How Did He Do That? the Magic of Criss Angel: The Mind Freak

I'm sure many of you have heard of the great magician named Houdini who performed death defying actions on camera and in front of people. Well now there is a new Houdini and his name is Criss Angel. He also calls himself "The Mind Freak."

The other day I was watching the A & E channel and Criss Angel's show. The stunts, when you see them would swear they are real. I was simply in awe when I watched his show and Criss Angel is must see television. He performs his stunts on camera in front of random people on the street and in places he has never been to before.

Criss Angel not only does stunts that test the limits of physical endurance, but he defies gravity. I have never seen anyone do anything quite like what he has done.

Simple but magical stunts that he does include making a snake or bird appear out of thin air or from a bag or hat. Then there was the stunt which I have no idea how he did it. He went to a random store with a group of people who he introduced himself to randomly on the street. Then he went to the window of the store. He had two guys knock on the glass window to make sure that it was real and Criss Angel also knocked on the window to make sure it was real. The window even came from the store whose store owner was standing right there and who had never met Criss Angel before.

Then Criss Angel pulls a plastic sheet of paper and tells two guys to hold the plastic sheet of paper over the outside of the window. He goes into the store and is accompanied by the store owner. On the outside of the store window are two milk crates. Criss Angel takes off his shoes and then walks inside the store, with the group of people gathered outside the store ready to see something amazing. And they do.

Criss Angel somehow goes right through the solid window without breaking the window. While he is in the process of magically going through the window, he tells one of the bystanders to put his hand on the outside of the window near the plastic sheet of paper and he touches the man's hand.

When he finally has his entire body through the window, the crowd and viewer is in total shock. The plastic sheet is removed and the window is once again knocked on, proving that it is in fact solid and was not cracked or damaged in any way. Criss Angel went through the window. How on earth did he do that? Only Criss Angel knows.

The most jaw dropping stunt I saw him do was fly through the air. Yes you read that right. He flew through the air. His stunt was to fly from the top of one building to another. In Las Vegas, Criss stands on top of one building as he goes through his motions of levitation. Then he lifts himself up in thin air and slowly, while standing upright, moves himself in the middle of the sky from on building roof top to the next. There are no wires, no safety net, and no strings.

There is nothing holding up Criss Angel from falling. It defies the law of gravity. Humans cannot fly. But clearly in the camera scene, Criss Angel is flying. There are even random spectators there in shock watching as he flies in the air using levitation. There are even spectators standing underneath him and watching in awe. When he finally makes it to the other building, the crowd goes wild. It is a stunt you have to see.

In another thrilling stunt that you cannot believe was real, Criss Angel actually walks down the side of a building. There are no strings, no bungee cord. Nothing is attached to him. The only object that Criss Angel is carrying is an umbrella that he is using for balance. This is an ordinary tall building shaped in a vertical line. Yet Criss Angel is defying gratify and is walking down the side of a building. He first tried the stunt on top of a hotel building in Las Vegas but someone called the police because they thought he was going to jump and commit suicide. I have never seen anything like it. How can someone walk down the side of a real building, in front of a live audience while being televised by a camera? Words cannot explain watching the scene unfold before your very eyes.

In Criss' show which appears on A & E, Criss will show the audience how to do some very basic tricks that look difficult but really aren't. In one trick he takes a plastic cup and makes it seem like it is floating for a split second. However when he shows the audience how to do it, he shows you that his thumb has a hole in the cup that is using to hold up the cup and that it is not really floating. However it is the illusion that it is floating.

Almost every one of Criss Angel's tricks you will not be able to figure out. They defy the laws of gravity and he puts himself in harms way with each one of his students.

In another stunt he goes to a light bulb shop and has the store owner pick out a light bulb out of the 100 light bulbs in the store. Any light bulb is picked at random by the store owner. Then using what Criss Angel calls levitation and Kinetic Energy, he makes the light bulb turn on without any wires at all or electricity. He also makes the light bulb float from his own hands into the store owner's hands without any wires, strings or devices attached.

Criss Angel interacts with his adoring fans. In another stunt on camera, a family has been waiting to see him. He does not disappoint them. He tells the family to close their eyes while two little children watch the event unfold with their eyes open. He touches each person, the two parents and the two other children on their head. One of the girls with her eyes closed is levitated by Criss Angel as the other two little children with their eyes open watch in awe.

When he places the girl on the ground again, he asks each of the four people what they felt, including the girl who has been levitated. Each one including the little girl responds the same: He touched my head. It is simply amazing. When the two children try to explain to the four people that he picked the girl up in the air, they do not believe them until they look at the camera. It is simply amazing.

In another one of his amazing stunts, he walks on water. He literally levitates across a pool of water. Swimmers in the pool are in awe and several of them even swim underneath Criss Angel to make sure that nothing is underneath him. It is truly amazing and your own eyes cannot believe what they are saying.

In another amazing stunt he puts a thin piece of dental floss in his mouth and then puts 3 razor blades in his mouth. To show the audience that the razor blades are real, he cuts a piece of paper with the small razor blades. Then he puts each of the three razor blades in his mouth. While watching this unfold, the people watching in and you sitting at home will be grossed out. Most people would slice their tongue open. However, Criss Angel then pulls out the piece of dental floss and low and behold, each of the three razor blades are connected to the piece of floss in a straight line. He never once put his fingers in his mouth. It is truly amazing.

If you read this article, you just have to watch his show. There have been articles written about his brilliance and you just have to watch his show. It airs on Wednesday nights and has repeats on Saturday afternoons. It is a truly spectacular show and you will find yourself with your jaw wide open, asking how in the world did he just do that?