Criss Angel exposes psychics on A&E

According to Penn and Angel, Angel doesn't use camera tricks. Listen to Penn interview with Angel, specifically, the mp3 I have that discusses this is The Penn Jillette Radio Show from 2006.02.07 . Also it should be pointed out that Penn and Teller were accused of "camera" tricks on their TV shows as well. On Angel's DVD he reveals some of his illusions if your curious.

What is your evidence Angel does? A lot of people think they know how some illusions are done, but really don't.

Well I'm not one of them.Some on here will testify that when it comes to magic I am very knowledgable.Having been interested for 30 years!

He doesn't use camera tricks a la Penn and Teller,but subtle edits.
Study DJM's links and come back to us with some sense.
 
I think MTV like edits and stooges cheapen magic. Throw camera tricks into the bag and you could pull off any effect. On the other hand magic shows are not made to be watched exclusively by magicians.
In response to critical angles, aren't most magic tricks to some extent dependent on where the spectator is. The truck trick was good because it is hard to believe so much set up would be done to perform the trick.
BTW I think Criss Angel's playmate out of the bag was done with a mirror. I had to resist calling it bimbo out the bag.
I like magic that has skill or a cool gimmick at it's centre. Each to their own, I suppose.
 
I like magic that has skill or a cool gimmick at it's centre. Each to their own, I suppose.

The point of performing magic is the effect it has on the audience. The method should be invisible. The method has nothing to do with how a trick should be judged by the INTENDED audience. If an audience believes a magician did something tricky through skill or gimmicks, the effect is a failed effect.

If Chris Angel is using camera angles and the audience believes the effects, so what? David Blaine has done this. David Copperfield has too. Penn & Teller revealed they did AFTER the effect had worked. If Chris Angel is doing effects and the audience believes he using camera angles, even if he isn't, Chris Angel isn't doing a good job. Keep in mind, the magicians who criticize Chris for use of camera angles don't have tv shows. There is a HUGE difference in performing a few tricks live and putting on a television show.
 
BTW I think Criss Angel's playmate out of the bag was done with a mirror. I had to resist calling it bimbo out the bag.

Of course, but if you watch the video again you will notice that the entire crowd there can see how it's done, and there's a very obvious camera trick.

It's not magic, it's like watching a cheap movie.
 
Originally Posted by Enlighten
What is your evidence Angel does? A lot of people think they know how some illusions are done, but really don't.

Well I'm not one of them.Some on here will testify that when it comes to magic I am very knowledgable.Having been interested for 30 years!

I'm not one of them. I'm probably more knowledgeable than 80-90% of magicians in general, having been studying and doing magic for almost 50 years.

He doesn't use camera tricks a la Penn and Teller,but subtle edits.

Unless I don't understand that correctly, I disagree. Angel does a lot of good stuff and some that's not so good (just like anyone else that's ever done a weekly TV series with magic). But some of the things he's done are much closer to the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park than they are to 'subtle edits'.
 
The point of performing magic is the effect it has on the audience. The method should be invisible. The method has nothing to do with how a trick should be judged by the INTENDED audience. If an audience believes a magician did something tricky through skill or gimmicks, the effect is a failed effect.

And if an audience believes a magician did something tricky through editing, the effect is a failed effect.

If Chris Angel is using camera angles and the audience believes the effects, so what?

There's no generally accepted definition of "camera tricks", but there is certainly a difference between 'camera tricks' and 'using camera angles'. Using camera angles is not always 'camera tricks'. Most of the time it's controlling the viewing angles, which is done in a lot of live magic. At a live David Copperfield show you're not allowed to watch from back stage or the wings. In close up magic there are tricks that have critical angles and wouldn't 't be done surrounded, or with people laying on the floor looking up.

Filming two scenes where no one sees any magic, then editing them together to create a magic trick is more than just using camera angles.

David Blaine has done this. David Copperfield has too.

Blaine was criticized when he did it the same as Angel is. Copperfield did it early in his television career. While he didn't get as much criticism then as Blaine and Angel do now, I think that's because he wasn't as blatent about it, and because there was no internet then. And he didn't build his career on it.

Penn & Teller revealed they did AFTER the effect had worked.

If you're still talking about the truck running over Teller, that was not a camera trick. P&T could have brought the truck on to a large stage and done the same trick with no cameras at all. So it really has no bearing on a discussion about camera tricks.

