REVIEW:

A year in, Criss Angel’s ‘Believe’ hasn’t changed much for the better

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Chris Morris

What: Criss Angel “Believe”
When: 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday (dark Sunday and Monday)
Where: Luxor (showroom at casino level)
Admission: $59-$160 (discounts available); 262-4400, luxor.com
Running time: About 90 minutes
Audience advisory: Simulated violence, crude language, smoke and pyrotechnic effects, live birds, dead rabbits and loud music. Fully-stocked gift shop.

Illusion is elusive in Angel’s ‘Believe’ (11-1-2008)

It’s time for your annual checkup, Criss Angel.

Unbelievably, Angel’s “Believe” will hit the one-year mark on Saturday. After a blizzard of hype — $100 million investment! Ten-year contract! Criss + Holly 4Ever! — the show opened at the Luxor on Halloween night 2008 to a near-unanimous chorus of boos from reviewers, including yours truly.

I was curious about how Angel and Cirque du Soleil might have changed or improved their collaboration in the intervening year, so I bought tickets (including a second seat for just $25) for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. performance.

Mr. Angel, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news.

“Believe” now seems a bizarre, stranded artifact of a moment when some people had too much money. The show has been streamlined a bit — no live musicians, fewer aerialists and dancers, less video wizardry — but it hasn’t been improved, only diminished. Not much has changed with the overall experience of “Believe”: I got it pretty much right the first time around.

The gift shop, disappointingly skimpy when the show opened, has been substantially stocked with every imaginable Angel-branded accouterment.

But the leading man, the show’s raison d’être, has gotten worse, if that can be imagined.

If not exactly humbled by the show’s critical drubbing and lackluster sales, Angel, now the butt of jokes by most other Strip comics and magicians, seems less hubristic than he did a year ago. There’s less swagger and no chest-baring (Angel appears to have put on a few pounds). He looks like what he is — a cape-wearing Long Island schlub with a tragic Jennifer Aniston haircut.

Angel is quite literally going through the motions now. The least compelling figure on the Luxor stage, he’s a puzzlingly blank, passive star and centerpiece, pushed and pulled through a series of disappearance stunts by his quartet of clowns and his dueling dark-and-light stage assistants.

Mercifully, Angel’s speaking lines, which even a year ago were mostly non sequiturs, have been reduced.

Whatever edge or ingenuity exists comes from the Cirque side of the equation. A gallery of lenticular paintings lines the entry to the showroom, equipped with motion sensors so Angel’s disembodied voice says things like “Are you ready?” when you pass by. It’s fun to move back and forth in front of the pictures and make Angel say “Believe!” over and over.

“Believe” still has the most beautiful proscenium framing in town, a gilded steampunk fantasia festooned with demonic “Donnie Darko” rabbits. The audio system is state-of-the-art surround sound — you feel as if phantoms are whispering just behind you — even if the music is bombastic and overloud.

You’ll come away remembering a handful of images: a shower of red poppies in a storm-gray sky, an outsize, disembodied bunny head that rolls over and tap dances on its ears.

And then there’s the chorus line of dancing bunnies — who have just torn Angel’s carcass limb-from-limb in vengeance for all the rabbits sacrificed in the line of magic.

But the pacing of the show remains erratic and listless. Angel’s frequent attempts to make the audience cheer (“Are you having fun?” “I can’t hear you!”) were rewarded with noticeably tepid applause from the crowd, which was perhaps at three-quarter capacity.

At what would seem to be the big finish, characters from Angel’s nightmare strap him to a gigantic mechanism and saw him in half with a chain saw — even this is greeted with a “so what?” shrug. The failure of the effect can’t even be called anticlimactic — there is no climax in “Believe.”

One of the oddest things about this show is that the audience still doesn’t recognize the performers’ curtain call when it arrives, and seem similarly confused about whether the show is actually over. It just sort of dribbles away.

This is the sort of thing that a director could have easily addressed, given a year’s time, which leads me to believe that Cirque is just letting “Believe” lie there, hoping unwitting customers will forget the reviews, until someone comes up with a plausible, face-saving reason to shoot it in the head and replace it.

Discussion: 21 comments so far…

By Fccfirstclass

10/26/09 at 4:40 a.m.

Suggest removal

Worst.show.I.have.ever.seen.

The only reason we went is because we received free tickets.

Just a dog and not hot.

Matlock would sue.
By walk243

10/26/09 at 6:06 a.m.

Suggest removal

I just went to this "Show" a couple of weeks ago. It is the worst show I've seen in Las Vegas by far! I too was very glad my tickets were free. But now I see why they were free. I agree that Angel is a fraud, but worse is the Corporation that is allowing their name to be tarnished by keeping him there.

Matlock should go after the producers, not Chris Angel!!! LOL
By danutz

10/26/09 at 10:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

This is by far the WORST show in Vegas in the past 60 yrs.. They need to cut this clown loose and move on.
By Boomer111

10/26/09 at 2:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Oh, come on you posters, quite being soft on this guy.

