Mentalist ready to read your thoughts at Daytona Festival of Magic
“A Night of Magic,” 8 p.m. Saturday featuring mentalist Banachek, $30.
Banachek swears he isn’t a psychic.
Yes, the mentalist and former consultant for the TV series “Criss Angel Mindfreak” can seemingly bend spoons with his thoughts.
Yes, Banachek (who took his stage name from that old George Peppard TV series) can guess your pet’s name or, ahem, that secret fetish you keep buried deep in your gray matter.
Yes, patrons who witness the entertainer’s performance this weekend at the Daytona Festival of Magic may come away believing Banachek possesses supernatural powers.
However, the English-born mentalist says, he’s merely using his five ordinary senses — the same ones you and I have — to create “the illusion of a sixth sense.”
But don’t feel bad if you’re fooled. Among stage magician and mentalist circles, Banachek is famous for his role in Project Alpha, a serious parapsychology research study conducted at Washington University in St. Louis from 1979 to ’81. Working in league with stage magician and skeptic James Randi, a teenaged Banachek (real name Steve Shaw) and another teen were determined by researchers to possess genuine psychic powers — that is, until Randi revealed the hoax.
Banachek, who has long made his home in America and now lives in Houston, talked about the difference between reading minds and reading thoughts during an interview before a Las Vegas show.
So, you’re not a psychic and you say that you don’t read minds but, rather, that you are a mentalist who reads thoughts. Please explain.
If a husband and wife are sitting on a park bench, a pretty woman jogs by. Man turns to look. Wife slaps the husband in the face. We know something about the dynamics of these two people. We have not read their minds — we have read their thoughts.
That is what I do — read thoughts not minds. If someone comes up to me after a show and punched me in the face, I would know what they thought about the show, same if they come up to me with a smile. That is nonverbal communication. It’s a form of thought-reading.
If someone says Dolly Parton, what two things come to mind? Right: singer-songwriter. Seriously though, the words influence the thoughts and that is part of what I use in my show, mixed with magic. But I use a lot of this sort of psychology to accomplish and enhance my mentalism trade.
You are known for telling your audiences you are not a psychic, yet you say some people still believe you have psychic powers. How do you explain that yearning to believe?
Ahhh, people always want to believe that there is more to life than just living and dying and we all want to feel special. If we had this type of abilities, then most people believe that we would be more than special. I particularly already think that humans are very special indeed. I do not need to take advantage of people’s belief systems to entertain.
It is why I am very open about the fact I use verbal and nonverbal communication, body language, lots of magic and perceptual manipulation in my show — all packaged neatly to create a show that looks like and feels like real mind reading.
The other thing is I am doing impossible things. People are born to see patterns. They yearn for information. These are survival instincts. As a result, most people will latch onto whatever makes the illogical seem logical and what puts the world in some sort of order for them.
So, as a result it is easy to convince someone you are psychic if they have no other explanation that makes the impossible possible in their world. The idea of it being “psychic” is an explanation in their mind, something most people need.
So, some people believe you have psychic powers. Is it more difficult to amaze other people these days? Have CGI effects in the movies, techno-computer feats and even David Copperfield’s mega illusions on television made it more difficult for stage performers to conjure a sense of wonder?
I don’t think it is harder to amaze an audience. Great magical and mental performers do it all the time. In fact one of the most common compliments I receive is “Wow, I saw it on TV and did not believe it. Now that I see you doing it, it really is different and amazing. You just changed the way I think about this stuff. I just thought it was all TV editing.”
As you can see, people are even more amazed when they see these things live. However, having said this, information is so much more available nowadays on the Internet, so if you are going to be a mystery entertainer, you better be good and you better be amazing. Or you just really need to be entertaining. A good comic has not been hurt by all the comedy on TV. A good magician should not be either.
Have you ever been tempted to pass yourself off as a psychic, and just run with it?
Only when I see the amount of money some of these fakes make, but I am quickly reminded I could not sleep at night if I took advantage of people like some of these scam artists do.
This is why James Randi put up his million-dollar prize for anyone with psychic abilities (offered to “anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event,” according to the website randi.org).
I am the director of the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. It also keeps me from such temptations as I am reminded every day what kind of horrible damage those type of scam artists do.
