There is no doubt that David Blaine and Criss Angel are currently two of the most discussed American magicians right now. Many magicians seem to hate them. Some hate one and not the other.

Why is this?

Some of the fellows say, "Well, Blaine really isn't that good. My technique is better." Some say, "Criss uses camera tricks." So what? Whether it is true or not.

I could ask, "Well, if you are so much better, why don't you have a special?" I could also ask, "What constitutes a camera trick?" I won't go into detail on the latter one, because I think it is less important than the point I want to make with this.

In the early days of television, magic shows were a rarity. Milbourne Christopher had one that was a resounding flop. Mark Wilson was really the first successful television magician. He worked for two years trying to find a sponsor for a magic show. Eventually, he got some sponsors and began to perform live shows in three different markets in Texas. If I'm not mistaken, eventually, this expanded to four markets. But he got his foot in the door, and he wouldn't take it out.

He did his shows in Texas for several years, and eventually found a sponsor to book him on a national show. It was almost impossible to sell the executives of any network on doing a magic show, so sponsors were necessary. Mark's show, "The Magic Land of Alakazam!" was the first nationally syndicated magic show. He kept it going for several years.

There were a lot of magicians who were as capable of putting on a show as Mark was. However, he had to come up with new material each week, and make sure it worked. If you figure it out, he did the equivalent of several dozen full evening shows. Mark's work was one of the reasons that many of us today are interested in magic. We saw him on television.

And he opened the door for the rest of us.

David Blaine took a big chance when he sought network backing for his first show. He brought in a crude videotape, and explained what he could do for the network. I'm reasonably sure Criss Angel used a similar tactic.

Here is the big thing that makes both of these fellows different from most of the rest of us. They know how to live the part. Derren Brown is another who knows how to do this. Most of us are not ready to make that commitment. Few are.

The list is really short:
David Blaine
Criss Angel
Tony Andruzzi
Max Maven
Eugene Burger
Jeff McBride
Uri Geller
Derren Brown
Tony "Doc" Shiels.

And that's where I'm going to leave this. If you want to understand this whole process, read The Shiels Effect. I'm sure that all of the fellows on this list did. If they didn't, they certainly followed its precepts.