THE ORB HAS SPOKEN: Criss Angel Pulls the Influence Crown Out of the Hat as Penn & Teller Are Left Holding the Cups and Balls

Draw the velvet curtain, darlings, and dim the candles. Madame Odds has read the cards on the oldest con in show business, which is who gets to call themselves the greatest illusionist alive. I drew the Magician card, of course. Then I drew it again. The deck was rigged, and it was pointing at a man in eyeliner: Criss Angel leads the crowd's vote on who is today's most influential magician.

First, what the orb can actually confirm. No official body ranks wizards. Wikipedia's overview of the art of magic credits Penn & Teller, Criss Angel, David Blaine and Derren Brown with dragging the craft onto television and the internet. Each of them has news right now. According to Wikipedia's entry on David Blaine, his 'Impossible' residency at The Encore at Wynn in Las Vegas, announced for December 2023, is still running, and his 2025 Hulu and Disney+ series Do Not Attempt followed him training with people who have death-defying skills. The same page records that in February 2026 reports disclosed emails showing Blaine regularly dined with Jeffrey Epstein between 2012 and 2016. His lawyer said he 'vehemently denies' separate rape allegations and would cooperate with police. Across the water, Derren Brown is fronting Incognito, a new Channel 4 social experiment series that, according to the list of his shows, has no air date yet.

Now the smoke clears and the numbers come out. On the Morfi opinion market, Criss Angel holds 43% consensus. Runner-up Penn & Teller sit at 27%, and the rest of the ballot, 3 other sides, trail behind. So far 15 traders have put $83,767 behind their convictions, and the market opened less than a day ago, which in fortune-telling terms means the tea leaves are still wet. It also isn't the first time these two have gone at it: my colleague Chef Basil Brawl watched Criss Angel grab the first plate while Penn & Teller simmered in an earlier showdown.

What does the crowd's conviction track? Not the recent headlines, it seems. Blaine has the busiest record of the lot, with a residency, a streaming series and a serious controversy, but none of that has carried him to the top here. Brown has a show coming that nobody can watch yet. Angel, meanwhile, wins on sheer mythology: the levitation, the hair, the brand that never quite left the Strip. Influence, it turns out, is partly a trick of memory.

Here is my own prophecy, so take it with a pinch of graveyard salt. I think the crowd has mixed up loudest with most influential. Penn & Teller spent decades showing people how the trick works and still fooling them, which is the most subversive thing a magician can do, and a whole generation of performers learned their trade from it. Crowning Angel over them feels like the audience clapping for the cape and ignoring the cards. The orb thinks the duo deserves better. The orb also had to admit that it holds no money in this market.

What to watch next: whether Brown's Channel 4 series lands an air date, how the Blaine reporting unfolds, and whether the Penn & Teller faithful show up before the deck is reshuffled. A market less than a day old can turn faster than a card in a sleeve. These are live opinion markets on Morfi, where people back their hunches with real money, so if you think the crowd has been fooled, join the market and stake your own prediction before the next card is drawn.