Cirque du Soleil – Criss Angel Believe

At the beginning of this review I want to address some things that bother me about previous reviews. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it appears many misunderstand the show, or just do not seem to understand the differences between shows in Vegas versus shows everywhere else. The biggest complaint I see is where people tend to criticize the show because Criss talks about himself and there is clips from his show. That is the case pretty much with any show done in Vegas by stars. The difference is that the star of the show gets real with the audience and talks about their life and experiences. I prefer this to just doing magic, you really get to know the artist better.
As for the show we went to we really enjoyed it, we have always been fans of Criss and his show, there is dark and even stupid humor (welcome to Vegas!). However, overall its a great show and you really get to know Criss a little better. I saw someone complain about him saying «are you ready» a lot… um just for those who are planning to see the show in the future that is kind of his slogan, look in the gift shop its all over pretty much everything. Chris is a showman and yes he loves applause (that’s kind of why he does it). If you appreciate a good show and comes exactly as marketed. It has a lot of different types of his magic and it really is done well. For those who feel that they can tell «how he did it» you really do miss the point of magic, its about the show and it is not about it appearing to be real magic or not. There were a couple times while watching that I was baffled, but sometimes I could see what was happening. Instead of criticizing the artist because you figured it out. Just be proud that you did, because I guarantee you that you are one of the few. It’s a magic show and if you like Criss Angel and his type of magic you will love this show. I highly recommend sitting up close, it is definitely worth it.

Personally our group loved the show. Grab your self a margarita and enjoy it!
I’ve always watched his shows mind freak and it’s really great watching it up close. The only thing I wished is that it’s very obvious that it was a skit throughout the show, like any other day but it’s okay I was really feeling my drink and the night!
One of my friends got to grab his ass! What’s more better than that? Lol
Really looking forward to his next show! Thanks Cris :)

I just didn’t realize a Cirque show could be this bad. I should have read the reviews. There is not enough alcohol in Vegas to make this show bearable.
The tricks are boring. Think: birds appearing «magically» while Criss wears a giant robe… obviously stuffed with said birds.
The humor is bad. Like, really bad. Racist, sexist, and desperate. The show has no energy. The performers’ constant calls for applause are indicative of the fact that the audience is underwhelmed.
If I’d paid $ 25 for the tickets I wouldn’t really care as much, but for $ 100 per ticket I walked out feeling cheated and annoyed. The theater was barely half full. There’s a reason. This show is a waste of time and money.
I’ve seen 6 Cirque shows in the last couple of months and this was NOT a Cirque show, this was just stupid.

Starts off pretty intense after the opening act which me walk out of the theater since I have anxiety that flares up with crazy loud noise and explosions. Came back in about 20 mins later to see a more relaxed show, I’ve always loved criss and his background so for me it was worth seeing him in person but yes the show was quite boring, predictable, and at some points felt dragged on. My younger cousin seemed to enjoy most of it aside from the beginning part as it shook the hell out of our seats with all the blaring music and vibrations. Wouldn’t recommend to anybody unless they really like criss angel as a person.

This is by far the worst show I have ever seen in Vegas. I couldn’t even believe how bad it was. All he did was tell us how great he was and how accomplished he was. It was painful to watch. If that’s all it takes to headline a magic show in Vegas then I honestly might sign up.

