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Criss Angel
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Criss Angel
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Born
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Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos
December 19, 1967 (age 43)
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Occupation
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Magician, Illusionist, musician, songwriter, hypnotist, stunt
performer, actor, escapologist
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Years active
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1997-present
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Net worth
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Religion
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Orthodox Christian
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Spouse
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JoAnn Winkhart (2002-2005) (divorced)
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Website
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Early life
Son of
Greek-Americans John and Dimitra Sarantakos, Christopher Nicholas
Sarantakos was raised in
East Meadow, Long Island, New York, with two brothers, Costa and J.D His father
owned a restaurant and doughnut shop and was devoted to personal fitness before
dying of cancer in 1998.
[1] Angel was first introduced to magic at age 6, after
his Aunt Stella taught him a
card trick.
His interest grew and by the time he graduated from
East Meadow High School, he was not interested in attending college. He aimed at
becoming a professional magician.
Television
Criss Angel Mindfreak
Criss Angel Believe
Criss Angel collaborated with
Cirque du Soleil to create
Criss Angel Believe, a live show
at the
Luxor casino in
Las Vegas,
which starred Criss Angel, who was billed as "co-writer, illusions creator
and designer, original concept creator and star."
[4]
Angel originally tried to develop the show for a
Broadway run,
as well as other casinos. Eventually, what became
Believe came
together when he entered a partnership with Cirque du Soleil and the Luxor's
parent company,
MGM Mirage, financed the show with $100 million.
[4]
After several delays, the show was set for a Gala opening
on October 31, 2008, with preview shows in late September.
[5][6][7] The initial preview was not well received, with
thoroughly negative audience reactions.
[8][9]The show opened to equally harsh reviews which cited a lack
of the magic Angel is known for, as well as a confusing and uninteresting
theme. Reviewers felt neither Angel nor Cirque du Soleil were able to perform
to their capabilities.
[10][11][12][13] In April 2009, Angel ended a performance of
Believe by
"hurling obscene insults" at
Perez Hilton,
who was an audience member. Hilton reportedly had texted to his fans during the
performance that the show was "unbelievably BAD" and that he'd
"rather be getting a root canal", and word had gotten back to Angel
by the end of the performance.
[14][15] Cirque du Soleil later apologized to Hilton for
Angel's remarks.
[16] [17]
Phenomenon
Starting in October 2007 he appeared as a judge on
Phenomenon, with
Uri
Geller and in a CNN interview about the show
he told
Larry King "no one has the ability, that I'm aware of, to
do anything supernatural, psychic, talk to the dead. And that was what I said I
was going to do with
Phenomenon. If somebody goes on that show and claims to have
supernatural psychic ability, I'm going to bust [him] live and on
television."
[18]
On the October 31, 2007 episode of the reality show
Phenomenon,
Paranormalist Jim
Callahan performed a
summoning, purportedly of author
Raymond Hill, to
help discover the contents of a locked box.
[19] Although fellow judge
Uri Geller praised
the performance, Angel called it "comical" and subsequently
challenged both Callahan and Geller to guess the contents of two envelopes he
pulled out of his pocket, offering a million dollars of his own money to
whoever could do so. This led to an argument between Callahan and Angel, during
which Callahan walked toward Angel and called him an "ideological
bigot", with the two pulled apart as the show promptly went to a
commercial break. Angel has since revealed the contents of one envelope and at
the unveiling he challenged Geller one more time. Geller responded,
"Although we were born one day apart - I was born on the 20th of December
and you on the 19th - a lot of years between us - 40 years, you were one year
old when I came out with my spoon bending..." Criss Angel cut him off at
this point, saying, "I guess this is a 'no,'" and proceeded to open
the envelope. The envelope contained an
index card with
the numbers "911" printed on it for
September 11, 2001. Criss' explanation was this: "If on 9-10 somebody
could have predicted that 9-11 was going to happen, they could have saved
thousands of lives". Some Geller supporters point out Geller did mention
the numbers one and 19 and count it as a success since he did get the digits
right. Geller in fact mentioned five digits in his speech (0, 1, 2, 4, 9) as
well as the month of December. The other envelope's contents was scheduled to
be revealed on the first episode of Season 4 of
Criss Angel: Mindfreak. However, the contents of the other envelope were never
revealed and remain a mystery to this day.
Other media
Angel was loosely parodied in
Ugly
Americans episode Kill Mark Kill as
Christ Angel, Leonard's older yet younger-looking brother.
In
2011, Angel appeared in an Orville Redenbacher popcorn commercial.
Personal life
In 2002, Angel married his longtime girlfriend JoAnn
Winkhart (now JoAnn Sarantakos). The couple filed for divorce four years later.
[1] Although Angel was seen with his wife in the buried
alive illusion (season 1, episode 6, 2005) and the body suspension illusion
(season 1, episode 5, 2005), she was not credited as his wife; rather, she was
listed as "Criss's Girl". During the divorce proceedings, the
attorney for Angel's estranged wife claimed that their relationship was kept
secret to further Angel's career.
[20]
Books
References
-wikipedia
