PS Love Blog

Criss Angel "Believe"

I’ve looked at those posters of Criss Angel long enough.  I went to see the show.  Yeah, you know what I mean…

So, as it turns out, he’s even more gorgeous in person. There ya go!  End of review.  HA!  Just kidding.

This is presented as a Criss Angel show blended with Cirque du Soleil, but really, it is more of a Cirque du Soleil show with Criss Angel in it.  The magic starts very simply with Criss doing some 1890s type of magic with doves.

I was actually glad when they announced that no animals were injured in the making of this because all I could think about was how those old time magicians used to kill the animals and smash them in the bottoms of those props to make them ‘disappear’.  Okay, enough of that.  Ick.  They made that announcement just before they smashed the rabbit, it was pretty funny.  It was a talking, mechanical rabbit, shut up!

The magic slowly progresses in to more complex things as the story goes on.  But really, this is more of a story and a lot less of a magic performance.

This show had a good many things I love.  It had vicious bunnies.  You gotta love a good vicious, man eating bunny.  I mean really.  And there were a mess of them too, haha.  They were great.  Then the evil clowns come out.  I love evil clowns.  There just aren’t enough evil clowns in shows, you know?  Well, I guess if they were everywhere they’d sort of lose their impact, I suppose.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I went.  I have never witnessed a Cirque show.  I haven’t seen a magician in ages.  I was clueless as how they were going to combine the two.  I was pleasantly surprised.

This is a surreal story of Chris Angel’s adventures in what appears to be an afterlife of sorts, or a very nasty drug dream.  I guess the clue was when the nice bunny fell asleep while the huge, stage sized screen behind him was showing a beautiful poppy field.  And some girl comes out of this huge poppy which drops down from above and Criss falls in love with her.  Well, duh.  There is going to be a nasty withdraw sooner or later.

So anyway, the dancers were incredible.  I’ve never seen so many absolutely perfect bodies.  The dancing was impeccable.  They danced like no ballet I have ever seen.  I was completely lost in the drum beat, the music and watching all this beauty on stage.  I was blown away by it all.

The storyline had everything a story needs with the good guys and the bad guys and the funny parts to lighten the mood.  It is a really dark story at times presented in sort of a Fellini kind of way.  Very surreal.  It was like watching an art film on stage.  Awesome.  I do love the art films.

They had all kinds of bizarre mechanical things and people coming out of or turning in to the mechanical things and then some ‘poof’ they are now disappeared kind of things.  There is really too much going on for me to describe it all.  I don’t like to ruin the show for you anyway, so you should go see it for yourself.

I have heard this show has gotten a whole lot of bad reviews.  I just don’t understand that.  So while getting my hair done yesterday I was talking to my hair dresser about the show.  It seems her husband had seen the show and didn’t like it.  So I asked him why he didn’t like it.  As it turns out, he was expecting a magic show and he didn’t get it so he hated the show.  I think maybe that is the core of the problem here.  Or maybe there were things going on that are no longer going on with the show?  I don’t know.  I know I had a great time and was immersed in the show.  There were a few times when things probably should have flowed a little faster here and there, a little dead air for a few seconds,  but that is pretty much all I could fault it on.  Well, okay, Criss Angel is very obviously not an actor.  But, as gorgeous as he is and as smooth as he moves, haha, who the hell cares if his lines fall flat sometimes.

Girls for all ages should go see this show, if only to watch Criss Angel’s half naked body get pawed and clawed by the evil one (guy? girl?  I never did figure out if the evil one was a chick or a dude.).  But seriously, it was quite a show and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.

If you like art films, you’re going to love it.  If you want to see a David Copperfield performance, you’ll be sorely disappointed.  I was raised by a musician and that made me a real snob when it comes to art.  I am highly critical of these things and can’t tolerate it when things are off, I cringe when a bad note is hit.  But this show, this show was a special one.  I would expect to see it in New York, not in Las Vegas.  It might be too sophisticated of a production for T-shirted tourists sporting fanny packs and watching their watches until they can go see the go-go dancer again.  I hope there is enough of an audience here for it.  I would love to see it again.

And Criss Angel, [putting forefinger and pinky to my ear], Call Me…

More info on the show and tickets

Believe