I was prepared for the show to be corny, and willing to suspend some disbelief in order to see some good magic. But this show out-​sucked even my most pessimistic expectations.
The vast majority of the show is vacuous banter peppered with ridiculously dumb jokes and the kind of sexual innuendo that only a (very slow) 13 year old would find funny. He also spends a little time insulting other magicians and just being a general egomaniacal douche. Several times I seriously felt embarrassed for him.
A substantial portion of the show is him just playing videos and showing photos of himself. He even feigns embarrassment over a picture he shows of himself on the toilet at a very young age, while his sidekick — snickering and holding a roll of toilet paper — asks «were you going poopie?» Seriously.
There is a lot of simple sleight of hand and a painfully contrived attempt at a storyline. There is also an annoying amount of him yelling «ARE YOU READAAAYYYY?» and «I CAN’T HEAR YOUUUU» at the audience. Basically the kind of stuff you’d expect from a third-​rate rocker trying to wind up a junior high school auditorium.
The «random» audience members are not random at all, and he doesn’t do a great job hiding that fact. One example — he was throwing the item out (a sock? a ball? I don’t remember) to pick a «random» audience member and, when the «wrong» person caught it, he actually told them to give it to someone else because «she was waving her hands and being really loud.»
The few «big» illusions (and I mean very few) are extremely obvious in their execution. For instance, the trap doors all over the stage are clearly visible from many rows back.
I seriously wouldn’t recommend this show to anyone. I mean, maybe a 10 year old with zero critical thinking skills and parents with the patience of saints — but otherwise, absolutely never.
I can’t imagine how embarrassed Cirque du Soleil must be to have their name on this disaster.
Just terrible.

Truly bad show. Boring, same trick over & over (make someone disappear & reappear someplace else). No energy.
Also he was wildly SEXIST: made horrible comments about women which my teenage daughters did not need to hear.
Go see Nathan Burton at the Saxe Theater at Planet Hollywood. His show was much better, cleaner, and MUCH cheaper.

Okay so I was reading some of the other reviews & I thought they were a bit harsh.
The show was definitely not perfect but I don’t really think it was as bad everyone on here makes it out to be.
My friend treated me to this show before the end of the year & we had a blast.
We were in the middle section maybe like the 4^th or 5^th row which were some of the best seats in the house. My friend chose these rows because the front two gets some water splish splash from some of the props they use. I was happy for it because I don’t get dressed up in hopes of being sprayed in the face by water.
Okay so things I like…
It’s cool that before you enter you get to walk through a bit of a museum of Criss Angel. He has a collection of motorcycles on display that were used in his show, props, pictures with celebrities, costumes, etc. Some could call it a bit vain but I like that I can check some of this stuff out before the show… more for your money in my opinion.
I was super impressed by the décor of the stage once you’re inside. I’m a gothic soul & to me the aesthetic was just beautiful. There are a bunch of disturbed looking gold bunnies that move decorating the stage, red curtains with some distressed goth looking material. If you’re into that like I am you’ll love it. You can tell a lot of money went into designing & making this set & I can seriously appreciate that.
Criss Angel is definitely a performer. He’s really taken care of himself & putting a lot of heart into what he does & I think that’s great. & can I just add that he looked good in those skinny jeans which I generally am not into on men. Good for you Criss.
On to the show lol, if you’re looking for Cirque du Soleil you’ll only get a little of it but it was there. They have some doll like gals that pop out & some bunnies that do some Cirque esq moves that are impressive. It’s nothing like going to an actual Cirque show, they have a very minor role in the show but I thought that it was a nice touch having them there.
Criss has some assistants in the show who add a lot of comedy. In fact I would say that maybe half or more of this show is comedic. I laughed a lot. I could have done without the racist jokes. They targeted Asians in the show & played the whole «Chinese/​Japanese what’s the difference» joke. As a Japanese person I can tell you that we hear enough of this in our daily lives, that the whole «40 + Asian countries in the world being all the same joke» gets pretty boring & is more of a nuisance then anything. I know it seems funny but trust me as someone who lives this all the time it’s just old. –sigh–
Spoilers:
Now on to magic.
The stunts were great. I mean they sawed a girl in half, straight jacket stunt, & doves were beautiful. There’s no doubt this dude has talent. My favorite magic was one where he was levitating. but I won’t say the rest because you just have to go & see it ^_​^
The cons of the show:
There is some crowd interaction but I don’t know how much of it was real. I wasn’t super convinced that it was real but I was still entertained so I didn’t really care.
The other major con was that there’s a lot of talking & not as much magic as I thought. That much is true about the reviews. He does talk a lot about his accomplishments & we do see clips from MindFreak. I think it’s partially a filler so that they can set up the next act but I think I would have preferred if they did some small magic tricks instead as a filler. The work should speak for itself & even if it’s to spread his accomplishments to gain more fans I think that if the show had more magic, people would just go & seek the show or more information on their own time. Plus as someone who has seen a lot of the show it just feels like hey, I came here to see the actual thing in person not on the screen. I didn’t mind him talking about his accomplishments but I think he could have done without the bit about his shows beating out other magicians (he did name names). Let the magic speak for itself is all I’m saying.
You can’t make everyone happy but I left the show entertained. It was a great way to finish of 2015 for me. I think Criss Angel is a talented guy & the magic he does is impressive.

