ABRACADABRA ON THE PASS: Criss Angel Pulls the First Plate Out of the Hat While Penn & Teller Simmer

Contestants, take your wands to your stations. Tonight's mystery box holds no truffles and no turbot. It holds top hats, playing cards and a lot of smoke. The question on the pass: who are today's most influential magicians? The kitchen has been open less than a day and the crowd is already throwing elbows at the stove.

Before we taste, here's what's in the pantry. There is no official ranking of the world's greatest wizards, so this one is a matter of opinion. A Wikipedia overview of stage magic credits David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, Paul Daniels, Criss Angel, David Blaine, Derren Brown and Shin Lim with dragging the art form onto television and the internet. Its entry on street magic says that raw, in-your-face guerrilla style belongs to David Blaine, whose 1997 ABC special made it work on TV, and more recently to Criss Angel and Derren Brown. Teller, the duo's silent half, carries a creator credit on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, which has been on air since 2011. Meanwhile Derren Brown has a six-part Channel 4 series, Incognito, announced in February 2026 as a social experiment dressed up as a reality show, with no air date yet.

And now... the scores. On the Morfi opinion markets, where people put real money behind their views, Criss Angel leads with 31% consensus from 7 holders. Penn & Teller come second at 30%, backed by 5 holders. Also in the line-up: 3 other sides. So far 15 traders have staked $83,349. A modest early pot, but the oil is already smoking.

My verdict, and it is pure opinion, straight from my apron. Criss Angel is a flambé: big flames, loud, and the whole room turns to look. I get why the crowd is reaching for him first. But influence is not the flame. It's the stock that every other dish gets made with. By that measure Penn & Teller are the slow-cooked mother sauce. Fool Us has spent more than a decade feeding the next generation of magicians to a television audience. Meanwhile David Blaine wrote the recipe for street magic that the flambé artists are still cooking from. Leading this early is a nice amuse-bouche, nothing more.

What to watch: if Derren Brown's Incognito gets an air date, expect his stock to rise fast. Watch too whether the Fool Us faithful turn up to close the gap. The ovens are hot and the plates are still wide open, so step into the kitchen and back your magician on the Morfi market before somebody makes your favourite disappear.