"Magician of the Century" award

[Gary Kosnitzky]

From the Las Vegas Review Journal - Thursday April 29,2010

Norm Clarke's column NORM!:

THE SCENE AND HEARD

Luxor headliner Criss Angel can coast for the next 90 years. He's wrapped up the "Magician of the Century" award, which was presented to him after Angel's second "Believe" show Tuesday by Tony Hassini, founder of the International Magicians Society. Hassini was at the center of a controversy last year when questions arose after his society reportedly honored three different female magicians as the top female magicians of the year for 2008, including former Las Vegas headliner "Scarlett -- Princess of Magic." ...

http://www.lvrj.com/news/jacobs-works-a ... 94764.html

[Magic Newswire]

Robin Leach reported on this as well. I decided to ignore it based on this line from the article:

"Criss is the only six-time recipient of Magician of the Year, and before the century award was named Magician of the Decade by the International Magicians Society"

I guess that all press for magic is good press. :;shrug::

Here's the original article.

[CardioloJest]

Tony Hassini, founder of the International Magicians Society

Neither of which is relevant to magic...

[Tim Ellis]

Do I smell 'Magician of the Millennium" next year?

[SteveP]

Magician of the century? The "century" is only 10 years old. Seems a bit premature.

How much is Hassini being paid by Angel for all these awards? Is he just slipping him 50 bucks and offering to pick up the tab at the trophy shop? Unlimited comps to Believe?

[Gary Kosnitzky]

Are there really 37,000 members in the IMS?

[David Alexander]

Annointing Criss Angel with such a award is proof that the IMS is nonsense.

Hassini should give himself an award for sheer nerve where he claims that the Merlin Award is the magic equivalent to the Oscar, the Emmy, and the Tony.

It's hard to decide if that's the most outrageous or if the following tops that:
http://www.magicims.com/doctor_of_magic_recipients.php where he claims "These prestigious magicians had studied the IMS Magic Academy and successfully completed and passed the test and received their Doctor of Magic Certificates from the International Magicians Society's World Headquarters."

It then goes on to list many successful professionals beginning with David Copperfield. I sure David spent many sleepless nights pouring over the IMS's material to make sure he passed the test and got his "doctorate"... NOT.

What a joke!

[SteveP]

Are there really 37,000 members in the IMS?

There's over 43,500 Magic Cafe "members", so I guess anything is possible if you twist the numbers around.

[Raleigh]

Criss Angel ..... Is not even a Magician but merely a Foul mouthed " Trickster " and someone who does stunts ! That's my personal opinion . RaleighVintageMagic.com

[terry love]

I get IMS once a month...