If Chris Angel is doing effects and the audience believes he using camera angles, even if he isn't, Chris Angel isn't doing a good job.

Again, every magician controls viewing angles of tricks that have bad angles. That really doesn't belong in a discussion about camera tricks other than to determine exactly what counts as a camera trick. If Angel is using the editing room to create magic that never happened, you could make an argument that it's okay as long as he never gets caught. But he does (not just by magicians). When he does get caught, it doesn't just hurt the Criss Angel show, it's bad for magic in general. In the last 8-10 years I've had many people tell me that they don't watch magic on TV anymore because "it's all camera tricks", or because "they can do anything on television". When magic on television loses credibility with enough people, there won't be any more magic on television.

Keep in mind, the magicians who criticize Chris for use of camera angles don't have tv shows.

That's a meaningless cop-out that I've been hearing since David Blaine's first special. Using that as a reason, no one would be allowed to criticize Angel except other magicians that have had TV shows. No one could criticize any stage magician unless they did stage shows. No one could criticize bad movies unless they worked in movie production- bad script- don't criticize unless you've been a scriptwriter. Bad acting- don't criticize unless you've acted in a movie. Your kids have a bad teacher at school- no criticism allowed unless you've been a school teacher.

Perhaps we shouldn't even allow people on this forum to criticize Sylvia Browne unless they've written a book, or given psychic readings, or been on Montel Williams a few dozen times.

And we'd also have to outlaw praise. If you don't know enough to criticize unless you've done your own TV show then how could you know enough to praise without doing your own TV show?

There is a HUGE difference in performing a few tricks live and putting on a television show.

There's a lot of knowledgeable magicians who've never been on TV but know a great deal about the difference. Many of them know the difference between doing magic and creating special effects, then calling it magic.
 
But some of the things he's done are much closer to the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park than they are to 'subtle edits'.

I disagree with that, Bob. The effects on Jurassic Park look much more reliable than what we see on Mindfreak. ;)
 
Those effects are done with camera tricks and stooges. Just for an exmaple, I can give you plenty more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRdv_VNPe7g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRR30Tll6wY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf4EaDtbBEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfg1SCHKwp0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47pRIniVg1Y


The evidence is in those videos, if you actually pay attention.

I've seen those clips before and I've paid attention. One person here rightly mentioned one way one of the illusions can be done without editing. It is method Angel uses in some other illusions.

Well I'm not one of them.Some on here will testify that when it comes to magic I am very knowledgable.Having been interested for 30 years!

He doesn't use camera tricks a la Penn and Teller,but subtle edits.
Study DJM's links and come back to us with some sense.

Above you wrote:

Penn and Teller don't use camera edits to create tricks,Angel does.The example you gave of P&T was a stunt and they revealed it to be so.If Angel owned up to editing after his illusions that would be okay.He doesn't.
WHen Penn drove the truck over Teller it was stated from outset a number of choices as to what effect was.

I said:

According to Penn and Angel, Angel doesn't use camera tricks. Listen to Penn interview with Angel, specifically, the mp3 I have that discusses this is The Penn Jillette Radio Show from 2006.02.07 . ...

Listen to the interview then I have two questions: Do you think Penn is lying/covering for Angel? If so, do you have a problem that Penn won't "own up" to the editing of "[Angel's] illusions"? [Depending on your answer I have a follow up.]

If anyone is curious about one method of Angel's levitation "without cameras":

http://cliquemerch.sparkart.com/crissangel/viewmerch.php?merch_id=495
 
I've seen those clips before and I've paid attention.

Maybe you'll like this one better:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mQeTmqQHLJI&mode=related&search=

One person here rightly mentioned one way one of the illusions can be done without editing. It is method Angel uses in some other illusions.

The fact that something "can" be done without editing is not proof that it was done without editing any more than the fact that someone doesn't know how it was done is proof that it was done with editing.

Listen to the interview

Is there a link to that interview here? I can't seem to find one. But I can answer anyway:

then I have two questions: Do you think Penn is lying/covering for Angel?

Hard to say until I can listen to what he actually said. But if you're claiming that Penn said Angel does not use camera tricks then there's several possibilities including:

1- Penn doesn't say exactly what you think he says.
2- Penn hasn't seen the shows and doesn't know what Angel does.
3- Penn is not being honest.
4- Penn does mean the same thing you do when he uses the term 'camera trick'.

