LOL.... I should text that to him. LMAO... hahahahaha.
OK, let me chime in.
If there was no Criss Angel, plain and simple... someone else would've taken the spot. Every generation has had their main magician. Society, in North America mostly, seems to only handle about two celebrity magicians at a time. There was a time in the '60s that Mark Wilson & Harry Blackstone jr were untouchable. Then Doug Henning. Then Copperfield and Burton. Then about a five year gap before the Masked Magician made magic talked about then David Blaine.
As for camara tricks... psst. That isn't Angel's innovation. Have you seen the footage of Copperfield Hovering over the Grand Canyon? If you haven't, do your homework. There is a HUGE difference between live performance magic and television magic. That camara is unforgiving.... and the name of the game is ratings, not "being true" to the art. The end result is the exact same. You have to film the effect in such a way that the viewer at home really believes that this trick was just performed. It's a trick upon a trick.
We can sit here and judge homie, but guess what. Criss is in his mansion enjoying his life. And we are on computers judging him. I don't condone the use of excessive camara trickery, but put it into perspective. He's playing in a different ballgame where a network has invested a lot of money into him. He isn't the sole decision maker on that program.
And whoever made that comment about doing magic before Blaine is right. Around 1994, as a freshman in High School, I started performing magic on Times Square. Both for practice and to pick up chicks. Back then the only thing people knew of magic were the Copperfield specials or Lance Burton. No matter what, it was nerdy. Now we make it cool again, but it takes a lot to shake that nerdy image.