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Mindfreak or Mindfake?Thursday, August 07 2008 |
In this episode of Criss Angel: Mindfreak, the illusionist puts the king of hearts on ice, repairs an autographed poster with his mind, and challenges his skeptics by putting his life on the line.
Sometimes you just have to stand up to your detractors; address the opposition; call out the haters. In last night’s episode of Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Mr. Angel sent a message to all the skeptics out there: what you see is what you get. And with his life on the line, Criss was willing to prove it. But first: ice skating.
At the Las Vegas ice center, we find Criss shaking hands, moon-walking across the surface of the ice, and of course, flexing his powers of Mindfreakage. With a small group of people on the ice with him and a larger group watching from outside the rink, Criss asks his new friend Ruth to pick a card from the deck. “What I want you to do,” he says handing her a marker, “is sign it, do whatever you want, but do something so that it’ll make this card completely unique.”
A moment later she hands him the card. “I want you to see first of all that I have nothing at all in my hands,” Criss tells her, “I’m going to take this card which you signed…which identifies this card completely unique not only to any other card in the deck, but in the world,” the Mindfreak says, “Watch.” Laying the card face up on the ice, Criss holds a ring-heavy hand over it, pressing the card through the ice. A few wisps of smoke—or steam—rise between his fingers, and after a few moments Criss slides his hand away to reveal the card an inch under the ice. The crowd goes wild.
Ruth bends to read her signature through the ice, amazed. “You got something I can chisel this away?” Criss asks. Someone hands him an ice skate and he begins chipping away, literally digging the king of hearts out of the ice. “I want you to be completely honest,” Criss says holding the card up to Ruth, “is that your signature?” She looks flabbergasted. “Oh my god, that’s insane!” As usual, the most amazing and unbelievable demonstrations are also the most simplistic and elegant.
“The ice was bare, the ice was completely bare before he put the card down, so it wasn’t like it was there before, there was nothing there.” said one onlooker “…and suddenly the smoke came out, and then the card was underneath the ice!” continued another. "It was in the ice, at least an inch thick...there's no way that he had an opportunity to put that card in the ice."
“Mindfreak!” the crowd exclaimed.
Next, we meet the three Criss Angel skeptics and learn more about how Criss plans to dispel their doubt. “I’ve been chosen to participate tonight because I am a huge skeptic in what Criss Angel does,” Chris Jones said. “Everything that I’ve seen, I think I can probably figure out…it’s just basically smoke and mirrors…” said Rusty Myers, another skeptic. “Yeah, he has the magical power to get people to watch his show.” Rusty concluded.
But this time, if Criss happens to walk through the wrong door, he’s dead. In the Luxor hotel, four elevator doors will be opened and covered with butcher paper. Behind three of the doors the elevators will be waiting to catch a would-be Mindfreak, but behind one of those sheets of paper will be a long fall and a grisly death.
Even though the elevators at the Luxor move on an angle, one wouldn’t want to fall down one of these shafts. There are gnarly-looking metal guide rails and steel cables, and the incline is very steep—39 degrees. “The chances of surviving if you fell into one of these shafts are very slim.” Gene Rolfes, an elevator technician at the Luxor explains.
“Maybe they’ll witness my death,” Criss says of the haters, “maybe with a smile on their face.”
Before putting his life on the line, Criss signs a few autographs in the gift shop at the hotel. While signing an autograph for a fan, he accidentally rips her poster. “I’m so sorry,” Criss says, “I’ve been up since early this morning and sometimes I screw up. But actually it’s not a problem; I’m going to place it right back like this...” Criss lays the torn corner on the table next to its mate, butting the torn edges against each other. “I’m going to try to fuse the pieces,” Criss says as he pushes against the torn edges with the palm of his hand. “I’m going to do this really slowly now, watch,” He picks the poster up and slowly rubs his fingers along the edge of the tear, revealing a smooth and glossy corner with not so much as a bend. “Nice to meet you,” Angel says, giving the girl her super souvenir and a friendly hug, “who’s next?”
Finally, these skeptics will either kill Criss Angel or become believers. With the paper doors ready and numbered, Criss asks the skeptic Chris Jones to tell the elevator technician which elevator to raise. After showing the skeptics that he had no earpieces or communication devices, Criss stands away from the hall with two of the doubters so as not to hear the elevator move.
“Place you hand on my right shoulder,” Criss says, “I want you just to hold on to me…now either you can, in your mind, try to fool me and think of a different number, or you can think of the right number. I’m going to try and read how you react to me, this is called muscle reading.” Chris walks towards one door, then another, then back to the first. Criss then jumps through the paper door number 2 and into an elevator car.
“Now that was basically 75% chance that I’d be safe,” Criss tells them, “25% chance that I wouldn’t be. This is Las Vegas, I had the odds on my side.” The next skeptic steps up to participate, placing his hand on Criss’ shoulder. The Mindfreak goes about the same as before, hand outstretched, feeling out the three remaining doors. He then bursts through door number 3 and into another elevator car.
“Ok, now we’re down to fifty-fifty,” Criss says. “It’s risky,” a skeptic agrees.
As they stand next to door number 1, Criss asks the last skeptic if he trusts him, but before he can answer Criss uses his body to push the skeptic through the paper with him, and into another elevator.
“Are you still a skeptic?” Criss asks. “Let me catch my breath,” the skeptic says, looking a little shaken. “You saw number 1, you saw number 2, you saw number 3, but you haven’t seen number 4…” Criss takes out a pocket knife and cuts the paper on the last door to reveal a dark, open elevator shaft. “What you see is what you get.” Criss says, “I hope I gained your respect for what I really am.”
“You can’t help but have people who don’t connect to you, for whatever reason,” Criss says. But at least for these three Criss Angel doubters, their days of drinking haterade are over.
“I think I’ll take the stairs.” The last skeptic says.