Since Il haven't seen anyone here give a working definition of "camera trick" I'll vote for number 4 without hearing the interview with an option to change the vote after listening to it. What tricks qualify for the term really depends on what the term means.

If so, do you have a problem that Penn won't "own up" to the editing of "[Angel's] illusions"?

Nope. I don't have a problem with it, at least not without hearing what he said.

If anyone is curious about one method of Angel's levitation "without cameras":

It's not a new method. Angel didn't invent it. That method could not be used in all of Angels levitations. And it's irrelevant unless someone has claimed that particular illusion was a camera trick or that all his illusions are camera tricks.

BTW, even the illusions that I know were camera tricks could be done without the camera. It would be a little more work and expense, which may be the reason they went the cheap and easy route.

And if anyone is curious about methods for everything Angel has done, I could provide links to books, video's and magic shops that have them all. But I won't.
 
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First, he said it to me, or words to that effect, in two private conversations (while we were waiting to debark from the first cruise, and again in the car on the way to his Vermont lecture), so I may have been indiscreet in mentioning it. OTOH, there were others present both times and he said nothing about not repeating it.

I don't recall his words, verbatim, but the tenor was that he's generally of the opinion the forum isn't pulling its weight in promoting or reflecting the Foundation's goals. That's why the forum has to be pretty much self-supporting (ie the Forum requires donations separate from those to the Foundation). I believe the forum will continue so long as it can be perceived to have some educational value, but posts such as SkepticalEd's to me, above (the post numbers aren't displayed during composition, but it was made at 9:46), and his attitude, are not helping.

ETA: Post #47.

(emphasis mine)

If we're going to attack new posters with the insinuation that "people like you are the reason Randi will shut down the forum," then this place deserves to die.
 
I've seen those clips before and I've paid attention. One person here rightly mentioned one way one of the illusions can be done without editing. It is method Angel uses in some other illusions.

I guess you haven't paid too much attention if you don't see the evidence there. But I'll try to make it even more simple for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om66ysYZOhU

At 3:18 notice the person in the yellow outfit.. There's an edit right before the bull "hits" criss, and then we see that person suddenly appearing on the other side.

I don't think there's a need to expose how it's done, since it's something a 3 year old could figure out.. but let's just say the parts of the bull and Criss were filmed separately.

This reminds me of the tricks I used to do as a kid.. I would take a video camera, and film a friend of mine for a few seconds.. then I would pause the camera and make him disappear. Many of Criss' effects are based on that concept.

At least I didn't insult anyone's intelligence by calling it magic.
 
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At 3:18 notice the person in the yellow outfit.. There's an edit right before the bull "hits" criss, and then we see that person suddenly appearing on the other side.

Guess you didn't realize that when Criss teleports away from the danger he creates a small teleportation field for 6-8 feet around him. Obviously Mr Yellow-shirt was caught up in the teleportation field and that's how he managed to move 10 feet in less than 1 second.

This reminds me of the tricks I used to do as a kid.. I would take a video camera, and film a friend of mine for a few seconds.. then I would pause the camera and make him disappear. Many of Criss' effects are based on that concept.

Before there was movie special effects, there was movie 'magic'. The French magician Georges Méliès was the first to make things vanish and appear by stopping and starting the movie camera. Apparently history does repeat itself.
 
Enlighten,it might help if you link or upload the Mp3.Otherwise you could be mistaken.

So if that levitation he sells in his shop is so good why doesn't he perform it on TV?

I'll save you answering.It's garbage that's why.
 
But remember that Criss didn't perform it the way that it should be performed, but used many stooges to make it seem like it can be done surrounded. Which I believe is what Mr. 5 meant.

What if people bought the DVD because they wanted to levitate like it shows on Mindfreak? That's like a misleading advertisement
 
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I think it is sad if you need to use editing to perform a trick.
I think it is sad if you need to use stooges to perform a trick.
I just wonder who makes the call to use these techniques. Is it Criss or the production team?
 
But remember that Criss didn't perform it the way that it should be performed, but used many stooges to make it seem like it can be done surrounded. Which I believe is what Mr. 5 meant.

What if people bought the DVD because they wanted to levitate like it shows on Mindfreak? That's like a misleading advertisement

Thats what I meant in my post.I assumed people would realise that.:rolleyes:
 
And if an audience believes a magician did something tricky through editing, the effect is a failed effect.
People aren't arguing that the effect failed. They are arguing its unfair he used editing.



