It is a shame that unknowing tourists are paying that ticket price for this show. The way the show is now it certainly isn’t worth it and someone needs to pull the plug. All the revamping they’ve been continually doing is making it worse. Maybe if they closed this one and started two new shows, one of Criss Angel doing his thing and Cirque doing something different.

Actually Cirque is starting a new Elvis type of show that should be opening in a few months. Maybe by December. That will take some attention away from what has become a disaster with this one.

I say that Criss Angel is a jerk, a punk, who basically acts like a manipulative convict that thinks he’s untouchable and an entertainer that should not be paid attention to at all because all he wants is money and fame and don’t care how he attains it. And someone like this should not be the headliner for a multi-million dollar show on the world famous Las Vegas Strip. He has absolutely NO credentials at all that qualify him for this. And he proves that assessment during every show.

My main point is this, Pam. The tourists should NEVER be held accountable to make money for a proven way below average show. Tourists do not have money to blow to just shell it out to see a sub standard show. Someone has to stand up for them. THEY should not suffer for Cirque du Soleil’s horrible business decision. Cirque should be the one held accountable for this fiasco and do the right thing and close it down (or do something). If they continue with this train wreck, make THEM howl in frustration when they look out and see empty seats. And going along with this main point of mine, I want to ensure that if they continue to let this go on, I want the word spread widely so that when Cirque du Soleil looks in their cash register for ticket sales, they see only dust and cobwebs. And I want to ensure this happens every single day, during every single performance, to continue on for the entire ten year commitment (if they choose to pursue the original contract with this bum).

And I’m not the only one saying this about his TITANIC of a show. There is a web site called Yelp, where people from around the world submit comments and rate shows from around the world. Criss Angel BeLIEve in Las Vegas, NV is there. It has a whopping 110 comments so far (last time I checked). People can comment on the show and rate it from one star (lowest) to five stars (highest). This show, after 110 comments of people who saw it, only ranks an abysmal 2 stars, well below average. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good comments too, but the bad reviews far outnumber the good reviews by a ratio of about 10 to 1. There are other web sites that basically say the same thing.

I just hate to see tourists ripped off and misled by yay wide and yay high billboards, big signs that light up, flowery layouts in free hand out magazines and other forms of in-your-face advertisements that basically say it’s something that it simply isn’t.

Tourists are the life blood of Las Vegas. And especially in these times, something like this needs to be fixed. And fixed quick. Because it’s doing nothing but chasing tourists away. The plan of action is usually to try to get tourists to decide to make Las Vegas their tourist vacation destination time and time again. Criss Angel BeLIEve doesn’t come close to accomplishing this and proves totally counter productive.

Soooo, not that you feel strongly or anything, huh Colin? Man! You do not like that guy, haha.

I don’t care about him one way or another. I consider him a street performer and am surprised he landed a deal like he did at the Luxor, but hey, we’re all deserving of the deal we can get signed! More power to him.

I really did enjoy his show the first time around. I thought it was great entertainment and thought it wasn’t professional or nice to just rag on it because of Angel’s perceived personal shortcomings or because it didn’t have good magic in it. Or because it didn’t outdo other Cirque shows. He really isn’t a magician exactly, for Godssakes. The show was damn good entertainment as it was in the beginning. Now, well, it isn’t, in my opinion. Too bad.

I am guessing that in the coming months, Criss Angel, Cirque and the Luxor will all agree to break the contract and get on with something more productive.

I have made many comments about Criss Angel in other web sites (most notably on Richard Abowitz’ Movable Buffet) and I still stick to what I said starting back in April 2008 when Criss Angel flipped off NBC TV cameras during the Miss USA Pageant and threatened to blind Norm Clarke from the Las Vegas Review Journal. He has shown nothing but arrogance, having no respect for anyone, not even himself. This was witnessed in the ensuing months by telling reporters everything from “it’s a matter between me and Norm only” to “it didn’t happen at all.” It got so bad that he basically forgot what he told one reporter to the next. He eventually did apologize to Norm Clarke, but it coincided with the grand premiere of his show (October 31, 2008). This was transparent. You could tell Cirque du Soleil basically slapped him, said go make up and apologize, we got money riding on this, do it and act like the big named entertainer you’re supposed to be and behave and make us some money.

And it came out in the news that his fling with Holly Madison was done in order to take away attention from his failing show here in Las Vegas. And Holly used him to further her ends here in Las Vegas too. And get this….they both, at the time, shared the same publicist. So, it was basically two users sucking the life out of each other, bouncing off of each other’s bling.

And then, in April 2009, during a show which probably had children in the audience, Criss Angel hurled a profanity laced insult at Perez Hilton, who was in the audience. Never mind who he yelled that at…the main thing is he did something you NEVER, EVER do on stage. It shows total unprofessionalism and many entertainers in the past have been fired for doing something like that. But Cirque du Soleil does nothing to him and they apologize for this idiot’s behavior. Criss Angel however is silent. Cirque du Soleil is in this “battered wife” syndrome. They apologize, say it will never happen again, but no reassurance from their star performer. I guess he can basically do it again. So, he’s got free reign to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Cirque has proved they can’t do anything.

I still say this guy needs to go. He’s a laughing stock here in Las Vegas. Even other entertainers rag on him. The most recent one was a few days ago by Anthony Cools, who recently unveiled a revamped version of his hypnosis show. During the show he said (quote), “If you did not have a good time tonight, my name is Criss Angel.”

The most horrible thing about this is that he has totally ripped off many, many tourists who went to this show and when they left, they wished more to forget it than to remember any of it. Las Vegas is meant to be a place where people are encouraged to return to spend vacation time, not chase them out of the city limits to never ever return again.

Criss Angel continues to demonstrate nightly he possesses absolutely no talent, no ability to have a rapport with a paying audience, nor is he able to put together a show that moves along and flows in order to bear any resemblance to having the ability to entertain. This watch-me-whilst-I-love-myself-and-you-should-throw-money-at-me nonsense has got to stop.

And yes, Pam. I have heard that from many other audience members who attended this show. Cheers, applause, hand claps, whistles and crowd noise is piped into the speakers. Because if they didn’t, the deafening noise of silence mingled with crickets chirping would be the only thing heard during the performance.

Criss Angel is not meant to be on the stage of a multi-million dollar show on the Strip. This pairing of Criss Angel to Cirque du Soleil is the same as if you bought a hot dog and, instead of putting mustard on it, you put whipped cream on it. It just don’t work. And it will never work.

BeLIEve that.