I have never found magicians entertaining. Some of them strike me as a little creepy, but the massive egos they bring to trying to fool us make me just roll my eyes at pretty much all of them.

I could have gladly gone through life not even getting the opportunity to do that about Criss Angel, but he had to have a Vegas connection which made me learn about him. The more I watched on YouTube and read online, the more I realized this guy really had people conned. He obviously did everything with fun TV tricks and good PR.

That run of good fortune has seemingly ended with the opening of “Believe,” the show he has partnered with Cirque du Soleil with at Luxor in Vegas. I am not a fan of the whole goofy French clown thing Cirque has going on, but they obviously have a great track record of success so I can chalk that up to personal preference.

The reviews of the first night of “Believe,” however, seem to go beyond that simple explanation. The Las Vegas Sun gave possibly the worst comparison, saying the haunted house at Circus Circus for Halloween provided better illusions. The Review-Journal and LA Times also have few good things to say about the show.

The R-J article does point out that the show has pre-sold $5.5 million in tickets, which is impressive. But that’s all on the back of Angel’s celebrity. How far can that go? If the show requires you to “believe” in Angel, won’t you run out of interested customers if people on the fence don’t seem to buy into his schtick?