Tonight Dani and I watched a new show called Mindfreak on A&E. It airs Wednesdays at 10PM. Mindfreak stars the magician Criss Angel, and it's very bizzare.

In the premiere episode, Criss performed a number of street magic tricks, leading up to setting himself on fire for his mom's 70th birthday. In one segment, he had a voodoo doll, which he would burn with a lighter behind someone's back. That person would feel a burning in the corresponding part of their body. Then he let the person get revenge on him by stabbing the doll with a pin. The first time, some stabbed it in the hand, and Criss's hand started bleeding. The second time, someone stabbed it in the head, Criss's nose bled. The third time, they stabbed it in the chest, and blood dripped from Criss's chest. He pulled up his shirt and you could see the blood coming out.

Before he lit himself on fire for the final act, he wore a suit with fire gel, underneath a sweatshirt. As he was on fire, he walked around towards the crowd, and changed direction a few times. At the end, he fell to the ground as his team extinguished the fire. When the smoke cleared, he was standing, holding a fire extingusiher, and dressed like his team members.

In the next episode he did a lot of levitation tricks. It's like David Blaine's trick, but he goes higher and stays up longer. All this is very puzzling to me. I belive in the laws of physics but I can't figure out how he could do that. He also did a trick where he seemed to move cards telekinetically.

Anyway, Mindfreak is a very interesting show. I would love to run into Criss Angel some day in real life.

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In the last episode of Mindfreak, Criss Angel once again flirts with death by laying in a crate packed with C4 explosives. Amazingly he walks away from the ordeal unscathed. What was most amazing to me, however, was one of the other tricks in the episode.

Criss had a woman sign her initials on a quarter. Criss puts the quarter in his mouth, and swallows it. He opens his mouth and moves his tongue around to show that it is not there. He then moves his left hand in a vibrating motion near his right arm. A quarter shaped lump appears to come out of his sleve, and proceeds down his right arm as he moves his left hand. Once the lump gets about halfway down his forearm, Criss takes out a razor and cuts his arm next to the lump. He pulls out a bloody quarter, with the woman's initials on it.

Criss Angel's show never fails to leave me feeling dumbfounded, wondering "how the hell did he do that?". I can never come close to figuring out how he does any of his stunts. Therefore I must say Criss Angel is very high on my list of people I'd like to meet.

Mindfreak airs on A&E at 10PM Wednesday nights, followed by a second episode at 10:30.