Chris is probably one of the best and most innovative magicians out there.
That being said, this show is like sitting thru a bad and horribly mismanaged first dress rehearsal.
Chris should fire his director and the (totally lame) «maestro» immediately!!!
2 tricks got cancelled while he was in the middle of performing them and the rest were 99% rock and roll and screaming and 1% (maybe) decent illusion… but even those were totally obscured by over the top pyrotechnics, a very dark stage, and oddly elaborate props.
Chris“s fans deserve much better!!!
his banter with the audience was totally flat, completely uninspired… and frankly, awkward. he often looked and sounded totally lost.
His brand of magic does not translate well to the stage.
Unilocal Dont Lie!

Overall, the show is entertaining and kept me interested for about 60% of the time. Pros: I liked his magic tricks and various illusions. His philanthropic efforts to fight childhood cancer humanize him and add an interesting touch to the show.
Cons: He talks about his childhood, how he got into magic, his previous work, and popularity for quite some time. I also didn’t particularly like his jokes that had sexual innuendos and cultural stereotypes.

His show is boring! Nothing new and nothing exciting. His acts are the same as what you already see on TV. I don’t know why it is associated with Cirque Du Soleil, there is no Cirque in his show at all. He talks most of time… about his childhood and how he became an illusionist. I mean, it’s ok, but make it sound more interesting! He sounds like he is just reading someting… with no feelings at all. Lol. If you want to see magic, I’d recommend David Copperfield instead!
I’ll give him 2 stars since I’ve met him a few times at work, and he’s really friendly, warm, and personable!

Muy malo. no recomendable.mas bien. Parecía show comico… not recomendable really a bad show.

Believe? Better read and believe every negative remark on this show. It’s just awful. The theatre is fancy and neat and the stage props are fantastic… and that is where it ends. Here is a preview: See Criss in a theatre on a screen while he dangles from a helicopter with four metal hooks pierced through his skin BECAUSE HE IS A MAGICIAN AND HE SAYS HE CAN LEVITATE…
The theatre was so emtpy they moved us from section 202 to the sixth row from stage. 10 audience (placed actors) members took the stage for the first half hour, the show was riddled with sexual messages geared towards pedophilia, and Criss after sawing a woman in half, comments that he only keeps the bottom halves. Of course there were the crying women who would just «Die if he would kiss me». Naturally… what else would an obnoxious arrogant «Criss Angel Mindfreak Believe».
Yes there were some dissagpearing and reappearing stunts and some birds for about 20 minutes of the show. The rest is filler and half of it is what you already saw on TV. Criss struts around trying to act like a rock star with (and I love metal music), but it was for real too loud and had nothing to do with anything.
Of course he did all the «Must Do’s»…props to servicemen… a bit of «look how charitable I am and you should donate too». What a nasty mark for Cirque De Soleil.

This show is not for kids. Double meaning jokes, cursing, sexual talk.
Chris did have incredible illusions. I purchased the more expensive tickets on section 103 row G. Great seats. Theatre is on the larger side. His show has a lot of loud music, and not much to do with Cirque Du Soleil. I went to his show about five years ago and it was much better than this show. I don’t think I would purchase tickets for his show next time around.

