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Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos (born December 19, 1967), better known by his stage name Criss Angel is an American of Greek descent. He is an illusionist, musician, escapologist, stunt performer, and actor. He is best known for starring in his own television show, Criss Angel Mindfreak.Criss Angel was raised in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. Angel grew up loving music, had a love for playing drums, and has always had an interest in magic. He first got interested in magic when his Aunt Stella showed him a card trick at the age of seven. Whenever she came over to their house, she would show a new trick and Criss would always try to get her to tell him how she did it, and she always did. His parents are John and Dimitra Sarantakos. His mother hails from Mystra, Greece. He has two brothers, Costa and JD, and a half sister. One of Criss's biggest influences has been his father, who died from carcinoma of the stomach in 1998.Magic career
Angel performed World Of Illusion at Madison Square Garden in 1998. Criss then scored an off Broadway show titled "Criss Angel Mindfreak," which ran up until January 6, 2003 following a run of 600 performances at The World in The World Underground Theater in Times Square. He also starred in several television specials.Criss Angel won the Academy of Magical Arts' Magician of the Year award in 2005 and the IMS Magician of the year in 2001 and 2004.He has even revealed the methods for many of his tricks to viewers at home on TV and in videos, although the effects revealed are usually very simple such as making a toothpick disappear, picking a pocket, or making a Styrofoam cup float. Angel discusses magic and his life in Mindfreak: Secret Revelations (published April 24, 2007), which became a Los Angeles Times best seller.Angel is scheduled to appear in a new illusion-based Cirque du Soleil production at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas entitled Criss Angel: Believe, with an expected opening date in October 2008. The countdown clock featured on Angel's official website is counting down to September 12, 2008 as a premiere, however Cirque du Soleil has confirmed that the opening is delayed due to 'technical difficulties'. Preview performances that were scheduled to begin September 1st, will now begin September 12th and the Grand Gala Opening has been rescheduled to October 10th, 2008. Angel has recently stated that there are plans for this attraction to run for 10 years, including 4,600 shows with a possible 5 year renewal option of his contract.Criss Angel Mindfreak
Main article: Criss Angel Mindfreak
Criss Angel is the star and creator of the A&E Network show Criss Angel Mindfreak. Seasons 1 and 2 were filmed at the The Aladdin in Las Vegas, with Season 3 at the Luxor Hotel. Premiering on July 20, 2005, the illusions have included walking on water, levitating above the Luxor Hotel, floating between two buildings, causing a Lamborghini to disappear, surviving in an exploding C4 Crate, cutting himself in half in full view of an audience and getting run over by a steamroller while lying stomach down on a bed of glass. Mindfreak Season 4 of Mindfreak is debuting on July 23 2008, and the show is scheduled to run for two more seasons after that.He attempted to jump out of a prisoner transport vehicle before it fell off a cliff in season 3. Criss made it but, as revealed at the end of the episode, injured his neck. Production was stopped for two weeks while he recovered and Criss has sworn never to attempt this stunt again.Phenomenon
Main article: Phenomenon (TV series)
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."Wikinews has related news:
Criss Angel challenges Uri Geller and Jim Callahan over paranormal claimsOn 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. 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 whomever could do so. This led to an argument between Callahan and Angel, during which Callahan accused Angel of being an "ideological bigot", and after Angel rose from his chair and approached Callahan, the two were 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 was unsuccessful, and the envelope was revealed to contain 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". The other envelope's contents will be revealed on the first episode of Season 4 of Criss Angel: Mindfreak.Callahan later vented his anger toward Criss in an interview for "Phenomenon", saying that his demonstration of walking on water is "his way of proving Jesus Christ wasn't real." He also added, "Every Christian in the world should be angry with him." In his interview on Larry King Live, Criss denied that his illusions have Anti-Christian undertones to them, saying that his illusions are purely for entertainment. He also stated that he does not hold atheist beliefs like many in his profession, such as James Randi, and is a Greek Orthodox Christian. "I believe that this universe is a beautiful work of art," he said. "Like all works of art, it must have an artist."Other projects
Angel was the featured guest star on CSI: NY on February 28, 2007 in an episode titled "Sleight Out of Hand" as the character of Luke Blade, a famous magician whose assistants die in unusual ways that are strangely related to the illusions he performs in the episode. In the episode, he performed three illusions (being sawed in half, being set on fire, and a version of his "Submerged" illusion).Angel's more notable television appearances include but are not limited to Las Vegas, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as well as VH1's Rock Honors Awards performing and introducing legendary Honoree Ozzy Osbourne. In June 2007, Angel appeared on the cover of the DUB Magazine. He also appeared on CNN's Larry King Live on July 12, 2007 and October 30, 2007. On June 8, 2007, he stated on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that Houdini and Richiardi were his greatest influences.Criss has just signed for a film version of the depression-era comic strip Mandrake The Magician. Written by Lee Falk, the story centers on a magician with hypnotic powers and a penchant for fighting mad scientists and criminal king-pins. Criss' role is Mandrake's father. Mandrake has started shooting in March of this year............{}
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