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