Reality TV Column: Mindfreak: Just A Guy Trying Way Too Damn Hard

(andPOP) - I have respect for magic, I really do.

This one time at a club in Toronto, this guy took my ring, made it disappear from his hand and when I reached into his pocket like he told me to, there was my ring hanging off his keychain. Pretty weird stuff up close, believe you me.

That I found cool. What I didn't find cool at all was the stupid, stupid, one more time: STUPID premier of "Mindfreak" on A&E. I used to think A&E had great programming, so what the hell is this?

I have a feeling I'm going to get flack for this but it's worth it.

Described as "Harry Houdini meets Cirque du Soleil"?, the show follows Mr. Mindfreak himself magician Criss Angel as he "literally defies reality and puts his life on the line". Oh please.

With his (dyed) long black hair, obligatory "spooky" black cat and artificial "look at me, I'm a scary badass" stare, Angel seems to be trying waaaaaaaaaay too hard to convince us he's the real deal. While David Blaine seems to have this perpetually tired/dazed/high stare plastered to his face at all times (which at least seems somewhat believable), Angel's face goes from wide-eyed "intensity" to thoughtful "pondering". Oh yeah, I'm a crazy magician baby, believe it alright.

His "trick" involving the voodoo doll and the "random" people on the street seemed so contrived and staged I had a hard time watching it without laughing. The only "person"? I remotely believed was hurt or surprised was the angry man who almost punched Angel for "burning" his hand through the voodoo doll.

And what the hell is with the random desert shots of some scantily-clad woman dancing in a ring of candles while Indian music plays in the background? Is that supposed to convince us that he's that different and weird? Do the annoying and repetitive shots of Angel's tortured screams of "Mindfreak!!!!!!" in that same desert make us believe he is edgy and cool? I for one thought he was a guy trying way too hard to convince the audience of how "different" and "out there" he is.

You're not like David Blaine, we get the "subtle" hints already.

The only things I thought remotely cool about the debut episode and the one that followed were his disappearance and reappearance at the end of the fire stunt, the ring in the ice cube, and maybe his evaporation from inside a garbage can to the roof of a building. Levitation? Old news.

While those stunts were fun to watch, what wasn't fun were the random and just plain stupid desert scenes that served no purpose whatsoever other than to irritate the people watching, and the over done conversations with the stunt coordinator about safety (remember viewers, he's about to do something very dangerous!).

Overall, "Mindfreak" comes off as very, very cheesy. I mean, can we really take this guy seriously? He's too melodramatic for his own good, and the show comes off as a cheap rip off of David Blaine's "Street Magic" specials.