About Me
~*Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos*~
born December 19, 1967, better known by his stage name Criss Angel is an American of Greek descent. He is a magician, illusionist, musician, escapologist, stunt performer, and actor. He is best known for starring in his own television show, Criss Angel Mindfreak.
~*Early Life*~
Criss Angel was raised in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. Criss' passions included music, playing drums, and of course, magic. His parents are John and Dimitra Sarantakos. His mother hails from Mystra, Greece. He has two brothers, Costa and JD. One of his biggest influences has been his father, who died of cancer in 1998. Criss received personal instruction from World Karate Champion 7th Degree Blackbelt Shihan Grant Campbell, leader of Ryuei Ryu Karate Kobudo Association and Karate Hall of Fame inductee.
~*Magic Career*~
Criss 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 cinema 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. Criss discusses magic and his life in Mindfreak: Secret Revelations (published April 24, 2007), which became a Los Angeles Times best seller. Criss 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 Criss' 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. Criss 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. In July 2007, NBC signed Criss and Uri Geller for Phenomenon, a show airing on October 24 that searches for the next great mentalist. Criss does not believe Geller has any paranormal abilities.
~*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. Season 4 of Mindfreak debuted 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*~
Starting in October 2007, Criss Angel 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." 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. 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. Criss 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.
~*CSI:NY*~
Criss 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).
~*Live Show*~
Criss Angel has signed on to perform with Cirque Du Soleil at the Luxor hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The gala premiere will be on October 10th, 2008 at 7:00 pm. He has signed with Cirque to perform for 10 years (4,600 performances) with a renewal contract after 5 years. The show is aptly titled, "Believe".
FOR MORE ON CRISS GO TO THE SITE BELOW!
_www.crissangel.com_
