Criss Angel

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**Criss Angel**
Born:	December 19, 1967 East Meadow, New York
Occupation:	Musician, illusionist, stunt performer, Criss Angel Mindfreak creator

Criss Angel (born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, December 19, 1967^[1] in East Meadow, New York) is an American musician, mentalist, magician, illusionist, hypnotist, escapologist, stunt performer, and the creator and director of the Criss Angel Mindfreak television series on A&E Network and Discovery Channel.

1 Career as an Illusionist
2 Legitimacy
3 Career as a Musician
4 Discography
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Career as an Illusionist

Angel made his first television appearance as a magician on the ABC special, "Talents ", in 1995. In 1998, he mounted "Criss Angel: World of Illusion" as the headline feature of Madison Square Garden's annual Halloween celebration. In October 2002, Angel debuted an hour-long television special, "Criss Angel Mindfreak", on the ABC Family channel. He has subsequently starred in several television specials. His Broadway production, "Criss Angel Mindfreak", ran for 600 performances at The World Underground Theater in Times Square, ending January 6, 2003.

"Criss Angel Mindfreak", Angel's half-hour television series, premiered on the A&E Network on July 20, 2005. He is currently filming the third season. His illusions have included walking on water, floating between two buildings, and cutting himself in half in full view of an audience. Guests have included Korn's Jonathan Davis (who also co-produced the show's theme music), Rob Zombie, the Amazing Jonathan, Mandy Moore, Penn & Teller, and Lance Burton.^[2]

Criss Angel guest starred on CSI: NY on February 28, 2007 in an episode titled "Sleight Out of Hand" as a character named Luke Blade, a famous magician whose assistants die in unusual circumstances.^[3] He performed three illusions (being sawed in half, being lit on fire, and a version of his "Submerged" illusion). All three illusions have been performed by Angel on "Criss Angel Mindfreak".

Criss Angel has won the Academy of Magical Arts' Magician of the Year award a record three times: 2001, 2004, 2005 and the IMS Magician of the year for 2007 and 2008. ^[4]

Criss will appear in a new magic-themed Cirque du Soleil production at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. The new show is expected to open in 2008.^[5]

[edit] Legitimacy

Angel often claims that several of the levitations, teleports and demonstrations of telekinesis are done through the power of the mind, body and spirit attained through meditation. Some of the other methods are well known within the magic fraternity and have been performed previously by magicians such as David Copperfield, David Blaine and the Pendragons. Angel is writing a book entitled Mindfreak: Secret Revelations from the Master of Surreality.

Many viewers and critics allege that Angel is only a "video illusionist," using camera special effects, post-production effects, forced viewing angles, and assistants acting as amazed spectators for the TV audience.^{[citation needed]} During the second season, Criss Angel introduced a "Spectator's Point of View camera", a handheld video camera given to a what he says is random person in the audience to shoot the action in any way he or she wants. However, the camera has seemingly fallen out of favor as the second season continued, only showing up very sporadically. He has even revealed the methods for some of his tricks to viewers at home on TV and in Stuff Magazine (although the effects are usually very simple such as making a toothpick disappear, or making a styrofoam cup float.) Angel guest starred on an episode of "Las Vegas" in which he says "If it's real, it's not magic!".

Perhaps Criss’s most controversial illusion is his “splitting a lady in half” publicly in Sunset Park, Las Vegas. The concept and method for this illusion was taken, without permission, from World's Greatest Magic Show star Kevin James' routine titled Operation.

[edit] Career as a Musician

Angel was in an industrial rock band called Angeldust, which he started with Klay Scott (now known as Klayton of Celldweller) after Klayton's previous band Circle of Dust broke up. Angeldust released an album called Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusion in 1998 and performed in Madison Square Garden. He has also released several more CDs as Criss Angel.

More recently, Angel created the video MF2 featuring Sully Erna, the lead singer of Godsmack. The video debuted on Yahoo! videos.

Angel also released The Offical Mindfreak Soundtrack based on his A&E show Mindfreak.

[edit] Discography

All of these albums were self-released under APITRAG Records.

Album	Tracks	Notes
Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusion (1998)	01. Come Alive 02. Down 03. Fear 04. Thrush 05. Procreation 06. Die For Me 07. Edge of the World 08. Darkest Day (JS) 09. Hate Me 10. Deadlove Calling 11. Do You Know 12. Metamorphosis (Theatrical Score) 13. Forever	As Angeldust.
System 1 in the Trilogy (2000)	01. Come Alive 02. Down 03. Fear 04. Thrush 05. Procreation 06. Die For Me 07. Edge of the World 08. Darkest Day (JS) 09. Hate Me 10. Deadlove Calling 11. Do You Know 12. Metamorphosis (Theatrical Score) 13. Forever	Same tracks as Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusion. Features Intro Dialogue of Come Alive by Clive Barker. All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
System 2 in the Trilogy (2000)	01. Hümbodik 02. Phantasm 03. Cocoon 04. Inhuman 05. Enrapture 06. Entranced 07. Metamorphosis 08. Tremor 09. D.A.M. 10. XTC 11. Underground 12. Perelandra.2	All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
System 3 in the Trilogy (2000)	01. In Two 02. Nexus 03. Copycat 04. Rubber Room 05. Firestorm 06. Revelation 07. Disintegration 08. Epilogue 09. 2<0 10. U 11. Why Me 12. Amixtika	All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
Mindfreak (2002)	01. Scarecrow 02. Phantasm 03. Cocoon 04. Enrapture 05. Perelandra.3 06. Delusions 07. Snow 08. In Two 09. Tremor 10. Metamorphosis 11. Revelation 12. Closure 13. Epilogue 14. D.A.M.	Intended as a soundtrack for his Mindfreak show. All songs written, produced, arranged, performed & mixed by Criss Angel & Klayton.
Supernatural (2003)	Xristos Hümbodik Metamorphosis Goodbye N2 (Supernatural) Scarecrow.2	Unreleased, exact track listing unavailable. Soundtrack for his Supernatural special.
Criss Angel Mindfreak (2006)	01. Mindfreak 02. MF2 03. Mindfreak (Celldweller Remix) 04. Come Alive 05. Down 06. Fear 07. XTC 08. D.A.M. 09. Die For Me 10. Underground 11. Procreation 12. Do You Know 13. Mystify 14. Fly 15. Now I Die 16. Carmela 17. Awake 18. Fight 19. Mindfreak (Desert Remix) 20. Goodbye 21. Mindfreak (Season 1 Theme) 22. Mindfreak (Season 2 Theme)	Mindfreak television series official soundtrack. "MindFreak2" features Sully Erna from Godsmack and Nuno Bettencourt from DramaGods. "Mindfreak (Season 1 Theme)" produced by Jonathan Davis of Korn.