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Angel Talks Up His Clearwater 'Building Implosion Escape'

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Criss Angel will try to escape from the imploding Spyglass Resort in Clearwater on Wednesday during a live television special.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 24, 2008

  Criss Angel

Criss "Mindfreak" Angel will visit a Clearwater beachfront hotel next week, but he won't be taking in the sun and surf.

The Spyglass Resort will be the scene of his next escape stunt.

Angel will flee the building moments before it is blown up – if all goes well. He said today that if he walks away from this, he will walk away from the great escape game.

He'll still practice his brash brand of illusion, but death-defying escapes won't be part of his repertoire.

"This is the most exciting, the most challenging, biggest, baddest escape of my career," Angel said during a conference call with reporters this afternoon. "I vowed to my mother that … I will retire after this."

He didn't rule out another season of his "Mindfreak" show on cable television, A&E.

"There will be 4,500 tons of cement barreling to earth," Angel said. "It'll be my mission not to be in its path."

He said he will have on handcuffs belonging to the Clearwater Police Department and will be on the seventh floor, visible to spectators. Once free of the handcuffs, he will have to get through a series of locked doors and climb three flights of stairs to the roof.

There, a helicopter will be hovering with a 30-foot ladder dangling. Angel will grab the ladder, and the helicopter will rise to an altitude of 1,000 feet, where presumably it will be safe from the blast.

Angel said he will have three minutes and 30 seconds to get to the roof.

A&E will broadcast the escape live at 10 p.m. Wednesday. The special one-hour episode is being called the "Building Implosion Escape."

Anyone who wants to see it live -- free -- will have to watch from outside a blast zone perimeter. There will be a large TV screen nearby so spectators can watch the show.

Angel said he has been rehearsing and was in Clearwater on Wednesday checking his escape route.

He said a lot can go wrong: The stairwells from the seventh floor to the ground have been removed. The weather could hamper the helicopter flight. Or something unpredictable could happen.

"What concerns me," he said, "is that I do beautifully and for some reason -- a freak of nature -- the 466 sticks of dynamite go off accidentally."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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