Never revealing your tricks may sound like the first rule of magic, but Criss Angel has told people the secrets of a few of his, and he remains one of the most popular magicians in the world. In fact, Angel loves teaching people about magic, which he did in a bestselling book and DVD set, and that's just one way in which he doesn't exactly fit the traditional image of a stage magician. From his side gig as a musician to his feud with Ice Cube, let's pull back the curtain and take a look at the truth about Criss Angel.
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00:00What do you really know about Criss Angel?
00:03He's one of the most famous magicians of our time, but Criss Angel's story is interesting
00:06outside of magic, too.
00:08Criss Angel is the mind freak.
00:10My mind is freaked.
00:12Here's the untold truth of Criss Angel.
00:16Most magicians get their start as kids.
00:18After all, when you're a kid, adults are much more likely to applaud your efforts, even
00:22when they can tell that you just switched the cards behind your back.
00:25What?
00:26It's right there!
00:27Wait a second!
00:28Wait a second!
00:29Don't turn around!
00:30Wait!
00:31Wait a second!
00:32Look at this!
00:33Wait!
00:34Wait!
00:35Look!
00:36I'm gonna do this right now!
00:37Look!
00:38But some kids are blessed with parents who support their interests long enough for them
00:39to cultivate some serious skills.
00:40Well, Criss Angel must have had some incredibly supportive parents, because he started practicing
00:44magic at the age of seven and never gave up on it.
00:47According to Biography, Angel, who was still called Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos back
00:51in those days, first became interested in magic after his aunt showed him a card trick.
00:55He later said he was drawn to the incredible sense of power that an adult didn't understand
01:00how it worked, but I did.
01:02Angel practiced until he had enough material for a whole show.
01:05By the age of 12, he was all ready for his first performance.
01:08He even collected a $10 fee for his services.
01:11So what's the takeaway here?
01:12Criss Angel became a magician because he liked having power over people, and he was pretty
01:16much always in it for the money.
01:18Basically, he was already living the American Dream before he even hit puberty.
01:23By the time he was 14, Criss Angel was already a skilled magician.
01:26In fact, he was already performing professionally in bars and restaurants.
01:30According to the Las Vegas Sun, Angel was a particular favorite at a bar-slash-restaurant
01:35called the Wine Gallery, where he claimed he could rake in $100 a night in tips.
01:39That's a pretty decent chunk of change, especially for a 14-year-old, and especially for a 14-year-old
01:44performing magic.
01:46Angel evidently found plenty of support for his hobby in high school, too.
01:49He told the publication Patch,
01:51"...the teachers saw my passion, they allowed me to create a schedule that let me spend
01:55a lot of time on my love of magic, and that really guided me in the right direction."
02:00Then again, who needs higher education, or even a high school education, when you already
02:04know how to make elephants appear out of thin air?
02:06"...Are you ready?
02:08Let's do it!
02:10Yeah!"
02:11And while we're on the subject of higher education, sounds like Criss Angel's parents were supportive
02:16of his magic-making, but only up to a point.
02:20That point was presumably adulthood.
02:22Angel's folks were reportedly rather displeased when he decided to become a full-time professional
02:27magician, particularly because he completely skipped college in favor of a life on the
02:31road.
02:32He told the Las Vegas Sun,
02:33"...the thought of my becoming a professional magician was unbearable for them.
02:37They had hoped their three sons would go to college and become doctors or lawyers, but
02:41not a magician."
02:42Like many kids, Angel didn't really care what his parents wanted him to do, so he joined
02:46a traveling performance act, studying magic whenever and wherever he could.
02:51Clearly, that lifestyle worked in Criss Angel's favor.
02:53Well, take a look at him now.
02:56"...Now!
02:57Yeah!
02:58Look at that!"
03:02While honing his craft in the 1980s, Angel evidently needed to supplement the money he
03:07made from magic.
03:08Perhaps his tricks weren't magically transforming into enough cold, hard cash to make a living.
03:12While most people supplement their salary with practical gigs like, say, waiting tables,
03:17Angel had an altogether different plan.