The truth is that the show is REALLY REALLY, REALLY LOUSY!!!!!!!
By Hiker

10/26/09 at 2:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Poor me. I paid to see the show. It really wasn't very good. Even the Cirque performers seemed lackluster. I saw the show in previews last year. I wasn't planning to return to see if it had improved, but now, even if I should be offered a free ticket, I would decline.
By Boomer111

10/26/09 at 2:37 p.m.

Suggest removal

Revise the show headline to:

we all BELIEVE its a total dud

Boomer, Miami Florida
By Boomer111

10/26/09 at 2:38 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hiker:

I have 6 free tics. I will sell them to you for .25 cents each
By Boomer111

10/26/09 at 2:40 p.m.

Suggest removal

Bring back Melinda!
By shootsnleaves

10/27/09 at 1:43 a.m.

Suggest removal

The saddest part for me is that the dancers are really, REALLY good, and they are stuck in the service of a total lame-o "star" who can do TV just fine, but is utterly unsuccessful appearing in a live show. Truly, the dancers (and other performers) deserve better.
By environprotector

10/27/09 at 6:33 a.m.

Suggest removal

How come the show is so bad? His TV stuff looks pretty amazing..
By Hiker

10/27/09 at 7:37 a.m.

Suggest removal

Boomer111

You are much too kind. Thank you, but no.
By John Katsilometes (Staff)

10/27/09 at 10:18 a.m.

Suggest removal

Another great review, Joe. I would say diminishing the show is, in fact, an improvement. Keep diminishing, I say!
By Burrittobandit2

10/27/09 at 2:12 p.m.

Suggest removal

Bring back Cook E Jarr!
By sheckyvegas

10/27/09 at 2:27 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hey Burritto! You got that right! Cookie was THE BOMB! Chris Angel makes me believe his career is over. Back to Supercuts, nancy-boy...
By logic_should_rule

10/27/09 at 5:27 p.m.

Suggest removal

Unlike other recent Angel articles, no shills with their phoney positive reviews have shown up here. Yet...
By ScottNV

10/27/09 at 5:55 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hey Boomer111,

I think you may have invented reverse scalping.

People pay you to keep your free tickets.
The only catch, and it's a big one, to collect the money, you have find five other people willing to attend the show, and you have to go too.

My advice: BURN THEM NOW.
By AKsilvereagle

10/28/09 at 12:20 a.m.

Suggest removal

I "believe" if anyone recieves free tickets to see Crissy Angel ....YOU PAID TOO MUCH !!!!!

I thought all the Crissy Angel merchandise across from the gift shop was actually a storage room or a warehouse, not a retail store....it sure is way overstocked while no one was buying any merchandise, thats for sure.

Maybe if Amazing Johnathan were headlining instead, the Luxor would at least have a non disappointing audience.

I also agree to bring back Melinda for magic.

Actually bring back the old real nostalgia type of entertainers that made Vegas thrive.
By crybaby

10/30/09 at 10:56 a.m.

Suggest removal

BeLIEve has been getting so many negative reviews. I won't listen to those of you who think this not a good show. I want to see for myself and decide if its good or bad. I would want to go anyway just to see Criss Angel!!!
By Pinkie

11/3/09 at 12:28 p.m.

Suggest removal

Y'all shouldn't be so hard on Criss! I don't know if "BeLIEve" is any good, and I want to see it so badly for myself. I am a huge fan of Criss Angel's and think that he is an amazing illusionist. Please keep in mind that not only does he work EVERYDAY on the live show, but also on Mindfreak, and has about a billion other things going on daily. Maybe that's why his show is lackluster-less. The man is TIRED!
By modd

11/8/09 at 8:11 a.m.

Suggest removal

Agreed terrible show. Saw it for free a year ago on comped tickets and almost walked out. Painfully bad.

Even then it seemed to me that Criss Angel was already getting fat.

The main reason I think his live show fails is that he is not an illusionist at all - he relies on camera tricks (especially starting and stopping filming), something he cannot do on stage. In short: he is bogus, irrelevant, already dated. *Yawn.
By Mary72

11/10/09 at 9:15 p.m.

Suggest removal

I am on the other side of the spectrum here...i seen Believe and i loved it...one has to understand Criss as a person before they would ever understand Believe and all its hidden meanings...no it isnt Mindfreak which everyone has the misconception of when they go...granted he doesn't do alot of stage magic but what it is about is real magic...it is a love story...Love is where the real magic lays...its about love and seperation...its about how the media can destroy love relationships because of the pressures it puts on fame...its about how fame itself can destroy that which we love...its about how the media can change people into things they dont want to become...it is about so many things...he never claimed it to be Mindfreak...like i said unless you understand the real Criss and how he thinks you will never understand Believe...everyone just goes by what they read in the tabloids or what he is percieved to be yet not who he really is...and only those who are not happy with their own lives will critic anothers life...to make themself feel better or to go along with the status quo...anyways i would go see Believe again...i am curious to see how it evolves over time...