What routines will you be performing as part of your Daytona Festival of Magic show?
I probably will perform what I like to call the largest ESP experiment in the world, where the audience writes out thoughts, holds on to them and I try to guess their names, thoughts and even information they did not write down.
Usually I open with something quick like having the audience just think of playing cards in their mind, then without any real cards in existence I reveal three or four cards audience members are thinking of.
I like to close with something dramatic. Being the first mentalist in the world to perform a Russian roulette with knives, I may pull that one out on that night. I will make my final decision once I see the venue, the amount of people and realize what will work best in that environment.
The Bona Venture
Banachek boggles students @ St. Bonaventure
He doesn’t read minds. He manipulates them.
His name is Banachek, and he’s a self-professed mentalist.
His nearly two-hour-long show in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts began with a warm-up routine — a simple ‘pick-a-card’ trick. In the skeptical world in which we live, most people won’t believe something until they see it, but Banachek’s performance last Saturday left most students unable to believe their eyes.
Then he delivered a warning. Banachek told the audience sometimes his stunts might not work. He made it clear — he cannot read minds. No one can, but he can read other things that pertained to the choices people make, such as body language.
The show started off slow and worked toward flashy.
Banachek’s first card-reading trick was intriguing. The mentalist had four students choose the number, color and type of a card from an imaginary playing-card deck in their heads, and then he would guess their card choice. He guessed each student’s card perfectly, but what was really amazing was when he gave insight to how he did it.
According to Banachek, he used body language to assume the color, number and card type the students were thinking of. Before having the students choose their cards, he told them to imagine a clock behind the stage, and from this he was able to see what numbers the students had chosen in their head because they were subconsciously facing their head in the direction of that number on a clock.
Banachek manipulated the audience in ways that made it think it was making choices of free will, but it was actually far from it. In fact, Banachek had everyone in the audience choose two simple shapes in their heads, and he predicted he’d be able to guess what two shapes they had chosen.
It was seemingly a choice the student had freely made, but there were ways Banachek had subconsciously made almost 100 percent of the audience choose triangle and circle. His hand motions and inflections while giving commands made most of the audience choose circle and triangle without even uttering the names of the shapes aloud.
Of the numerous stunts Banachek pulled during his St. Bonaventure performance, the most amazing involved a voodoo needle.
Banachek had one student make a fist with her hand and hold it on stage while another student drew the most realistic picture of a hand that she could. Next, Banachek instructed the audience to imagine that the picture of the hand was the same hand of the student on stage with a closed fist. After imagining the closed fist and the picture of the hand were one, Banachek poked the picture with a needle.
According to Banachek, the needle possessed the ability of healing powers. This meant it punctured like a real needle, but once the needle was removed the bleeding of the wound would stop. After puncturing and removing the needle from the picture, he instructed the student holding her hand in a fist to slowly open her hand and show the audience. In the middle of her palm was a patch of blood from a puncture wound.
Banachek explained the ways in which he manipulated situations to come to a certain conclusion in his stunts to the audience, but there were some stunts that were simply unexplainable, and that was what made it an enjoyable — albeit mind-boggling — night in the Quick.
Penn State Article
From http://bit.ly/nPG33F
Mentalist Banachek surprises crowd at HUB
By Ryan Staudt
Collegian Staff Writer
Ali Moyer (senior-advertising) hold a cup above Mentalist Banachek's head while he attempts to guess what it is during his show in Heritage Hall on Friday evening.
The student stood on stage above the lounging mentalist-magician Banachek, holding a knife concealed within an envelope, just inches from the performer.
HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall was still, and any air that should have been moving throughout the room was being tightly held in the lungs of the large student audience inside the room watching Banachek’s performance.
As soon as Banachek gave the word, the student plunged the knife down into his stomach.
This performance marked the end of Banachek’s set, as he chose his self titled “Banachek’s Death Test” to be his final act of the show Friday.
“It was amazing. I thought he was going to die during the knife trick,” Herbert Rapley (junior-bioengineering) said.
Banachek, who was voted Best Campus Performer two years in a row, presented various tricks throughout the night — from correctly guessing three random objects taken from the crowd while blindfolded to seemingly reading the minds of students in the audience.
In fact, almost every feat performed by Banachek involved the audience’s participation.
