This street artist walks up the sides of buildings faster than Spiderman. . .
“Criss Angel: Supernatural”
Tomorrow at 9 p.m. on SCI FI
(four stars)
CRISS Angel – part Goth guy, part Cirque Du Soleil freak, part magician, part street performer, part performance artist, part musician, part dancer – brings his scary, insane act “Mind Freak” to SCI FI tomorrow (Halloween night).
And it will mess with your mind.
Maybe Angel’s real magic is that the man with a New Yowk accent and Marilyn Manson makeup has taken magic and illusion from the realm of cheesola to the realm of art.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – anybody who performs magic on the street and can dance is one step away from being a big, annoying mime.
Well, get your mind out of the gutter because this street artist walks up the sides of buildings faster than Spiderman, scares the life out of regular Joes by making tarantulas climb out of their Cokes, and when Angel gets sawed in half by a chain saw, he does it fully exposed and hanging in the air. No big, cardboard boxes for this magic man.
The one-hour special is especially clever because instead of filming yet another glitzy Vegas act, Angel takes his act from the stage to the streets where he pulls off some very funny “Candid Camera”-kind of stunts.
Also highlighted on the special are Angel’s most recent stunts, like when he was submerged upside down in a tank of water for 24 hours in Times Square and came out – yes – dehydrated! Now that’s magic. As I said at the time, I retain water if I eat Chinese food! God forbid I ever get submerged in a tank. I’d probably come out 24 hours later 500 pounds heavier.
Then there was the time he escaped from a straitjacket while being hung upside down over a street 10 stories up (without benefit of safety net), and the time he walked a beam 40 feet in the air blindfolded.
And, of course, there was the time he hung for hours suspended by wires which were attached to fishhooks, which were pierced through his skin. For this special, he sets himself on fire. I mean, you wouldn’t necessarily want to marry someone like this, but he sure would be fun to have around.
Watching Angel is like watching some horrible end-of-the-world illusionist. And despite the cleaned-up family entertainment that magic and illusion have become over the last 100 years, real, good, old-fashioned magic should not only shock you, but scare you, make you uncomfortable – and make you even a little disgusted.