David Blaine had creative minds such as Dan White, B.Smith, and Danny Garcia working with him. From there, they have creative meetings where they develop magic concepts
Criss Angel had creative minds such as Joe Monti, Banacheck, Bro Gilbert, Gerard, Doug Malloy, and even the creative mastermind, Jay Sankey. They apparently spent hours in meetings developing magic ideas, methods and concepts for Criss's seasons. Thats why Criss performed so many of Sankeys effects, sometimes with his own spin on it (Doing "In a Flash" with a phone book and a page number, wich I thought was quite innovative)
I read something Sankey wrote about his experience as a consultant and magic creator for Criss. Heres the exact text as it appeared
CREATING MAGIC FOR CRISS ANGEL
"Jay Sankey is an amazingly creative magician who always thinks outside
the box. That's why he is part of the Mindfreak Team."" ? Criss Angel,
star of A&E?s MINDFREAK.
I just signed an exclusive deal to develop an original collection of
magic effects for the hit A&E series MINDFREAK starring Criss Angel. In
September, Criss Angel and David Baram (president of the LA-based
entertainment agency The Firm) contacted me and asked me to "get on
the next plane to Vegas." Two days later, I found myself sitting-in on a
brainstorming session with Angel's creative team in one of the lavish
penthouse suites of Las Vegas? Luxor hotel. Soon afterwards, I was
officially offered the job of developing a minimum of 40 original magic
concepts for the upcoming third season of MINDFREAK.
I immediately got to work developing a whack of whole new stuff and it
looks like a lot of it is going to make it "into the show." Thanks so much
to Criss, Dave and the rest of the team! It's been a total pleasure and a
rare creative treat working together!