03:19He decided to be a magician and a musician.
03:23His parents must have flipped their wigs.
03:25According to Metal Injection, Angel's early attempts at music and music videos owed a
03:29lot to Poison, except they also featured 100 percent more magic tricks.
03:34Suffice to say, there's a whole lot of Criss Angel to enjoy in his early music videos.
03:38That ginormous hair!
03:40Those superior shorts!
03:41Oh, and all that magic business with the befuddled doves.
03:44Well, old habits die hard, as they say.
03:47"...I'm not much of a mime.
03:49People say, Criss, don't do the mime stuff, because it doesn't work.
03:53You know why?
03:54Because I do the magic stuff much better."
03:57Old dreams die hard, too.
03:59Apparently, Angel never gave up on his desire to become a rock star, even after he became
04:03a famous magician.
04:05In 1998, he formed an industrial band called Angel Dust.
04:08Over the years, he's released a handful of albums, although Angel Dust hasn't done much
04:12of anything since the early 2000s.
04:14Perhaps Criss Angel made his industrial band…
04:17Disappear!
04:19So far, we've spent the majority of this video making fun of Criss Angel, but honestly, the
04:23guy's okay in our spellbook.
04:24In fact, he's one of the only magicians in the world willing to give away the tricks
04:28of his trade.
04:29As Angel told CinemaBlend in 2007,
04:31"...the trick doesn't make the magician.
04:33The magician makes the trick."
04:34First, there's that series of Master Mind Freak's DVDs.
04:38It's all right here on three DVDs.
04:40Whether you are a beginner or intermediate, you will master the art of the Mind Freak.
04:46"...you can do these illusions at home."
04:50There's also Mind Freak's Secret Revelations, a book he published in 2009 that teaches you
04:54how to perform magic.
04:56We're sure it's the gift that keeps on giving… until you turn eight.
04:59The book even spent some time on the Los Angeles Times Best Seller list.
05:03While it'd be easy to write these projects off as a cynical cash grab, Angel does seem
05:07to genuinely enjoy helping other people learn magic.
05:10He told CinemaBlend,
05:11"...when I was getting into the art of magic, I couldn't find material that had my sensibilities.
05:16I feel everyone should know one good joke and one good effect.
05:20It's an icebreaker."
05:21It's safe to say Chris Angel is a veritable jack-of-all-trades.
05:25In between all the magic-making and musical mishaps, he also found the time to study not
05:29just one style of martial art, but at least five of them.
05:33As CinemaBlend reports, Angel is adept at Kung Fu, Wushu, Karate, Kinpo, and Taekwondo,
05:39which is really rather impressive, no matter how you slice it.
05:42Unfortunately, we can't find footage of Angel doing any martial arts, so here's the next
05:46best thing.
05:47"...do you know what this is?"
05:49"...still just a bag of Waffle Red Bucket Twix."
05:51"...it's not a bag, it's a bowl.
05:53He turned the bag into a bowl.
05:55How did you do that?"
05:57There may be a good reason why footage of Angel performing karate is hard to come by.
06:01The majority of Angel's martial arts training reportedly happened during his adolescence,
06:05which helps explain how he managed to find time to pursue five different schools of martial
06:09arts on top of dance, music, and, lest we forget, magic.
06:13"...send it to me with your eyes.
06:15Thirteen, is that your number?"
06:17"...shut up."
06:18Our sentiments exactly.
06:21Some magicians are just born bad, and in case you haven't figured this out, Chris Angel
06:25is a very bad boy.
06:27"...wow!
06:28Dude, he was in the trash can and then he wasn't!"
06:31That whole bad boy schtick is undoubtedly part of Angel's public image, the anarchy
06:35cap and matching anarchy necklace, that floppy mane of jet-black hair, his attitude, he just
06:41can't with you right now.
06:42He is literally above it all.
06:45"...wow!
06:46Wow!"
06:47"...wow!"
06:48"...wow!"
06:49"...wow!"
06:50"...wow!"
06:51"...wow!"