There's no generally accepted definition of "camera tricks", but there is certainly a difference between 'camera tricks' and 'using camera angles'. Using camera angles is not always 'camera tricks'. Most of the time it's controlling the viewing angles, which is done in a lot of live magic. At a live David Copperfield show you're not allowed to watch from back stage or the wings. In close up magic there are tricks that have critical angles and wouldn't 't be done surrounded, or with people laying on the floor looking up

A camera trick in fact well defined. Anyhting using a camera to create an effect including angles are camera tricks. Copperfield certainly can use camera tricks in his live shows. Since i am not familiar with what tricks he does in is act on stage nor his exact methods. Copeerfield had used camera angles on his television specials.
I am familiar with live tricks that can not be performed surrounded. I perform them.

Filming two scenes where no one sees any magic, then editing them together to create a magic trick is more than just using camera angles.
Whatever it takes to create the effect for the television audience from anlges to scenes, they are all camera tricks.

Blaine was criticized when he did it the same as Angel is. Copperfield did it early in his television career. While he didn't get as much criticism then as Blaine and Angel do now, I think that's because he wasn't as blatent about it, and because there was no internet then. And he didn't build his career on it.
People believed Blaine actually was the real thing. None of them deserved any of the critisicm they received.

If you're still talking about the truck running over Teller, that was not a camera trick. P&T could have brought the truck on to a large stage and done the same trick with no cameras at all. So it really has no bearing on a discussion about camera tricks
If you say so.



Again, every magician controls viewing angles of tricks that have bad angles. That really doesn't belong in a discussion about camera tricks other than to determine exactly what counts as a camera trick.
Actually it does. On a television show you control what the television audience sees with angles and editing.

If Angel is using the editing room to create magic that never happened, you could make an argument that it's okay as long as he never gets caught.
I am making that argument.

But he does (not just by magicians). When he does get caught, it doesn't just hurt the Criss Angel show, it's bad for magic in general.
Yes it is. But I don't see how this eliminates the use of camera tricks on television.

In the last 8-10 years I've had many people tell me that they don't watch magic on TV anymore because "it's all camera tricks", or because "they can do anything on television". When magic on television loses credibility with enough people, there won't be any more magic on television.

There was plenty of bad magic on television like World's Greates Magic. It did prevent magic from being televised until Blaine. Its my opinion in general that magic is a live art and television is not the correct medium.

That's a meaningless cop-out that I've been hearing since David Blaine's first special. Using that as a reason, no one would be allowed to criticize Angel except other magicians that have had TV shows.
Alot of magicians were jealous of Blaine because of the "simple" effect Blaine made famous. I am doubtful of any magician who critizes a magician purely based on methods and not whether that magician is successful in to the lay audience.

There's a lot of knowledgeable magicians who've never been on TV but know a great deal about the difference. Many of them know the difference between doing magic and creating special effects, then calling it magic.
This is doesn't make any sense.
 
It's not just about Criss using camera tricks and stooges that people have a problem with.. it's also him using them in such a sloppy way that it's just so obvious when watching it. The one with the bull is one example of many where he just doesn't seem to care about how bad it looks.

Copperfield got a bit of help from the camera on his specials? Well, the one where he made the Statue of Liberty disppear is a classic example. But at least he took it seriously enough so that the audience would have no idea this is how it's done. Heck, even most of the people watching it there live couldn't see how it's done.

Big different between a professional and a clown.
 
People aren't arguing that the effect failed. They are arguing its unfair he used editing.

That doesn't make sense. I didn't bring up failed effects, you did.

If an audience believes a magician did something tricky through skill or gimmicks, the effect is a failed effect.

I guess when you wrote that I should have replied "People aren't arguing that the effect failed. They are arguing its unfair he used editing."

A camera trick in fact well defined.

I must have missed that definition in my official magician's dictionary and in many discussions in the last 50 years about exactly what counts as a camera trick. I'm hoping you can provide me with the reference to the definition so I can point people to it next time the subject comes up- I'd hate to have to tell them that it's true because Firecoins says so.

Anyhting using a camera to create an effect including angles are camera tricks.

Your well defined definition isn't very clear there. A camera can only film from one angle- the director has to decide which angle will be filmed. If more than one camera is used, the director has to decide which angles will be filmed and which won't. The the director or editor have to decide which angle will be shown on TV. By your definition, the only way to do magic on TV without using camera tricks is to have enough cameras to film every angle, then show every angle on TV.

