Criss Angel has made official what has been apparent since last fall: He plans to make Chloe Crawford a star in his magic universe.
Crawford is to be a co-star in Angel’s “Mindfreak Live!” opening at the Luxor on May 11. A partnership with Cirque du Soleil, the show replaces “Believe,” which closes April 17 after a 7 1/2-year run at the hotel.
“Mindfreak Live!” is to feature Angel with a cast of performers who bring such skills as acrobatics, “tricking” and body balancing. The production charts Angel’s life and career path as a young magician to the Las Vegas stage.
Crawford became well known in Las Vegas as a cast member of “Fantasy” at the Luxor and as an assistant in her then-husband Murray Sawchuck’s afternoon comedy-magic show, first at Laugh Factory at Tropicana and later Sin City Theater at Planet Hollywood. Last year, she earned a spot on “Britain’s Got Talent,” reaching the show’s finals while impressing judge Simon Cowell with her disappearing motorcycle act. Upon return, Crawford left Sawchuck’s stage show and, by October, the couple had announced their divorce.
Angel was swiftly introducing Crawford from his audiences at the Luxor, as he’s promised, “You’ll be hearing big things from her very soon.” Crawford has frequently been at his side in public, including during Friday night’s “One Night for One Drop” Cirque charity production at the Smith Center.
Before this morning’s announcement, Angel has resisted specifically naming Crawford as a featured performer in what would become “Mindfreak Live!” But today’s announcement represents the big reveal in Angel’s highly anticipated new production.
“I’m going to be in a show that is revolutionary in the world of magic that nobody else has the ability or technology to do onstage,” Crawford said in a phone conversation this morning. “I am still new to magic, of course, but we will be adding and progressing, and I’ll be learning more and more as we develop this show.”
“I am very excited to sign the hottest, most talented female magician who moves like magic,” Angel said today in a news release announcing Crawford’s role in the new show. “She will be a force to be reckoned with, as she has already surpassed most of the male magicians playing Las Vegas. I anticipate even greater things for her and am honored to be working with her and Krystyn Lambert (long a member of “The Supernaturalists” touring show), two of the best female magicians on the planet.”
Crawford also had been featured in Angel’s touring production of “The Supernaturalists” in the winter, leading to further speculation and expectation that she would be a prominent performer in Angel’s show on the Strip.
In “The Supernaturalists,” Crawford performed a series of illusions in which she swallowed a strand of razor blades, escaped from a strait jacket while suspended upside down and “metamorphosis,” in which Angel and she swap positions after she is locked in a chained trunk onstage. In “Mindfreak,” expect more acts to be added to what Crawford has already learned in her development as a magician. Her image, too, is evolving. Notice the employment of hard black leather and silver-spiked studs in her promotional photos.
“I’ve been through a lot of change in my life, and we came up with a new look and it’s great,” Crawford said. “It’s a lot less pink and polka dots and a lot more rock ’n’ roll.”
Crawford also has been “working out like crazy” to keep pace with other members of the cast and meet the physical demands of the show, which is to run though October 2018.
“Criss has 2 1/2 more years on his contract, and we’ll see what happens then,” Crawford said. “I just want to keep building on what we’ve already accomplished. I would love to do more TV at some point, but right now I’m just trying to improve. … Criss has seen that I have potential to be the best, and I’m grateful for that.”
When asked if she would want a show of her own under the Criss Angel brand, the budding magician said, “I would love that, absolutely. Who wouldn’t want that?”
{ SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas New Sun | http://goo.gl/39jzBp }
