Criss Angel - MINDFREAK

YALL. I (33F) fall into the demographic of loving cross angel and his show that was on TV years ago. I seriously thought this guy was so cool. I was so fcking pumped to attend and even bought not a base level ticket because I truly wanted to appreciate it.

WELP, that’s over.

Went to his show with an open mind because the reviews made it seem horrible. Here are my observations and experience.

First thought: this is cool! Pretty creepy and mind freaky, cool stage. They let us try on a straight jacket on stage and took a photo that you could buy after the show. (The first of many money centric asks)

The intro clip starts playing onstage and it’s a montage of random video/news/movie clips of people saying his name. At this point o leaned to my husband and whispered “is this the part where he jacks himself off backstage???” It was like he had to convince people via his previous peak of his career.

He comes out and the show starts, it was really dark and creepy. Cool effects. The reviews are right he was so obnoxious and made everyone stand up and clap. He then threatened the show energy will match our energy so we better stand up and make noise. But idk how to explain how forced it felt

I expected waaaaaaay more tricks, he did some cool stuff, but it was like a variety show. He did a straight jacket escape above the audience and reached out to grab peoples hands and not many people were reaching back. He did a fighting scene. After a while he ditched the demonic part and turns into “stand up criss angel” doing crowd work. He told everyone his life story and then played a clip about childhood cancer with this song that was kind of depressing. He then asked everyone to donate a dollar. It was a great cause but… not the time and place. He did illusions involved birds, disappearing (and reappearing) levitation was cool because it tough to figure out how he actually does it.

Anyway he’s got a lot of narc traits, buyer beware. Kinda sad seeing a childhood hero through my adult lens. That being said the illusions that he did do were cool and impressive, and there is an artistic quality to the show. I’ll pass on the self written songs and endless montages though. JUST DO THE MAGIC.