Copperfield certainly can use camera tricks in his live shows. Since i am not familiar with what tricks he does in is act on stage nor his exact methods. Copeerfield had used camera angles on his television specials.

I'm reasonably familiar with almost everything he's done on TV (including the methods). Since the mid to late 80's most of what he's done has been taped during live shows.

I agreed that he had used camera angles on his specials. I even said that he had used camera tricks (which, despite your claim does not always include camera angles).

I am familiar with live tricks that can not be performed surrounded. I perform them.

Then you should know they're not camera tricks.

Whatever it takes to create the effect for the television audience from anlges to scenes, they are all camera tricks.

When you say "whatever it takes"... "from angles to scenes", you need to include a little more information. What's included between angles and scenes? If you do a chop cup routine for television, you require the cup and ball. A cup and ball now constitute camera tricks according to your definition.

If you do a routine that can be viewed from the rear it's okay when you do it live, but if you do the same trick for television and don't allow the camera to film from the rear you're using a camera trick?

And if a trick can be done surrounded but the television camera only films it from the front, that's a camera trick? Your "well defined" definition has some holes.

People believed Blaine actually was the real thing. None of them deserved any of the critisicm they received.

Who didn't deserve it? The people that believed it was the real thing (that would be a 'them', or Blaine (who would not be a "them")?

If you say so.

I say so.

Actually it does. On a television show you control what the television audience sees with angles and editing.

In a live show you control what the live audience sees with angles. In a live show you can't use editing- that's a big reason that magic is better suited to live performances than television. A live audience can be reasonably sure that you're not using editing to create the magic.

Everything on television is edited. Sometimes it controls what the audience sees, sometimes it's required to make the trick work, and sometimes it's done for any of a hundred other reasons such as shortening the time required to show it. Just selecting the points where the camera will be started and stopped is editing.

If Angel is using the editing room to create magic that never happened, you could make an argument that it's okay as long as he never gets caught.
I am making that argument.

Fine. Whether or not it's okay is opinion. But the fact is that he gets caught.

Yes it is. But I don't see how this eliminates the use of camera tricks on television.

I didn't say it eliminated anything. The excessive use of camera tricks could eventually eliminate magic on television.

There was plenty of bad magic on television like World's Greates Magic. It did prevent magic from being televised until Blaine.

Did anyone say there was never any bad magic on television before? I didn't.

And even the World's Greatest Magic had a lot of good magic on it- Bill Malone's performance of Sam the Bellhop, the Pendragons Metamorphosis, Mark Kalin and Jinger, Jeff Hobson's Egg Bag, Rene Lavand's 'I Can't Do It Any Slower', Penn & Teller's Bullet Catch, Tabary's rope routine, Lennart Green's performance. I'm sure there's something in there you liked if you actually saw all 5 shows.

Its my opinion in general that magic is a live art and television is not the correct medium.

I'd agree if you said that television was not the best medium for it. There is no correct medium- just some that are worse than others. Dunninger, Banachek and others have successfully done magic on radio, and radio is not the best medium either.

A lot of magicians were jealous of Blaine because of the "simple" effect Blaine made famous.

And a lot of magicians criticized Blaine for other reasons. Not every criticism is made because of jealousy.

I am doubtful of any magician who critizes a magician purely based on methods and not whether that magician is successful in to the lay audience.

What exactly do you doubt?

This is doesn't make any sense.

What part do I need to explain?

There's a lot of knowledgeable magicians who've never been on TV but know a great deal about the difference.

It doesn't make sense that people can know a great deal about something even if they've never done that 'something' themselves?

Many of them know the difference between doing magic and creating special effects, then calling it magic.

I'll rephrase that one:

"Many of the knowledgable magicians I referenced in the previous sentence know the difference between the following two things:

1- doing magic on television

2- creating movie special effects using various methods and then calling it magic.

Various methods would include such things as filming 2 different scenes and then going into the editing room and putting parts of each of those 2 scenes together to make it appear that only one scene was filmed. For example- filming a magician standing against a blank wall waving his hand and later filming another scene with a young woman standing against the blank wall. Later, in the editing room, the 2 scenes are edited so that it appears that the magician there waved his hand and the young woman magically appeared standing next to him.
Or filming a magician standing still and holdin a pose, then matting that into a scene with a different background so it appears that he's floating 50 feet off the ground.

Make sense now?
 

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