A couple of months ago, I wrote about my thoughts on David Blaine. I am constantly asked what I think of both he and Criss Angel, and in March I wrote about what I thought of
Geez, where do I begin…
Well, let’s start with an observation from a comedian friend of mine, John Bizarre. If you haven’t seen this man perform, you need to. He travels the world performing both for comedy club audiences, and, quite often, for our troops overseas. He’s a non-stop whirlwind of energy when he’s onstage. Hands down one of my top five favorite comics working today – and he’s in the top three of those. He also writes very passionately when he’s riffing on a topic. He had the opportunity recently to see an episode of Criss Angel’s Mindfreak show while on a plane. He felt compelled to write me about it. Here’s what he had to say:
By the way, I saw the Criss Angel show on the plane yesterday coming back from
Yes, Criss does tend to come off that way. And for the most part, I agree with John’s point on “style over substance.” It seems that the young magicians today are drawn to the quick, flashy, “MTV” style of performance. And, really, who can blame them in these attention-deficit times? It’s all they know. They are the TV generation. Actually, they’re not even the TV generation. They’re more along the lines of the Internet generation. Instant information in small, continuous bite-sized pieces. Mindfreak does have an avant-garde style to it, and I tend to like avant-garde. But when it gets in the way of the “meat” of what’s being offered, then there’s a problem. Criss’ show tends to suffer from this very problem. Don’t get me wrong. Some of the magic that he performs is solid stuff, and some of it I like. It’s when he gets into the “stunts” that I tend to lose interest. And I have the same problem with David Blaine.
Less endurance stunts, and more magic please. Endurance stunts aren't magic.
And did you hear that Criss has signed on with the Cirque du Soleil people to produce a magic show for the
--Shawn
