If you’re a Criss Angel fan, you’ll enjoy watching the entire first season of his Mindfreak shows on DVD. You can once again grimace at those insane feats and marvel at the amazing magic, and the two-DVD set offers some entertaining, but limited, extras.
The two-DVD set serves all 15 shows from the first season. You can watch the major stunts: “Burned Alive,” in which Angel lights himself on fire; “Body Suspension,” in which he hangs from a helicopter by four fish hooks pierced through the skin in his back; “SUV Nail Bed,” in which he lies on a bed of nails and allows an SUV to rest on him; “C3 Explosion,” in which he lies next to an exploding stick of dynamite; “Tesla Strike,” in which he allows himself to be hit with three million volts of electricity and more. It’s amazing that Angel is still in one piece.
Of course, there’s also great magic that’s interspersed throughout the shows. Some of the highlights include the outrageous coin through the arm, Angel’s walking through a store window, his disappearance from an inverted trash can, the levitation of a person in the middle of a crowd and lots more. There’s also solid mentalism, as presented in “The Prediction,” and muscle-reading, as shown in “Hellstromism.”
When viewed as a season, it’s apparent that Angel has packed a wide variety of magic and stunts in his 15 episodes and covered the genres. There are a good number of street sequences where he walks up to spectators and performs close-up effects. He’s got major escapes that include the ”Barrel Escape" and “Buried Alive.” In the spirit of Houdini, Angel creates urban spectacles when he walks down the sides of buildings and in Oasis, resides for a day in a watertight chamber inside an aquarium, in full view of the curious public.
The high level of magic that Angel presented in his first season is a testament to his creativity and hard work and the dedicated efforts and contributions of his magic consultants and staff. While I recognized some magic effects, there were many that simply left me fried.
Angel provides decent commentary on two episodes: “Burned Alive” and “Body Suspension.” His commentary provides some insights, however, because of the program’s reality show style, Angel already provides a good amount of his thoughts in each show. Of course, because this is a consumer DVD, the commentary is all about filming the sequences, production considerations and more. There are no magic secrets.
There are three interactive illusions where Angel performs magic for viewers at home. An interview with Angel provides some insight into his career and approach to magic. You can insert the second DVD into a computer to print out and learn three solid close-up tricks. There are also photos from the series and a few pages of biographical information.
Fans of Criss Angel and Mindfreak will find lots to like in his first season DVD. This set deserves a place on any magic fan’s shelf.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto
