"Angeldust (band)" redirects here. For the German power metal band, see Angel Dust (band).
Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos
(born December 19, 1967), better known by his stage name Criss Angel
, is an American magician, illusionist, musician, escapologist, and stunt performer. He is best known for starring in his own television show, Criss Angel Mindfreak
. He is of Greek descent.
|
CRISS ANGEL TICKETS
EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
---|
Criss Angel: Mindfreak Tickets 11/30 | Nov 30, 2024 Sat, 7:00 PM | | Criss Angel: Mindfreak Tickets 12/1 | Dec 01, 2024 Sun, 7:00 PM | | Criss Angel: Mindfreak Tickets 12/20 | Dec 20, 2024 Fri, 7:00 PM | | Criss Angel: Mindfreak Tickets 12/21 | Dec 21, 2024 Sat, 7:00 PM | | Criss Angel: Mindfreak Tickets 12/22 | Dec 22, 2024 Sun, 7:00 PM | |
|
Early life
Angel was raised in
East Meadow, Long Island, New York and attended
East Meadow High School.
Criss Angel Mindfreak
Criss Angel is the star and creator of the
A&E Network show
Criss Angel Mindfreak
. Seasons 1 and 2 were filmed at
The Aladdin in
Las Vegas, with Season 3 at the
Luxor Hotel. Premiering on July 20, 2005, the illusions have included
walking on water,
levitating above the
Luxor Hotel (in the light of 39 lightbulbs that can be seen from space.
[1] ),
floating between two buildings, causing a
Lamborghini to
disappear, surviving in an exploding
C4 Crate,
cutting himself in half in full view of an audience and getting run over by a steamroller while lying stomach down on a bed of glass. Also in season 3 he was known for jumping out of a moving car. Angel was injured and stopped production for 3 weeks.
[2]
Criss Angel Believe
Criss Angel collaborated with
Cirque du Soleil to create
Criss Angel Believe
, a live show at the
Luxor hotel in
Las Vegas, which stars Angel, who is billed as "co-writer, illusions creator and designer, original concept creator and star."
[3]
Angel originally tried to develop the show for a
Broadway run, as well as other casinos. Eventually, what became
Believe
came together when he entered a partnership with Cirque du Soleil and the Luxor's parent company,
MGM Mirage Resorts, financed the show with $100 million.
After several delays, the show was set for a Gala opening on October 31, 2008, with preview shows in late September.
[4] [5] [6] The initial preview was not well received, with thoroughly negative audience reactions.
[7] [8] The show opened to equally harsh reviews which cited a lack of the magic Angel is known for, as well as a confusing and uninteresting theme. Reviewers felt neither Angel nor Cirque du Soleil were able to perform to their capabilities.
[9] [10] [11] [12]
In April 2009, Angel ended a performance of
Believe
by "hurling obscene insults" at
Perez Hilton, who was an audience member. Hilton reportedly had
Twittered to his fans during the performance that the show was "unbelievably BAD" and that he'd "rather be getting a root canal", and word had gotten back to Angel by the end of the performance.
[13] [14] Cirque du Soleil later apologized to Hilton for Angel's remarks
[15]
Phenomenon
Starting in October 2007 he appeared as a judge on
Phenomenon
, with
Uri Geller and in a CNN interview about the show he told
Larry King "no one has the ability, that I'm aware of, to do anything supernatural, psychic, talk to the dead. And that was what I said I was going to do with
Phenomenon
. If somebody goes on that show and claims to have supernatural psychic ability, I'm going to bust [him] live and on television."
[16]
|Criss Angel challenges Uri Geller and Jim Callahan over paranormal claims}}
}}
On the October 31, 2007 episode of the reality show
Phenomenon
,
Paranormalist Jim Callahan performed a
summoning, purportedly of author
Raymond Hill, to help discover the contents of a locked box.