06:52Thrashing around in these shorts while scaring a bunch of doves?
06:55That's definitely a bad boy in our book.
06:57Heck, he even starred in a very special episode of CSI New York where he portrayed, what else,
07:02an extremely bad boy.
07:13You may be asking yourself, how did that last bit come about?
07:16In 2007, he told CinemaBlend,
07:18"...I got a call from the creator-producer of CSI and he asked me if I was interested
07:22in participating.
07:23I said, yeah, provided I'm the killer."
07:26Angel went on to boast about how the episode of CSI New York was the number one show in
07:29its time slot that night, even managing to beat out Lost.
07:33Okay, so he's not particularly modest, but that's okay, because bad boys seldom are.
07:38Chris Angel's temper is almost as legendary as his rainbow tights.
07:42Okay, his rainbow spandex tights aren't exactly legendary, but we can't seem to take our eyes
07:46off them.
07:47Angel's ex-girlfriend Holly Madison told E! News he has a, quote, explosive temper.
07:52She also claimed Angel happened to be extremely jealous and possessive.
07:55Nothing too magical about those two personality traits, except for the fact that they can
07:59make perfectly good relationships.
08:01Disappear!
08:03Chris Angel must be pretty good at what he does.
08:05How else to explain how he managed to freak out legendary rapper and actor Ice Cube all
08:10while using nothing but a pack of cards and a little bit of magic?
08:13The second season of Angel's show Mind Freak featured two segments with Ice Cube.
08:18One trick took place in a record store.
08:20I want you to pick a CD.
08:23Funkadelic?
08:24Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho
08:29And then came that card trick, and what a trick it was.
08:33In your wallet.
08:34How the hell you do that, man?
08:35In your wallet, dude.
08:36F----- damn!
08:37Aw, man, come on now.
08:41Regarding this particularly rousing bit of hocus pocus, Angel told MTV, he lost his mind.
08:48Regardless of what you might think about Chris Angel's individual style or the rumors
08:52about his bad temper, it's clear that he knows how to do some pretty remarkable things.
08:57After all, when tickets to your show cost anywhere from $69 to $246, you better be pretty
09:02amazing.
09:03Rest assured, his aptitude for wizardry hasn't gone unnoticed in the wider world of sorcery.
09:09According to Biography, Angel won the International Magician's Society's Prestigious Magician
09:14of the Year award five times in the 2000s, all before any of us knew such a society existed.
09:20The magic is real.
09:22That's not all.
09:23Angel also won the society's Magician of the Decade award in 2009, and in 2010, the society
09:28evidently went for broke and named Angel the Magician of the Century.
09:31Granted, there are still eight more decades left in this century, and we imagine some
09:35enterprising 7-year-old magician has a few tricks up his sleeve.
09:39Watch your back, Chris Angel.
09:41Chris Angel and his second wife, Shanille Benson, divorced in 2016.
09:45A year before the couple split, their son Johnny Christopher was diagnosed with acute
09:49lymphoblastic leukemia.
09:51Johnny Christopher was still just a toddler when he developed cancer, and had to endure
09:55years of chemotherapy.
09:56In January 2019, Angel announced that the boy was finally cancer-free.
10:00Meanwhile, Benson and Angel evidently realized they were still meant for each other.
10:05In January 2019, they announced the birth of their second child, Christos Yanni Sarantakos.
10:11A year after his son Johnny was diagnosed, Angel founded the Chris Angel Heal Every Life
10:15Possible charity, otherwise known as HELP.
10:18During a 2017 appearance on The Doctors, he said,
10:20"...and we raised a considerable amount of money, and I'm just starting."
10:25In September 2016, Angel brought more than two dozen big-name acts to a charity event
10:30for HELP, with a roster of talent that included comedian Andrew Dice Clay, Dee Snider of Twisted
10:35Sister, actor and musician Corey Feldman, legendary performer Gary Oldman, and countless
10:40others.
10:41According to Angel's official website, all the money raised through the organization
10:45went directly to pediatric cancer research and awareness.
10:48At the end of the day, that's something you've really gotta respect.