Many students found themselves involved in different parts of the show throughout the evening.
The student involvement added some surprise elements to Banachek’s performance.
Ashley Calle was especially surprised about her involvement with the show.
“It was definitely mind blowing,” Calle (sophomore-interdisciplinary digital studio) said.
Calle said when she appeared to be bending spoons with her mind during her participation in the show, she felt as if she were “psychic.”
But Banachek said he is against performers who try to con audience members into believing in the paranormal.
Unlike many magicians and entertainers in his field, Banachek made a point in telling the crowd that there is nothing magicical or supernatural about what he performs.
“I take my five normal senses and I create the illusion of the sixth sense,” Banachek said.
He said he creates the illusion of a sixth sense by using different small cues throughout the performance.
He brought up some of the psychological verbal and nonverbal cues that he uses to influence people into making certain decisions, such as changing the volume of his voice to emphasize certain words and using various hand signals.
During part of his performance, while asking a student in the audience to pick a number between one and five, he flashed the number three on his fingers while gesturing, and said three louder when listing the student’s choices of numbers to choose from to try to get the student to pick the number three.
Sure enough, the student picked the number three.
“So many people go to the psychic explanation because they can’t explain [what they’re seeing on stage], but I like to assure people that it’s okay to not know,” Banachek said. “It’s just entertainment.”
Banachek on nightline this Wednesday
Beyond Belief: Banachek on Nightline
One of the tests for nightline
For promo tape for this piece head to: http://abcnews.go.com/nightline/beyondbelief
Mentalist Banachek Wows Crowd @ StonyBrook
Bethany Onsgard
Banachek got students involved in the show by guessing what cards they were thinking of, their pets names and instruments they played.
Best known for his four-year stint writing magic for A&E’sMindfreak, Banachek, a world-renowned mentalist, arrived at the Student Activities Center auditorium to pull students out of the crowd and up on stage for his experiments.
Before the show began, few in the audience knew what a mentalist show entailed, but students offered up guesses on what skills a mentalist may hold.
“A mentalist is someone who has a very strong mind and uses it to read minds,” said Karen Celis, senior.
Banachek doesn’t claim to be a “mind reader,” but instead says he uses his skills in verbal and nonverbal communication as a “thought reader.”
“I give the illusion of a sixth sense,” Banachek said, “but it’s all based on reading people and guiding their thoughts.”
Dressed in all black, with a bright blue tie, a dark jacket, light brown hair speckled with highlights and a goatee, Banachek rushed the stage, microphone clipped to his chest. Only seconds after his introduction was completed, he dove into the act, calling people on stage and yelling instructions in his fast-paced European accent.
In the course of an hour, Banachek correctly guessed what cards audience members were thinking by analyzing their body language, anticipated what phone number someone would choose from a phone book and knew exactly what the crowd would choose in a collective round of “What Fictional Character Would You Assassinate,” a game akin to Mad Libs.
He also attempted more mind-bending tricks, hypnotizing two students and helping another bend forks with her mind.
In between acts, Banachek filled the time with cheeky comment and jokes, and used his talent to read the thoughts of audience members, finding everything from their pets’ names to instruments played and even secret fetishes.
The show ended with “The Banachek Death Test,” a game of knife roulette played with Banachek and five volunteers from the audience.
“Everyone must be very careful and listen to all the instructions,” Banachek warned, “because one mistake in this trick, and I’m dead.”
Five envelopes were sealed and folded, two containing real knives, and three with the blades retracted, making them unable to cause harm.
One by one, Banachek called the students over and asked them to stab the envelope into his chest. One by one, Banachek called the fake daggers correctly as nervous “ooohs” and “aaahs” echoed from the crowd. Banachek had beaten the roulette wheel once again, without surprise.
“It’s never failed,” Banachek said, crediting his talent for thought reading. “It’s all mind over matter.”
Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment • Campus Scene • Television
Banachek introduces David Copperfield and questions David Berglas at IMX
How Did David Copperfield End Up At The IMX Convention?
Banachek, David Copperfield and Richard Kaufman
Magic icon David Copperfield decided to do something very rare recently: attend a magic convention. Although based in Las Vegas, seeing Copperfield roam the halls of a convention is not a common occurrence. Which made it all the more odd when attendees to the IMX convention saw just that.
