Thursday, April 10, 2014

Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos


Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, or better known as his stage name Criss Angel is an American magician and illusionist and one of the best in the world of magic for that matter as well. Angel was born December 19th, 1967 and as a kid spent most of his life in New York. Growing up Angel wasn’t around magicians, but once he developed an interest for magic around the age of 7 he tried to stay away from magicians as much as he could. Why would someone who had interest in magic try and stay away from other magicians who had already be widely known? Angel did this because he didn’t want to think like them and he wanted to create his own style of magic for people to be mesmerized by.



And that’s exactly what Criss Angel did. Angel’s magic isn’t your typical magic. This is because, Angel wanted to be a visionary magician and use illusions to captivate audiences. He wanted to be able to mind freak audiences when they came to watch him perform his tricks and illusions and if you ever watch one of his videos you’ll know exactly what he means by that statement. For further knowledge about the idea behind mind freaking check out the video below….


After Angel got enough recognition he got his first TV appearance in 1994 on ABC’s primetime special Secrets. Upon appearing on that show, horror director Clive Barker gained interest in him and ask Angel to appear in his film entitled Lord of Illusions. Barker was amazed by Angel’s technique and skill and said, “Criss Angel is extraordinary, a spectacular mix of visionary magic. This is the future and it can’t come quickly enough.”

Finally Angel had made it big time when A&E decided to give him his own TV show entitled Criss Angel: Mindfreak. This show shows Criss Angel performing stunts and street magic for people. The illusions that were shown on the show involved him walking on water, levitating, walking up the side of the Luxor hotel, causing a Lamborghini to disappear in the middle of driving it, cutting himself in half and getting run over by a steamroller while laying a broken glass, just to name a few. 



Despite a lot of criticism about his work by people and other magicians, saying that all his illusions are fake and he’s a bad performing artist, Angel opened up the world to a whole new level of magic that is still becoming one of the most popular types of magic in the world. Illusion is sweeping the magic world and it’s in most to the magician himself, Criss Angel.


Works Cited
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5gK2MxGR0M

http://www.iamstaggered.com/realgrooms/celebrity-groom-criss-angel-mindfreak/

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