CRIS ANGEL IS EXTREMELY SEXIST AND RACIST.
Here is my list of complaints:
1. His side kick was extremely racist and made consistent inappropriate Asian jokes well using an Asian guest with a few magic tricks
2. Cris Angel kept talking about how great his career is and how many video views his magic has gotten, how many countries his tv show aired in. He showed constant old clips of him growing up and talking about his work. He spent a good 40 – 50 percent of the show talking about all this instead of doing magic
3. Illusions and tricks were sub par at most. Nothing new or original.
4. He is extremely paranoid of camera phones and I was reminded 4 times not to take photos well walking in then made his entire pre show about not using your camera phone. If I worked for marketing for cirque de soliel I would have embraced camera phones and used it to the shows benefit.
5. Was very sexist! He made inappropriate comments about women and objectified his female assistant. He also made a very off color joke about Charlie Sheen and people who are HIV Positive. Not cool!
6. Theater was empty and the tickets were way over priced we paid $ 79 with tickets fees for balcony.
7. DO NOT GO SEE THIS SHOW! SAVE YOUR MONEY!

I really wish I’d read the Unilocal reviews before laying down $ 157 on a ticket for this farce.
Cheesy high school humour. Low entertainment value. Large inflated ego. Lots of people dissappear. Mostly people’s money dissappearing. Can’t put the lady back together again. I would have had more fun mindlessly playing a slot machine with that money. Ooops!
It took a while, but cirque du soleil finally ripped me off. I can’t BELIEVE they put thier name in this crappy show.

I really liked his show. I don’t know where these negative reviews are coming from. I’ve heard that he recently revamped his show, maybe that’s why it’s better? It’s true that while it’s listed as a Cirque de Soleil show, it really isn’t. It’s just a straight magic show.
Criss has a sidekick, Maestro, who is so funny. He opened the show with a few tricks of his own. I’ve read some reviews where people said that all Criss did was show video clips of himself. From what I experienced, he showed 2 clips, which were about 2 minutes each. It wasn’t most of the show. Criss was funny, energetic, and not full of himself at all. His dad passed away from cancer, so he has a charity that pertains to that. He told the audience to donate money in the retail shop, and at the end of the year he would match what people donated.
He did some disappearing and reappearing acts. He made his motorcycle appear in a box. He sawed his blond assistant in half. He made doves appear and disappear. He had put some info about audience members in a box before asking them, which turned out to be true. These were some of the acts he performed.
Cameras and video recorders are not permitted in the theater. They made sure that all cell phones were put away. I read that 5 minutes before the show ended, he would let people take pics of him. This never happened. We never got to take out our photo devices at anytime during the show.
I was entertained for the hour and a half show. I would definitely see it again if I had the chance.

