Whether or not he created Street Magic, he is still a wonderful magician.

Criss Angel certainly knows tricks I dont, and I am sure I know tricks he doesn't. No magician knows everything.

The controversy isnt based on the idea that what he does cannot be done, its that it cannot be done in the way he pretends to do it.

For example, in one of his specials (the only one I have watched) he walks through a plate glass window. Now, of course this trick can be and has been done. But it cannot be done impromptu which is the way it is presented. In Angel's show we are led to believe that the owner of the business (who is present during this demonstration) is not in on the trick and that Angel just stopped there and decided to do some tricks cus he saw some people gathered around and saw an opportunity to do some impromptu magic. As magicians, we all know this didnt really happen that way and the owner of the store is very much in on it. This means it is likely that all of the people witnessing this illusion in person were in on it (since the audience was composed of "the owner" and "his friends or business associates").

Now, this is where it becomes a matter of opinion. Some people would say that although its ok to use stooges, when your entire audience is composed of stooges then you are no longer really performing magic, you are simply an actor/stuntman doing special effects on tv, no different from any other actor on a tv show that uses special effects. Others would say that it doesnt matter if they were all stooges because the true audience is composed of the people watching on tv. Which philosophy you believe in is a matter of personal opinion.

Personally, I believe that there is a clear distinction between magic and special effects. If you cannot do what you are doing on TV live, then what you are doing isn't really magic. If the audience is composed entirely or almost entirely of stooges, then you are not really being a magician, you are being an actor on a tv show about a guy who does magic. Others would disagree. Actually, Criss Angel has spoken about how he sees magic as being no different from movies, music, and other pop culture arts and he seeks to merge all of that. Therefore, he would almost certainly disagree with me and say that there is no difference between magic and movies, it is all entertainment.

Harley Boy is right. Why are you guys trying to say that David Blane is A bad magician when he is one of the best out there? By the way Criss angel dose use paid actors. He dose not use them for all his tricks but he uses them for most of his tricks. And David Blane did make street magic popular, that is the reason when you serch for street magic on the web most of the time the reasults will be street magic by David Blane or somthing like that.

Sorry about this post you can move it or get rid of it if you want
P.S. this post was not a joke.

I just think criss Angel's tricks are a little to good if you know what I mean.

I understand It's his image, but honestly, David Blaine's cards have more personality than he does

ya but if you ask me good magic dose not need personality.

i wont ask you then

dont ge tme wrong ill be the first to admit that Blaine is what got me hooked on performing magic, and i quite posibly would not have ever tried it if it wasnt for him
he is technicaly good, and i do think that most of the bad things said about him are out of envy, from people who think "that could have been me"

i do also think that you must have a personaity when ding magic, you are there to entertain, not fool people

one could argue that he was acting exactly how he wanted to come across, like this misterious guy who dosent say anything but can do anything, but that will work only on TV

David Blaine saw the potential that street magic had, he deserves all the credit for that,
he did make magic more popular,
he is not the best in the world by far tho

thanks for not trying to say that blane is bad. Well if blane did not make magic more popular then how did he get you into doing magic......He got you into magic becase at the time you probaly wanted to be like him, but in the long run he did make magic more popular becase he got you into magic.

He probably make magic more popular becuase he was on TV. TV did it. not Blaine.

No T.V. just showed the showd the world what Blane could do so then people wanted to be like him so they started to do magic then you got a bunch of new people doing magic beacse of Blane. T.V. did not do it if it did then your saying that a T.V. just sitting ther on a blank channel could get people to do magic.........I dont think so. Think about what you are going to post befor you post it buddy.

In my opinion If Blaine had never been on TV he would be far less popular than he is. He would just be that guy in your city that does tricks while sleep walking ( Blaine sounds like he's half asleep when he talks "watch......watch" ) when was the first time you saw David Blaine? Most likely on TV. Later (and watch your temper young man)

Ok if you are going to say things like that dont commet ok JR. And agan all the T.V. did was show the people what he could do.

there have been a few occasions when i tried to perform like blaine and i got like 50 times better reactions. dont say much, give them that blank stare... all that jazz. blaine is a great magician. i am not saying that he does the hardest tricks and creates his own stuff. but he doesnt need to. think about this... criss angel teleported and the people there just kind of clapped while the people at home were like oh that is camera editing. but david blaine did a DL and every body watching went CRAZY and the veiwers at home well at least me, were like this , magic is not about the trick and the difficulty of it. it is about entertaining. and if that means perfect presentation of a simple trick or crappy presentation of a really hard trick that is up to you.

all in all david blaine is one of the greats because of his presentation.

You are right on the dot man. Thanks for that post I over looked all that you said in all my postes thanks.