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| - There is something about this show that is very playful and inspiring, especially if you were to see it from the perspective of a child. And I mean this sincerely in the best way possible. The elements within the show that touch upon Criss' childhood seemed very personal to him, and you could tell, even though (obviously) it would have been well rehearsed by now after two shows a night, five nights a week for roughly the past four years.
The opening act was pretty hilarious, but very unexpected. While I did enjoy the slapstick humor provided by the Cirque du Soleil crew, I'm not sure how well it fit in with the rest of the show. I understand after the fact that it's supposed to be "family friendly" to a degree, but they did feature the sawing of a woman in half with blood all over the floor. And when you think of the segments where the mood is calmed and Criss starts talking about his childhood, the show as a whole just seems that much more scattered.
When you hear the name Criss Angel, you hear a brand. If you've ever seen his work on "Mind Freak,'" that's what you expect. In that sense, Criss Angel shot a big hole in his foot by doing a TV show that is too difficult to live up to, so I can sympathize with most of the other reviews here. That sawing of the woman in half? It's been done on his show. I thought these would be pretty sick to see in person too, but how much more stunning could these get in person? Unless he actually let the entire audience walk between her severed legs and torso, I may as well have sat back and watched a rerun on TV.
There were also too many disappearing acts. Don't get me wrong; They're impressive in their own right. They just seem repetitive back to back, and it goes back to just me being spoiled because of "Mind Freak." Even the ending was a disappearing act, which ended so anticlimactically that no one in the audience was sure the show had actually ended when it did. Everyone was like, huh?
I did like the cups and balls with the confused 16-17 year old kid trying to guess bit though. The off-the-cuff nature of audience participation, especially by a teenager, always adds a bit of uncertainty that makes you sit at the edge of your seat, perhaps out of a morbid anticipation of something going wrong.
In any case, I thought the show was a bit of a dud, but could easily be improved given the resources between Criss Angel's magical business empire and Cirque du Soleil. The main thing I thought endearing about it were the aspects that tickled the inner child in me, which seemed to be the theme of much of the show. Criss even made a plead for his charity group to benefit other children's charities. That was pretty cool, I thought.
Also on a positive note, I came here with my dad purchasing the tickets so late, we ended up sitting literally on the furthest back row. These were $60 seats (which, even then, is a discounted price), but lucky for us, the Luxor ushers were kind enough to move us to the middle row since there were empty seats. That brought us to about two or three spitting distances away from the front row? Not bad at all.
A presentation with a much darker tone than the current rendition with the help of Cirque du Soleil costumes and set design, along with more never-before-seen magical illusions would do this show some good. And he should really consider putting the sawed girl back together again before ending that segment.
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