We were a little late to the party with seeing Criss Angel’s Believe show since it first began years ago at the Luxor in Las Vegas, so ultimately the show has been revamped over time before our having had a chance to see it. Being a rabbit fan, I was hoping to see all of the unique and curious rabbits of different guises created with Cirque du Soleil throughout the show that have been mentioned in reviews over time, especially when we first entered the showroom and a camera man mentioned to us that Criss Angel has an affinity for rabbits. That made me smile, and raised my hopes quite a bit for a great many Cirque du Soleil rabbit dancing moments, especially since his showroom has framed photos with different rabbits all around. Many people have mentioned in their reviews though, not really wanting to have seen a bunch of rabbits running around on stage for a magic show, but I was actually hoping for it. Over time though, I suspect that Criss Angel has changed up the show to accommodate fan reviews. So, the show that we attended was scaled back quite a bit with the rabbit references, although there were just enough moments with them to still keep me happy with the theme.
Being a fan of Criss Angel’s Mindfreak and Believe shows, I couldn’t wait to see what his Cirque du Soleil, «Believe» show would be like. The music, sights, sounds, and of course illusions. I will say, I am surprised by all of the negative reviews. For the most part, this is a really good show. Criss Angel is very good at what he does. The illusions were thrilling to watch, and he is definitely fast when it comes to disappearing and reappearing in different points on the stage. Very impressive work. He did traditional slight of hand tricks with doves that he made appear and fly out into the audience, and also performed the famed sawing of a woman in half. Piecing everything together was a bit disjointed though, since he had a few stage accomplices cracking jokes and pulling a 14 year old boy on stage to set up several pre-​pubescent jokes regarding the boy’s possible interest in his magician’s assistant. The audience laughed, but it was a bit uncomfortable when later in the show Criss introduced that his mother was actually in the audience visiting, and had her stand up to say hello. Very awkward that she was there during the comedic moments involving the young boy and the magician’s assistant. Even with that having happened though, the illusions he did perform were great. I wish though that he had kept in the one that we had read about, where he hangs upside down over the audience in a straight jacket to free himself mid-​air. That was not one of his illusions of the evening, although he did perform his razor blades trick that we had seen on Mindfreak.
The music was great, somewhat on the EDM side, which I liked. Although, I did notice that much of the Cirque du Soleil music was missing from the show. Having purchased the soundtrack to «Cirque du Soleil: Believe» via iTunes, I expected to hear much more of the tracks from that used, however, they were not. It was more of a mix of EDM that Criss and his assistants danced to at times.
Criss Angel himself was very funny and very friendly with the entire audience. We enjoyed the video clips of his early years as a magician, and how much his family was involved with it all as he was growing up. It is obvious that he is very family-​oriented and wants to prove himself to his family and fans. With his show, I think he does that, and does it well. Several reviews have mentioned that he wasn’t on stage much of the time, but we noticed that he was on stage almost the entire time, and only had minimal breaks where his sidekick magician, Maestro, helped take the stage with a miniature Criss Angel puppet. With that being said, I want to mention that if you are in the first 4 rows, the puppet might have a surprise for you that you will want to avoid, so be prepared. Fortunately, we were in the 5^th row center, and it didn’t reach us.
It is a great show, worthy of praise in my opinion. Just a few notes:
When you first enter the prop area, there are photographers who will ask to take your picture. There are also a few photographers inside the theater itself that will do the same thing. They will snap about 4 to 5 photos of you in the theater. Just be prepared if you want to purchase the photos, since they are set up in an album format after the show, at 40 dollars per album… and they create about 3 to 4 albums for you to choose from. So if you want all of them, everything adds up quickly. It is Las Vegas though, and when you are on vacation, splurging is expected to some extent. Just be prepared.

First, don’t see it. But if you go against my wishes– the ticket says 9:30, can you please get there at 9:15 Unilocalers? The show began promptly. … but they continued to seat the theatre for almost 15 minutes once the opening act began… and I don’t know if they realize this, but people need to SEE what’s happening on stage and when people are all over with flashlights fumbling around to find their seats it was terribly frustrating. Every other show I’ve been to have made guest wait for a designated re –seat for late comers. My first tip off that this show was going to be poor quality.
This review is brought to you by the word: CHEESE. the worst. Most disturbing part of this show was chris himself and his smug demeanor. At one point he had a guest on stage, their microphone malfunctioned and he had a miniature fit. Looking up at his sound box making comments like «Can we get this ON?! why would you even turn it off?!». In multiple points in the show he would stop and talk about how successful he was, how many views he’s had on YouTube, how many countries his show airs in… awesome chris, can we see an illusion now?
He would go as far to say «that sucked» if we didn’t cheer loud enough. And was rude to guests in the interactive segments. Perhaps that’s part of his act… but I found it to be very strange.
There were a few parts where we would just be watching long clips from all of his past shows. Again… thanks, can we see an ILLUSION?
Lastly, how in any way shape or form is this a CIRQUE de soleil show?