[17] Although fellow judge
Uri Geller praised the performance, Angel called it "comical" and subsequently challenged both Callahan and Geller to guess the contents of two envelopes he pulled out of his pocket, offering a million dollars of his own money to whoever could do so. This led to an argument between Callahan and Angel, during which Callahan walked toward Angel and called him an "ideological bigot", with the two pulled apart as the show promptly went to a commercial break. Angel has since revealed the contents of one envelope and at the unveiling he challenged Geller one more time. Geller was unsuccessful, and the envelope was revealed to contain an
index card with the numbers "911" printed on it for
September 11, 2001. Criss' explanation was this: "If on 9-10 somebody could have predicted that 9-11 was going to happen, they could have saved thousands of lives". The other envelope's contents was scheduled to be revealed on the first episode of Season 4 of
Criss Angel: Mindfreak
. However, the contents of the other envelope were never revealed and remain a mystery to this day.
Personal life
Although Angel was seen with his wife in the buried alive illusion (season 1, episode 6, 2005), she was not credited as his wife. Rather she was listed as "Criss' Girl". During the divorce proceedings the attorney of Angel's estranged wife, Joanne Sarantakos, claimed that their relationship was kept secret to further Angel's career.
[18]
In November 2008, Angel began dating
Hugh Hefner's former girlfriend
Holly Madison.
[19] The relationship ended in February 2009.
[20]
Popular culture
- Criss Angel appears in the Robot Chicken
episode "I Love Her" voiced by Seth Green. When Severus Snape suffers a "minor potion accident," Albus Dumbledore hires Criss Angel to cover for his class. When Hermione Granger asks if they will be going over yesterday's homework, Criss Angel lifts her book as one of his "Mindfreaks." After doing a levitation trick, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermoine stated that Criss used a wire which Criss dismisses. On a field trip, he uses a fake unicorn until a real unicorn appeared. When Criss Angel got near it, it impaled him with its horn as the students leave. It turns out to be another mindfreak as Criss Angel emerges from the unicorn costume.
- Criss Angel was featured in the American Dad!
episode "Delorean Story-An." It is revealed that he is Roger's favorite stunt magician.
Books and music
Books
- Mindfreak: Secret Revelations.
HarperEntertainment (April 24, 2007) ISBN 978-0061137617
Music
References
- Property Highlights - Stairway To The Stars
- That Gaze! That Hair! Those Trippy Tricks!
- Chris Lee, Criss Angel believes that you will too, ''Los Angeles Times'', October 12, 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Richard Abowitz, Cirque and Angel's 'Believe' delayed, LATimes.com, June 30 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Richard Abowitz, Previews of Criss Angel's 'Believe' delayed again, LATimes.com, September 2 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Richard Abowitz, Breaking news: More delays for Angel's 'Believe', LATimes.com, September 13 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Richard Abowitz, Sneak peak at Criss Angel's 'Believe', LATimes.com, September 29 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Doug Elfman, Angel's 'Believe' magic: Miffed fans disappear, ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'', September 29, 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Richard Abowitz, Criss Angel's 'Believe' hard to believe, LATimes.com, October 31, 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Joe Brown, Illusion is elusive in Angel’s ‘Believe’, ''Los Angeles Times'', November 1, 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Doug Elfman, New Criss Angel show is unbelievably bad, sad, ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'', November 3, 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- Reed Johnson, Criss Angel, in a word: unbelievable, ''Los Angeles Times'', November 3, 2008, Accessed November 4, 2008.
- http://www.lvrj.com/news/43243067.html
- http://vegasblog.latimes.com/vegas/2009/04/perez-hiltons-excellent-vegas-adventure.html
- http://vegasblog.latimes.com/vegas/2009/04/perez-hiton-gets-apology-from-cirque-angel-remains-silent
- Larry King Live: Mindfreak Criss Angel
- Angel sparks altercation on ‘Phenomenon’
- http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20044359,00.html
- Criss Angel: Holly Madison Is a 'Beautiful' Person
- Holly Madison and Criss Angel Kaput Yahoo News, February 25, 2009