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For the first time, magician Criss Angel has spoken about his beef with David Blaine.
Specifically, he tells the story for the first time ever about how he tried to mend fences with David Blaine because he and Criss Angel were atop the magic industry at one point, and how David Blaine made it impossible and blew him off in odd ways.
Criss Angel Discusses Beef With David Blaine, Trying To Mend Fences
On Steve-O’s Wild Ride! podcast, Criss Angel was asked if he ever collaborates with David Blaine. That led to him diving right into their public beef. Included below is the video with Criss Angel’s story about Blaine and the transcript of his comments:
Criss Angel: “Alright, I’m going to tell you a story that I have not told anyone. So listen, David Blaine, I give props to. He came out.. did ‘Street Magic’… you know, blew up before I did and I give him all the props in the world.”
“When he was coming up, you know, I was very aggressive because I had a dream… I had a vision in my mind, I wanted to accomplish it. So I would say ‘look, whatever David is doing, I can do it.’ And I’ll do it side-by-side with him and I guarantee you that whatever he does I’ll last longer, I’ll do it better. Because I was committed to give my life to beating him or anyone else because I had something so bad that I wanted and he had it, so he had a big target on his head.”
Going to see David Blaine’s show…
It’s at this point that Criss Angel talks about going to see David Blaine’s show and meeting him and trying to squash their beef.
Criss Angel: “Since then… recently… Last year, I went to go see his show and it’s nothing personal. It was just like people do it to me all the time and it’s like ‘bring it.’ It’s totally part of the thing because in the magic world you know if you go up to somebody on the street and you say name five magicians they have a difficult time doing that. It’s very it’s a very small place at the top.”
“And especially with what I’m doing with live and television and stuff… So anyway, I saw him and I went to his show and I was like ‘dude, you know I just want to wipe the slate clean. I haven’t ever met you before. So I just want to say like, no hard feelings. I apologize for anything that might have offended you or anything like that.’”
“And I took off.. I had a beautiful beautiful ring, a gorgeous ring..l Like 20 G’s. I took it off and I said
this is for you’ and I said ‘let’s build a friendship and stuff like that’ because I’m talking this was in like the early 2000s that (the beef) went down.”
“It’s so many years ago and I gave it to him and he’s like ‘oh I don’t I can’t accept this because I’m a minimalist’ and then he called this friend over like ‘hey, let’s put it in a museum.’”
Criss Angel: “(I’m like) you could do whatever you want that I’m giving it to you and then the guy is like ‘oh okay thank you I like it’… Well, I gave it to David if he wants to give it to you that’s his business because it’s a gift from me and then I was like ‘hey let’s do a picture’ and he’s like ‘oh, I can’t do a picture with just you and me alone.’”
“And it’s just f—— bizarre dude. Like, just bizarre behavior and it’s like dude grow up. We’re both adults. We both have children. I had a kid with cancer. It wasn’t like we had a fist fight. It’s not like we ever even met before. It’s not like we ever even had a conversation on the phone. Nothing.”
“It was just some banter in the in the Press because wanted to succeed. And you know he’s ripped me off with stuff that I’ve done. You know I’ve been under the water for 24 hours. Then he borrowed that and then he did it later which is totally cool. God bless him. It’s not a big deal. Do your thing man. It’s all good. But life is too short to sit here… But you know the truth is that I’m out there doing my thing pretty successful at doing it and uh I never look behind me.”
Suffice it to say that Criss Angel and David Blaine don’t have a text thread where they share magic tricks back and forth.