Criss Angel Gets All Cage Fighter On Us

Mind Freak Criss Angel got into a bit of a tiff with a contestant on his new reality show Phenomenon during the live Halloween telecast of the program that seeks the latest in magical gimcrackery.

Vest clad participant Jim Callahan’s offering to tv viewers at home consisted of him communicating with the dead in order to discern an object that had been locked in a box. With Jim twitching like he was having a seizure, it was less ESP and more LOL as far as Angel was concerned. He challenged the contestant to spur of the moment figure out what was in an envelope and if he could do it, he’d give hime a million smackers. Now, if you could talk to the dead, wouldn’t you be ringing up heaven to get some free money? Callahan took it as an insult, calling Angel a bigot and a hypocrite before the two of them had to be seperated before it became Touched By An Angel and not in a good way.

Was was behind Angel’s lisping rage? Find out after the jump.

Angel’s hero Harry Houdini, who happened to have died on Halloween, was integral in debunking the Spiritualism movement, the very sort of act Callahan was using. Houdini was desperate to contact his deceased mother and even made a pact with his wife Bess consisting of a code word so she might one day communicate from beyond the grave. At a time when the Spiritualists held seances at the White House and commanded an army of believers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, going after the leaders was social suicide. Rumours of Houdini’s death at the hand of the Spiritualists persist today so it’s little wonder Angel was furious when a Callahan stepped on the stage looking to play a modern version of one of Spiritulism gimmicks: automatic writing. Hollaback Ghost! on the annversary of the death of Magic’s Ultimate was treason of the highest aim.