Review: CRISS ANGEL MINDFREAK - Prediction

There are no extreme stunts this time such as setting oneself on fire or hanging from heights on fish hooks. The most strenuous thing Angel does is walk through the Magic Castle and a radio station. Something obvious is that Angel, with his commanding stage presence, can carry a show without putting himself into physical peril. His mentalism show offered a good change of pace.

Broadcast Mentalism

Angel resurrects the broadcast mentalism show and successfully evokes the kind of mind magic once performed by the likes of Joseph Dunninger on radio in the 1940's. In the first segment, Angel takes to Las Vegas streets allowing stunned spectators to hold a deck of cards, pull out sets of cards and then be told any card that they are looking at, all while he’s turned around and clearly can’t see the cards.

The Magic Castle is featured in the next segment with appearances by Dale Hindman, president of the Academy of Magical Arts: Milt Larson, co-founder of the Magic Castle and legendary magician Johnny Thompson. As in past shows, there are behind-the-scenes segments where Angel discusses the development of the show’s big effect, this time, with none other than Banacek.

Back to the Future

Angel performs a book test for an author using the author’s book, and provides a twist at the end (many magicians will recognize this one). In a grocery store, Angel asks a volunteer to select any item there, which matches a prediction that he earlier wrote down. In the show’s finale, Angel records a vocal prediction onto a cassette tape, which is played the next day and is shown to anticipate a major news item and the numbers in the California State Lottery.

In this show, Angel performs variations on several effects that will be familiar to many magicians. And because this is television, Angel does a thorough job of covering his tracks to keep the lay people and magicians guessing.

Free From Peril

“Prediction” is another successful and first rate show, and Angel’s mother could relax for a change while this one was being filmed. Angel was apparently in no danger.

Criss Angel continues to meet the challenge of creating and presenting entertaining magic each week. More power to him. He deserves his recent nomination as 2005 Magician of the Year.

-Wayne N. Kawamoto