions.

The issue here is questioning how they're doing these things.

The bottom line is Criss Angel puts on one hell of a show. What I was trying to figure out is if he is capable of doing such things in person in front of me (which would be a hell of an accomplishment) or if he requires the luxury of television studios and special effects to pull off his tricks.

I've seen card tricks done that are similar to what Blaine does and quite honestly, it is impressive to see it in person even though I know it's an illusion.

My question is are any of Angel's tricks able to be shown like that.

I personally really liked the Korn doll, where he took a spectators ring and told the person to turn around, and then he burned the hand and the person freaked out.. I especially liked it when he gave the doll to the person and told them to prick it and he actually produced blood.. You would have to have seen it.. it was pretty good..

The stunt where the ring appears in the ice is a Physical Impossibility. There is no way he could have frozen the ring, and put it from underneath his hand into the glass.

Criss is very good with illusions in some of his stunts, but ones like these make me question if they are all fake.

Actually, its the same old form of 'Merlin'.

And the man is a 'genius'. Who can say that it is not possible to do his stunts through communication with 'spirits'?

I am not talking about dead people either...

I swear that is the only concept of spirits that people have. Well, guess what, the word ghost USED to mean (as in, original meaning and usage) the invisible soul inside everyone.

So then, if someone saw your ghost after you died, they thought maybe they had seen your soul. But that would mean there are spirits even when someone has not recently died, and that they are not 'dead people'. It is more accurately entities which will impersonate your expectations, to further its goal (note, people who go looking for ghosts always want to know what to expect...)

So the point is, today more than ever is Magic being done right under our noses, and we are supposed to lap it up as innocent entertainment, so that the large-scale Magic passes our conscious mind completely (as all Magic should).

(using djinn -assisted materialization you can do most of his magick)

[edit on 27-7-2005 by akilles]

Originally posted by Djarums
I don't think anyone here believes that these people are a new breed of Merlin. It's fairly clear that they are performing illusions.

The issue here is questioning how they're doing these things.

The bottom line is Criss Angel puts on one hell of a show. What I was trying to figure out is if he is capable of doing such things in person in front of me (which would be a hell of an accomplishment) or if he requires the luxury of television studios and special effects to pull off his tricks.

I've seen card tricks done that are similar to what Blaine does and quite honestly, it is impressive to see it in person even though I know it's an illusion.

My question is are any of Angel's tricks able to be shown like that.

thank you...

to everyone:

this is the point of this thread...

any ideas???

Anything on tv can be faked, even under the guise of a street performance. Wires air-brushed out, hired on-lookers, etc. On a stage... the cover of darkness, lights, smoke, etc also allows for concealing. Combine all this with the latest magician gear, tricks, and tech... nothing this guy has done is anything remarkable. Although it looks cool though.

Sean

i didn't see today's (7/27) episode as i was watching "over there"...

it was a great show...

anyway, did anything "explanable" happin

or was everything unexplanable???

I didn't see one thing that impressed me. I watched the first two TV episodes and here are my thoughts:

1. FAKE "volunteers": All levitation subjects were WOMEN (obviously lighter in weight for engineering purposes).

2. Why were all the notable reaction shots of WOMEN and BLACK MEN? Is this for some racist sort of nonexistent "street cred" for a guy that looks like he's a bouncer from one of those beer-soked bars where has-been 80s bands play? Yeah, I know that most of Blaine's best reaction shots are from minorities, but they appear to be real people being fooled. Blaine isn't in some park field like Angel. He's in different neighborhoods. His women "volunteers" don't look like generic 80s metal band bimbo extras.

3. The "limbo levitiations" were done in the middle of a large otherwise vacant area. Huh? And of course, there were actractive women. And for some reason a lot of BLACK MEN.

4. All reactions were fake, whereas most of Blaines are at least believable. For instance, if someone were levitating in front of you (as in the "limbo levitations", would you react with the "Wow. I'll be darned" way that the folks on the show did?

5. The "volunteers" are "hypnotized" to further draw us away from the fact that they are in on everything. This is a basic fundamental sort-of "hey, focus on all this mumbo-jumbo to further muddy reality and suspend your disbelief".

6. The voodoo doll was the dumbest thing I've seen done by a "magician" on tv in a long time. Bad acting, oooh an angry BLACK MAN, attractive women. I couldn't even find any reason for it. Yeah, any six-year-old knows the women who stabbed the doll is in on it. Everyone's in on it. It's your typical FAKE "REALITY" SHOW. There isn't even a trick to it. Give me a camcorder and a cabbage patch doll and some part-time pornstars and I'll give you something even better in one hour.

7. Obvious use of wires for angel's own levitations. He sort of crouches as he lands, so some hook can be released. WHY WAS HE ALWAYS BY A WALL? So the wire can be lowered from the roof. Yeah, I know he did it in the field, but again the camera shot was "claustrophobic" in nature, I.E. the top of his head hit the top of the screen and his feet were at the bottom. How about a long shot instead of a close-up. How about some surrounding context other than a wall.

8. The levitation done in the bar was stupid. You can see the bar has an upper level from which one could lower a wire. And again, the reactions were worse than an basic cable infomercial audience back in the day (where they'd yawn on camera and such).

Just plain bad. Blaine obviously can freak people out on the street because he is an insane illusionist and salesmen. Even when you figure out his stuff he's still amazing to watch because he's so damn smooth. I don't even mind he sounds like a junkie.

The burned alive thing breaks down to this for me: pretty boy does a stunt that just about every movie does these days. Ho hum. Steve-O does this kind of stuff in his sleep.

Does anyone like these shows? I taped them in case I needed to rewind, buy I didn't even bother. Heavy Heavy Painfully Obvious Editing. Is anyone buying this heavy metal pretty boy stunt man schtick? I only enjoy Blaine's work more now. For most of his simpler stuff, he's really got that fun, street performer thing going.

I remember when he did the seemingly simple disappering quarter trick on the dumbfounded Arizona kid. The camera doesn't flinch and the guy is good. He rocked that poor kid's entire sense of reality. Great fun. They way he also freeked out all the little kids in the park with the coke can trick is fun to watch, even when you know how it's done. The magic is in the minds of those kids. They'll never forget that.

The Angel stuff was as interesting as watching cheapo computer generated images on a highlight real. No story. No pinache. No mystery. No anything really.

Angel is like a "studio musician". And he can't even do that well.


[edit on 29-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 29-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 29-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 29-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

Originally posted by akilles

(using djinn -assisted materialization you can do most of his magick)

[edit on 27-7-2005 by akilles]

Huh?

Please explain what you mean by this phrase, please.

// k

did anyone see any of the recent episodes???

i must admit, that i did not...

can anyone tell us if he did anything that was amazing???

thanks...

He drove a car with his eyes totally taped shut. In downtown traffic. Pretty amazing I thought.

Originally posted by valkeryie
He drove a car with his eyes totally taped shut. In downtown traffic. Pretty amazing I thought.

niiice...

now, do you ATSers think that this was "fake"???

Originally posted by they see ALL

Originally posted by valkeryie
He drove a car with his eyes totally taped shut. In downtown traffic. Pretty amazing I thought.

niiice...

now, do you ATSers think that this was "fake"???

Yes. Its a known illusion. A whole bunch of people do it on TV shows...

Yeah. Alain Nu drove a car down the most curving road in all of the US, whilst simultaniously listing back an entire deck of shuffled cards that he memorized the order of in a minute flat.

What I don't like about Criss Angel is that they are all old tricks, and they make it sound like it's all new amazing stuff. Half of the shows I have seen, I have seen the exact same things done on Guinessrimetime. Ripping phone books, pulling/lifting cars, having an SUV drive over you while laying on a bed of nails. Nothing magical. Just old, very known facts. I really wanted to like Criss Angel's show, but it just brings nothing new to the table.

Just plain bad. Blaine obviously can freak people out on the street because he is an insane illusionist and salesmen. Even when you figure out his stuff he's still amazing to watch because he's so damn smooth. I don't even mind he sounds like a junkie.

I love Blaine's voice . Yeah, David Blaine is the most amazing magician I have seen in quite a long time. I wish he was on TV more often here. Even after learning how crappy the "empty pop can filled up and closed" trick works in reality, I still find it entertaining to watch the guy. I'd give Blaine a 10/10 and Angel a 6/10, personally.

[edit on 9-9-2005 by Yarcofin]

Originally posted by kickass

Originally posted by akilles

(using djinn -assisted materialization you can do most of his magick)

[edit on 27-7-2005 by akilles]

Huh?

Please explain what you mean by this phrase, please.

// k

Maybe he means invoking Goetia demons form the lesser key of Solomon.

Either that or man-created thoughtforms... It's up to you to believe if those things really exist. I know thoughtforms do.