Totally did not realize there are reviews on Unilocal for LV shows. Wish I knew this and looked at Chris Angel’s show before purchasing tickets. The negative reviews all hold true…
Really disappointing, like others have pointed out. Would give zero stars if I could. As my first Cirque du Soleil show in LV, I don’t even know Why the hell the show is called that. No Cirque du Soleil of any kind.
In addition, Chris was awful at getting the audience excited. He was boring and seems snored himself. Also, the show hardly had magic. He rambled on about himself, showed us clips from his TV show (why the hell did I come to see him live to watch his show clips?), and did only a couple tricks. I used a my vegas reward for this and got a buy one get one deal for the première tickets but I am so mad I didn’t read these terrible reviews first.
Biggest waste of time. The tricks he did were the same old tricks and he didn’t try to show different types of illusion.
Not Cirque du Soleil at all so not sure why it is advertised as such.
Just don’t go…

What a great way to ruin your Las Vegas experience. Seriously, I sobered up WHILE I was drinking. The only reason why we watched was because it was the cheapest show, with many available seats at the last minute. Lol…
The show is pretty much 90% of him talking about how he got into magic and how great he is and stuff. It even comes with a slideshow of his younger days. Oooh~ He has no problems showcasing how big of a sexist dick hole he is with all his shitty jokes and choosing to talk to only the hot chicks in the audience. At some point he threw out something to the audience to be his assistant or something and a young boy caught it — so he told him to pass it to the hot teenage girl near him.
When there was a «magic trick», I didn’t even realize it because it was incredibly underwhelming. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for something amazing to happen and when it came to one of his «bigger tricks», it was him just him guessing which of his bikes we were all thinking about. The funny thing was, in the group of three I was in, we each had different picks, and he still didn’t get it. Amaazing~
All I could say is, please stop endorsing this guy by showing up to his shows. He doesn’t deserve it.

Bei dieser Show zahlt man fast ausschließlich für die Namen auf den Eintrittskarten. Für Chris Angel blamabel und für den Zirkus grenzt das schon an Abzocke. Der einzige gute Trick dabei ist der, dass sich die Enttäuschung erst nach der Show breit macht. Aber lesen Sie doch bitte weiter.
Ich sehe mir die TV Show von Chris Angel eher selten an, hatte jedoch den Eindruck, das Chris nicht nur sein Handwerk versteht sondern auch ein Meister der modernen Inszenierung ist. Somit sollte diese Show das finale Highlight meines Vegas Aufenthalts darstellen. Der zurückbleibende Eindruck ist jedoch ernüchternd.
Die Show von Herrn Angel ist unglaublich kurzweilig und ist vorbei bevor sie richtig angefangen hat, am Ende hat man das Gefühl nicht mehr wie vier Tricks gesehen zu haben. Die Trickpalette ist im Vergleich zur TV Show Standard und umfasst gerade mal ein paar mehr oder «weniger» spektakuläre Austauschtricks, Hellseher Nummern und eine fürchterlich überdramatesierte Sägenummer die bei Penn & Teller viel origineller ist. Und wenn Herr Angel nach kurzem verschwinden schwebend über der Bühne auftaucht wird wohl niemand den Einsatz von Halteseilen in Frage stellen?!
Der Cirque Du Soleil stellt lediglich die Bühnendekoration sowie drei kostümierte Assistenten, von denen einer den, fairerweise gut inszenierten, Pausenklown spielen durfte (kleiner Tipp, jedoch ohne Gewähr: Die drei Assistenten setzen sich vor Beginn der Show in die zweite Reihe, sind Aufgrund ihrer Verkleidung leicht auszumachen und Räumen ihre Plätze gleich zu Beginn der Show. Das Pärchen welches die Plätze für sich vereinnahmte wurde, unüblicherweise, nicht aufgefordert diese wieder zu Räumen).
Für mich bleibt abschließend leider nur die Erkenntnis, dass die Show ausschließlich für beinharte Chris Angel Fans ist. Alle anderen sollten lieber zu Penn & Teller gehen, die bieten ein wesentlich besseres Programm verpackt in viel Charme, Witz und Originalität.