30 Cool Facts About Criss Angel You Might Have Missed Before

Criss Angel, the only man to have won the Merlin Magician of the Year award on two occasions, is the holder of several world records as well as the Guinness world record for "The most people to disappear in an illusion." In the year 2011, he was awarded the World Magic Legacy Awards' Living Legend award. He won the International Magician Society's Magician of the Year award in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008, in addition to its "Magician of the Decade" title in 2009 and "Magician of the Century" title in 2010. He is the most watched magician in Internet history since the late 2000s. He was the 22nd recipient of the Louie Award for outstanding achievement in the art of magic. On July 20, 2017, Angel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is located next to The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Here are some really interesting facts about the magician you probably didn’t know before:

pinguino k from North Hollywood, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
1.  He is the author of the book “Mindfreak: Secret Revelations,” published in 2007, by Harper Entertainment. The book appeared on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list that year.
2.  He introduced honoree Ozzy Osbourne at the VH1 Rock Honors awards, biting the head off a bat as a part of the introduction in homage to Osbourne's early career onstage antics, in May 2005.
3.  In August 2002, Angel spent 24 hours shackled underwater in a phone booth-sized water torture cell near the WWE entertainment store in New York's Times Square.
4.  His 24 hours in a tank of water set a world record for the longest amount of time for a human to be completely submerged under water.
5.  In 2006, Angel partnered with Cirque du Soleil to produce the stage show “Criss Angel Believe,” premiering the show at the Luxor Las Vegas on September 26, 2008, which became the bestselling live magic show in the world.
6.  Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos was born on December 19, 1967 to John Sarantakos and Dimitra Sarantakos at Hempstead General Hospital in Hempstead, on Long Island, New York.
7.  Until his fourth grade, he lived with his parents in Elmont. After that, his family moved to East Meadow, New York, where his father owned a restaurant and doughnut shop.
8.  At the age of 7, he developed an interest in magic, and by the time he was 12 years old, he performed his first show, and earned $10.
9.  At the age of 14, he was performing throughout high school at restaurants in East Meadow, including the Wine Gallery.
10.  One of his first major illusion was to make his mother float in their family den. He was helped by animal breeder and reality-television host Marc Morrone, who found him a set of doves to train for his act.


pinguino k, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

11.  He decided to pursue a career in the field of magic, before even graduating from East Meadow High School, against his parents wish that he attend college.
12.  He even started to tour with other travelling performance acts, while trying to further his education, on his own, by studying the history of magic in public libraries.
13.  His first television appearance was in 1994, where he performed as a part of a one-hour ABC primetime special entitled “Secrets.”
14.  Early in his career, he tried his level best to stay away from other magicians, as he didn’t want to think like them, and create his own style, before making it big.
15.  In the year 1995, horror director Clive Barker asked Angel to work with him on his neo-noir supernatural horror film – “Lord of Illusions.”
16.  The same year, he collaborated with musician Klayton to form Angeldust, a show that combined magic with music. Three years later, the duo released the first album “Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusions.”
17.  He performed a 10-minute show over the course of the "World of Illusion" conference in Madison Square Garden, performing 60 shows per day, in the year 1998.
18.  In preparation for the underwater trick in Times Square, he practiced in a neighbor's backyard swimming pool next to his mother's house in East Meadow, New York.
19.  He had been able to spend only 12 consecutive hours in the water, before his final performance. In an effort to make it through the 24 hours period, without the need to exit and use the bathroom, he fasted for 24 hours before the performance.
20.  While performing the trick, he went through 16 oxygen tanks, and immediately after emerging from the tank, he was taken to St. Clare's Hospital and treated for severe dehydration. He also claimed that he had suffered from overheating, jaw fatigue, and semi-consciousness while in the tank.


Tony, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

21.  On October 20, 2002, Angel performed in the ABC Family television special named “Criss Angel Mindfreak: Postmodern illusionist,” an hour-long performance and tribute to Harry Houdini.
22.  He performed at the release of the new branding for Miller Lite beer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the 80th anniversary of Houdini's last performance in that city, in early 2003. He was suspended ten stories in the air, and bound in a straitjacket from which he escaped.
23.  Around this same period from 2003 to 2005, he also made a very good profit by selling signed merchandise, earning up to $50,000 a day.
24.  In 2005, Angel became the creator, director, and executive producer of the A&E Network show “Criss Angel Mindfreak,” and had entered production in January that year.
25.  The show's illusions included walking on water, cutting himself in half, levitating, walking up the side of Luxor Hotel, causing a Lamborghini to disappear, getting run over by a steamroller, floating between two buildings, surviving in an exploding C4 Crate.
26.  The show returned for a second season in May 2006, and was named one of the best shows of the summer by the Tulsa World newspaper. As of the third season, it was A&E's number one rated show, with more than 1.5 million viewers.
27.  The show ran from 2005 until 2010, at which point he had been featured for more hours on prime time television than any other magician in history.
28.  In October 2007, he appeared as a judge on “Phenomenon,” with Uri Geller, as he wished to bust anyone who claims to have supernatural psychic ability, live on television.
29.  In an episode of the reality show, he even challenged his fellow judge Uri Geller and participant paranormalist Jim Callahan who performed a summoning purportedly of deceased author Raymond Hill.
30.  He challenged them to guess the contents of two envelopes, which he pulled out of his own pocket, and offered a million dollars of his own money to anyone who could do so.
31.  Criss Angel Net Worth: $50 Million