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| - We were a little late to the party with seeing Criss Angel's Believe show since it first began years ago at the Luxor in Las Vegas, so ultimately the show has been revamped over time before our having had a chance to see it. Being a rabbit fan, I was hoping to see all of the unique and curious rabbits of different guises created with Cirque du Soleil throughout the show that have been mentioned in reviews over time, especially when we first entered the showroom and a camera man mentioned to us that Criss Angel has an affinity for rabbits. That made me smile, and raised my hopes quite a bit for a great many Cirque du Soleil rabbit dancing moments, especially since his showroom has framed photos with different rabbits all around. Many people have mentioned in their reviews though, not really wanting to have seen a bunch of rabbits running around on stage for a magic show, but I was actually hoping for it. Over time though, I suspect that Criss Angel has changed up the show to accommodate fan reviews. So, the show that we attended was scaled back quite a bit with the rabbit references, although there were just enough moments with them to still keep me happy with the theme.
Being a fan of Criss Angel's Mindfreak and Believe shows, I couldn't wait to see what his Cirque du Soleil, "Believe" show would be like. The music, sights, sounds, and of course illusions. I will say, I am surprised by all of the negative reviews. For the most part, this is a really good show. Criss Angel is very good at what he does. The illusions were thrilling to watch, and he is definitely fast when it comes to disappearing and reappearing in different points on the stage. Very impressive work. He did traditional slight of hand tricks with doves that he made appear and fly out into the audience, and also performed the famed sawing of a woman in half. Piecing everything together was a bit disjointed though, since he had a few stage accomplices cracking jokes and pulling a 14 year old boy on stage to set up several pre-pubescent jokes regarding the boy's possible interest in his magician's assistant. The audience laughed, but it was a bit uncomfortable when later in the show Criss introduced that his mother was actually in the audience visiting, and had her stand up to say hello. Very awkward that she was there during the comedic moments involving the young boy and the magician's assistant. Even with that having happened though, the illusions he did perform were great. I wish though that he had kept in the one that we had read about, where he hangs upside down over the audience in a straight jacket to free himself mid-air. That was not one of his illusions of the evening, although he did perform his razor blades trick that we had seen on Mindfreak.
The music was great, somewhat on the EDM side, which I liked. Although, I did notice that much of the Cirque du Soleil music was missing from the show. Having purchased the soundtrack to "Cirque du Soleil: Believe" via iTunes, I expected to hear much more of the tracks from that used, however, they were not. It was more of a mix of EDM that Criss and his assistants danced to at times.
Criss Angel himself was very funny and very friendly with the entire audience. We enjoyed the video clips of his early years as a magician, and how much his family was involved with it all as he was growing up. It is obvious that he is very family-oriented and wants to prove himself to his family and fans. With his show, I think he does that, and does it well. Several reviews have mentioned that he wasn't on stage much of the time, but we noticed that he was on stage almost the entire time, and only had minimal breaks where his sidekick magician, Maestro, helped take the stage with a miniature Criss Angel puppet. With that being said, I want to mention that if you are in the first 4 rows, the puppet might have a surprise for you that you will want to avoid, so be prepared. Fortunately, we were in the 5th row center, and it didn't reach us.
It is a great show, worthy of praise in my opinion. Just a few notes:
When you first enter the prop area, there are photographers who will ask to take your picture. There are also a few photographers inside the theater itself that will do the same thing. They will snap about 4 to 5 photos of you in the theater. Just be prepared if you want to purchase the photos, since they are set up in an album format after the show, at 40 dollars per album... and they create about 3 to 4 albums for you to choose from. So if you want all of them, everything adds up quickly. It is Las Vegas though, and when you are on vacation, splurging is expected to some extent. Just be prepared.
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