I think that I can pose this question in a way that will make it appropriate for GQ rather than IMHO. But it may need to be moved there as it progresses. I’ll trust the mods.
How much of Criss Angel’s routine requires television to make the illusion happen? I read somewhere on an older version of his Wikipedia page (I think) that despite claiming that no camera tricks are involved, many of the illusions on his show Mindfreak do indeed involve careful editing and/or shills impersonating passersby.
Has anyone ever participated in a Criss Angel trick? Were you a shill or were you really a “random stranger”?
Regular magicians have shills, so I don’t think that would disqualify him. There is, however, an inherent cheat in using camera tricks IMO. Essentially, if the camera doesn’t replicate the experience of being in an audience watching the trick, it’s cheating. After all, when I was 15 or so and had my first video camera, I could make a ball suddenly dissapear from my hands by pausing, tossing it, and resuming - that doesn’t put me on par with someone who can make something dissapear right in front of your eyes.
In case Ianzin doesn’t show up, I’ll repeat my recollection of his answer to a similar question before:
A magician’s job is to create a marvel for his audience. To a large extent, how he achieves that isn’t all that relevant. But of course on the other hand, a special effects artist isn’t generally considered a magician even though they’re essentially trying to accomplish the same goal.
Magician to magician, you’ll find a different answer if you ask them where that boundary lies, so there is no true answer. But by the broad definition of trying to produce the illusion that magic had been performed, Criss Angel certainly does at least try to do that.
Please refer to the title of the thread. I put real in quotes for a reason. Everyone else seems to have understood exactly what I meant. I appreciate your taking the time to report this post to a mod for movement to Cafe Society. You did report it, didn’t you?
Nearly all illusions take advantage of the position of the viewer in relation to the trick, as well as taking advantage of flaws in human perception, encouraging misconceptions, etc. Angel’s tricks that are built for a theater audience will work for a theater audience, but not a person who has full freedom of mobility to walk around and see what’s happening. Same thing here, the illusion is an illusion within a particular sphere of control. Outside of that, no it probably won’t work.
There’s a factual question here, but it’s not the one you’re answering. The OP wants to know “Do Criss Angel’s tricks rely on camera tricks and creative editing?”
I’ve heard it claimed before (on this board and elsewhere) that the answer to this question is yes, but I have no personal knowledge to back that claim up.
Anyway, I agree with the OP that using creative editing to achieve a trick is cheating.
My Dad was a magician, and he doesn’t fit my definition of a “real” magician. A real magician can entertain for hours with no equipment other than the stuff you’re likely to have sitting around in your house - a deck of cards, a coin, some cups and a ball. It’s about skill with slight-of-hand & misdirection and the ability to catch and hold the attention of an audience. From what I’ve seen, he’s an illusionist and an escape artist.
I can’t say anything about his TV show, but I saw him off-Broadway some years ago, and that was a straight up magician type show. No camera tricks, since I was watching live.
Using camera tricks and editing makes it a special effect, it is no longer an illusion or a magic trick.
I saw his “Believe” show in Vegas earlier this year. If there was any genuine “magic” in there aside from sleight-of-hand, then I certainly failed to spot it. The majority of the ‘illusions’ he performed were easily explained and some of the methods were so blatantly obvious it was laughable.
Based on everything I’ve seen of him, he does a variety of things from basic sleight of hand to full blown coordinated TV-driven efforts with specific camera shots and shills.
Camera ‘tricks’ ? No. Camera positioning? Yes.
David Blaine, on the other hand, did a full-blown camera trick (or edit room trick), when he did a computer-generated levitation. The computer-generated levitation was about two seconds long, but two very painful seconds nonetheless. He actually did a Balducci levitation (look it up), and then got a decent audience reaction, then clipped in a fake levitation that had him a couple of feet off the ground.
I have not seen Angel do anything like that.
Both of these guys have stunts that must be seen on TV, because some involve a bogus retake when they need to extract some info from a participant. Is that a ‘camera trick’ ?
Depends on who you ask.
Angel:
Camera tricks? No.
Camera-dependent tricks? Yes
Sleight of hand? Yes.
Shills? Yes
Typical magic? Yes.
Illusions? Yes.
Blaine:
Camera tricks? Yes
Camera-dependent tricks? Yes
Sleight of hand? Yes.
Shills? Yes
Typical magic? Yes.
Illusions? Yes.
I read that before Criss got his TV show, he was a pretty well respected stage magician (maybe a couple Magician of the Years?). On the TV show, however, it’s pretty obvious that there are lots of shills and camera tricks used.