SUN FILE PHOTO
Criss Angel’s “Mindfreak Live” at Luxor will be performed for the final time in October.
Monday, Jan. 29, 2018 | 2 a.m.
Criss Angel will step onto his stage at the Luxor on Oct. 28 for the final performance of “Mindfreak Live,” concluding a 10-year collaboration with Cirque du Soleil and some 4,000 shows. It’s been a rare run, one that began on Halloween night in 2008 with “Criss Angel Believe,” a very different version of Angel’s show and the first Cirque production in Las Vegas to have an individual star.
The show’s history has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, too, finding its footing and achieving consistent success as Angel has assumed more creative control. “We obviously had some big challenges, and I could have either walked away or rolled up my sleeves,” he told Las Vegas Weekly in 2015. “I said to Cirque, ‘OK, now I’m going to try to do what I asked to do in the beginning.”
“Believe” evolved away from Cirque’s signature avant-garde storytelling and acrobatics and focused more on Angel’s illusions and attitude, and in 2016, “Mindfreak Live” launched, an energetic, goth-rock magic spectacular that resonated with the loyal fanbase Angel has built over the course of his career on TV and through touring productions.
And he’s been blowing audiences away ever since. If you’ve never seen the show, you might be impressed and surprised by the amount of humor and heart in Angel’s performance. He’s creepy and funny during his version of the classic saw-a-woman-in-half trick, done with a huge spinning blade, a heavy metal soundtrack and a horror movie backdrop. He enchants during an out-of-nowhere bird act, one of the only adapted elements that made the transition from “Believe.” And he dedicates a feat of levitation to children everywhere battling cancer, a cause for which he continues to raise research funds and one that is obviously close to his heart. His nearly 4-year-old son Johnny Crisstopher was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago and is currently in remission. At the end of Angel’s January 24 show — his first after several weeks of touring — Johnny made a quick visit to the stage and received a standing ovation.
There’s always something new in “Mindfreak Live” as Angel is constantly adjusting his show for his many fans that return again and again, but you’re always going to see the unbelievable illusions that he’s known for, including his famous floating finale where he hovers over and under a ladder and inside a plexiglass sphere. It’s exactly the kind of performance that makes you want to come back and watch it all over again, and if you do, you’ve got a few more months to do so.
“Mindfreak Live” is performed twice a night, at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays in the Criss Angel Theater at Luxor (3900 Las Vegas Blvd. South, 702-262-4400). For more information, visit luxor.com.