Originally posted by kozmo

Didn't anyone notice that like half of his stunts are filmed on the same studio set? The walking up the wall, coin through the arm etc...??? The "Audience" are paid actors and are part of the show.

Anyone ever hear of David Blaine? Same thing... ILLUSIONS! They also featured a show on how many of Blaine's tricks are done. This guy, Angel, is no different. They use props, gags, green screens, digital effects, editing etc... to make it appear as though this stuff is real - IT's NOT

Yeah, but an ATS member mentioned once that he was there with one of those David Blaine meditations. He looked under his feet and saw that they weren't touching the ground. It's one of these following things. It could be that Blaine fooled that member and still did the Balducci, or he used tiny wires that nobody 5 feet away could see, or the member is lying.

Take your pick.

The only thing that I can think of is that he started out with magic tricks and made enough money to pay people off to makr the big tricks look real... on the other hand if it is real than how come he cant fly!

my dad said he is an "illusionist"...

i think, a magician and an illusionist are different...

i think that some magic is real and some people do real magic...

an illusionist, just does illusions and it is not magic...

so, i guess he is an illusionist...

what do you think???

some of you aught to look at my quote in my signature , really you should you all think so much stuff is fake so many skeptics I see on this thread yeah yeah the ones who say area 51 doesn't exist same thing I say I don't believe you misguided disinformationists the ones who follow all the bs this so called governments tells you to ( I don't believe them cause I know most of them don't care about any of you all they care about is how to make more millions off of you) you naysayers are all the same trying to discredit everything and call it fake but there are still things you'll never be able to dismiss or debunk cause there will come a time not so distant future you'll see things that won't be debunked or have disinformation spread about. alot of criss's "illusions" as some of you call them I dare you to attempt them especially having an h2 hummer driven on to your chest while you lay on nails with the points going into your back or being suspended from hooks while being flown around by a helicopter in midair. or better yet I dare you to be buried alive in rain conditions with thousand pounds of dirt being poured on to you, or try lifting a cab up off the ground only by using your muscles and your hands no tricks no nothing lets you try that or being able to stay submerged under water 24 hours holding your breath or minimal breathing which is possible. For any of you who took karate or martial arts knows you learn how to slow your breathing which greatly slows your heart rate so being under water 24 hours is possible. Mind Over Matter the body can do anything and pain is only a thought free the mind and anything is possible.

Christ's Angel is the biggest lisping cheese-ball hair-band roadie that I've ever seen. Could he get faker audiences and "volunteers"? Can't he find a better school-of-acting-for-beginners to get them for free? I can't even watch that show anymore.

- He has compared himself to Jesus outright.
- Every episode has 12 minutes of his cheesy buddies saying how impressive and daring he is.
- A "so-fake-it-hurts" audience member said "David Blaine should kiss his feet". (Another Jesus comparison).
- After every thing he does, there is a hokey James Brown (no disrespect to the king) moment where he's "exhausted" and sick.
- Stripper chicks every where.
- So much editing and set-up that all the tricks are meaningless. Anyone with a budget and starving acting extras could do them.
- The hairspray and make-up budget surpasses Bon Jovi's.
- on and on

Here's what I've seen quickly:

Levitation - editing, camera angles, fake audience, wires.

Lifting a cab - no engine, fake audience. Lift the hood you huckster!

Escape from hanging barrel - editing, set-up, no real danger, fake audience.

set on fire - don't stuntment do this all the time, editing.

hanging from helicopter - the only good stunt he's done. No close-ups of him hanging IN FLIGHT though and obvious extra wiring. I've seen lots of sideshow people hang from hooks and they don't "get sick". He didn't get more than 12 feet off the ground with any skin-hooks in place. Shoot the take off and landing. No hooks in-between.

Voodo doll - anyone with a 15 dollar camcorder can do this in five minutes with a few bad actresses and strippers and a scripts.

butterfly picture - anyone can do this in five minutes with a bad actress.

All his locations are SECLUDED for a reason! So there is no reason to be impressed. He's not fooling "real people". David Blaine is impressive because he performs in front of real people and CHILDREN on public streets (not in a phony bar, phony parking garage scenario, middle of a field, in the desert, parking lot late at night, etc).

The three card monty guy on the bus today was more entertaining!!!!!!

Anyone who buys into this clown should move to a city like NY and buy a bridge.








[edit on 10-9-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 10-9-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]