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Band:Chris Angel DVD:Mindfreak - The Complete Season One Released by:A&E Home Video Writer: Mark Carras Media: MySpace Click Album Cover To Buy Now

So I have been curious about this show for a very long time, but it always aired at the same time as other things I was already hooked on. Oh yeah, have I mentioned that I am a total TV addict? I spend a shitload of time in front of the computer doing this site. So I have a set up where the tv is right next to my desk area. This of course works great for doing reviews of DVDs like this, but it also works amazingly well for going through Netflix (pretty much the crack dealer for addicts like me) like crazy. This has made me less interested in watching shows when they are broadcast and more interested in watching shows when they hit DVD. Cliff hangers have always bugged the shit out of me and this makes things like that go away. So here I am watching the Chris Angel Mindfreak season one series. Might as well write out a review while I am at it.

Honestly I have had to watch it twice to write the review. This is not because Chris is such an amazing magician. This is more because he is such a great entertainer. The man knows how to grab your attention and keep it. His obsession with Korn does get a little annoying, but other than that this is one great show. Part of the fun is trying to figure out where the magic ends and the showman begins. How many of us spent our allowance at the local magic shop when we were kids? I know I did. From that I learned that it is all about being frighteningly quick and smooth with the hand eye coordination. I could never pull it off myself. My failure at this craft however has made me all the more interested in people like Chris and of course Penn & Teller.

Just like with Penn & Teller, Chris is a great showman. Where Chris kicks it up a notch is how he gives it all this dark vibe where you wonder if he has some deal with the dark side to make some of this shit work so well. Throughout the history of magic, people have always done these things in carefully controlled environments. Many times Chris makes it more interesting by doing it in the middle of the street with no set up other then him and the cameramen. Very simple things like having some janitor put a garbage can over his head and having him show up on top of the building he did this in front of. People all around him with no time or room for any set up the viewer can see. He mixes a few of these mini tricks around one big one for each episode. For the pilot his big trick was setting himself on fire and walking around longer then anyone has before. To top it all off, when he collapses onto the board where they put out the fire there is nothing left other then the clothing. He of course ends up as one of the people putting out the guy on fire. So when did the guy on fire turn into the guy who put out the fire? It is questions like this that make him so damn interesting. When he levitates he looks like it is being done by strings, but yet he does it in the middle of a street where there is no room for any set up at all. Mystery is always compelling and Chris has re-packaged it in a way that gives it a new fresh feeling. I feel like that little kid in the magic store again.

So who should buy this? Sure this show is great for the common person, but the way this show is put together makes it entertaining for the skeptic as well. Trying to figure out how he might have pulled the trick off is part of what makes it so damn compelling. I keep bugging Chris’s press agent for an interview, but get no response. Unlike that little kid in the late 70’s, I will not give up. The thing I want to know, is what specific question would you ask Chris if you had the chance? Netflix or buy this DVD set and get back to me on the boards.

Band:Chris Angel DVD:Mindfreak - The Complete Season One Released by:A&E Home Video Writer: Mark Carras Media: MySpace Click Album Cover To Buy Now

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