If you’re attending CRISS ANGEL Believe expecting to see something akin to a fantastical Cirque du Soleil production or Angel’s television show Mindfreak, think again. The initial collaboration blended Cirque-esque narrative and fantasy elements with Angel’s magic and illusions. Then Angel was given the opportunity to revise Believe in a way that was more of an extension of the off-Broadway show he created before Mindfreak made him a household name. The state-of-the art production now has all of its emphasis on magic and escape artistry. It’s more directly descended from the great escape artists that inspired Angel, made contemporary with modern music and boundary-pushing technology.
The star of Believe couldn’t be happier. “The whole original show was a completely different beast,” says Angel, after a performance that ended with an unsolicited standing ovation. “It was a completely different show; it’s not even 1 percent of this show. This is a brand new show that I wrote, directed and created, and Cirque gave me an amazing opportunity. We tried something together, and it wasn’t the right experience that I wanted to create for the public, and I went back to what I originally pitched Cirque, and they allowed me the opportunity to go ahead and create a spectacle that would be revolutionary, that would be all about original magic that you can’t see anywhere else.”
For Angel, it’s all about connecting to the audience with “the magic of emotion.” He does share the stage with ribald comic foil Maestro and his attractive assistants, but once Angel pumps up the audience with adrenalizing extreme-metal screams, the show is all his.
Angel kicks things off with his version of a classic escape that dates back to Harry Houdini, “Metamorphosis,” before engaging audience members in some psychic mind-freaking involving a metal box suspended above the stage before his arrival. There is a brief window of time early on when audience members can engage skepticism, maybe theorizing how he can predict personal information about audience members, but by the time he’s making people appear and disappear or sawing them in half with some horror-show special effects thrown in, Angel has the audience right where he wants them. With 30 to 40 illusions to choose from and constant work to create more, he says he’s committed to keeping Believe relevant and revolutionary.
Although Angel is very happy with where Believe is now, he has no regrets about the past. “I wouldn’t take back anything that Cirque or I went through in the very beginning, because it really created the vehicle to provide and create this show, which is unlike anything the world of magic has ever seen,” he says. “And the illusions that we are doing are way more sophisticated and at a whole new level than what you can see from any other magician in the world. … It was a long road, but at the end of the road the reward is very great, and the one that we have as an experience that no one else can provide.”
Luxor, 7 p.m. Wed. & Fri., 7 & 9:30 p.m. Tues., Thurs. & Sat., $59-$160 plus tax and fee. 702.262.4400