But how did he get there? We asked IMX organizer Craig Mitchell:
How did David Copperfield’s visit come together?
Copperfield had heard of the tribute that was being planned for Berglas as part of IMX 2011 and having enormous respect for Berglas’ contribution to the art of magic – was wanting to get involved. Berglas had worked extensively with Copperfield in the past with his unique floating table illusion and its clear that these two giants of magic share such a passion for the art.
Did you know how rare of an event DC coming out to a convention was?
We had worked on the details over many months with Copperfield’s production team who were so incredibly supportive of what we were wanting to achieve. David Copperfield has an insanely busy schedule but his level committment to magic is phenomenal.
Magic is all about standing on the shoulders of giants – acknowledging and celebrating those special people who have forever changed the performance landscape. And here we had David Copperfield – one of magic’s most influential performers ever – sitting in awe of David Berglas. These are living legends. Banachek said it best at IMX, “It takes one legend to to introduce another …” and I don’t think we could go any bigger than David Copperfield introducing David Berglas. I think for once someone managed to surprise the International Man of Mystery
What does a visit like that do for the burgeoning reputation of IMX?
IMX is all about promoting and growing the art of magic and the response was overwhelming. To have the support of David Copperfield at an inaugural event was simply phenomenal. To be able to feature a legend such as David Berglas – incredible. Add to that the support from such icons as Criss Angel, Jeff McBride, Banachek and so many others from across the globe means that IMX can only but get bigger, bolder and even more incredible. We have so many exciting things in store for the next IMX – we can’t wait! Stay tuned …
Berglas, Banachek, Copperfield, Richard Kaufman
Story first posted on itricks @ http://bit.ly/kWsdXP
Banachek on Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable ABC1 Australia
Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable – The new adventures of intrepid sceptic and comic Lawrence Leung are revealed in a fascinating and fun series that investigates the unbelievable.
With his curious not so scientific research and real-life experiments, Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable pokes fun at our own misconceptions and tests the limits of our beliefs. It’s a six-part search for truth that you will have to see to believe.
In this first episode, Lawrence sets out to discover if psychic powers exist. Lawrence encounters Australia’s best psychic, an American who can drive a car blindfolded, and ultimately transforms himself into a psychic to try to win a million dollars. This is the second half of the show that includes the incredible Amazing Randi and Banachek reading minds, driving blindfolded and Project Alpha. Favorite part is the ending 
Aired on Wednesday, June 15 2011 (ABC1).
You should watch part Part 1 (previous): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh7nhQ9h3Zw
Banachek Drives a car blindfolded on Australia ABC
In a fascinating and funny new six-part ABC series, intrepid sceptic Lawrence Leung rides in a car driven by a man wearing a blindfold, just to see if he can do it.
“He had coins over his eye sockets covered by black gaffer tape,” Leung says. “I tested it out – it was pitch black – and I applied that blindfold to him myself. For about 20 or 30 minutes, he drove that car blindfolded through Las Vegas. The film crew and I were s….ing ourselves – he drove pretty fast – but he did it pretty well.”
Welcome to Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable, where the curious, quirky comic investigates not only the irrational and the impossible, but puts them to the test.
Like Mythbusters meets The X-Files, Leung travels the globe over six episodes to seek the truth about UFOs, ghosts, psychic powers, magic tricks and the manipulation that helps make us believe.
“I wasn’t sure how he did it,” the diminutive Melburnian says of the blindfolded driver, magician and mentalist Banachek, admitting it’s one of the creepier experiences of the series. “But I don’t believe he was psychic. It was some sort of trick or method that he wasn’t willing to say………..
For full story head to…. http://yhoo.it/mb7tdq
Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable airs Wednesdays ay 9.30pm on ABC1.
Banachek appears on CBS Early News
Banachek exposes the Power Bracelets
Banachek Receives Award In Las Vegas
March 2011 Banachek was awarded the International Magic Societies Prestigious Merlin award for Mentalist Of the Year.
The Merlin Award to magic is what the Oscar is to the movies, what the Emmy is for television, and what the Tony is for theater.
Previous awards presented to Banachek include the APCA College Campus Entertainer award (two years in a row), The APCA Novelty Entertainer of the year, the Psychic Entertainers Dunninger Award, The Psychic Entertainers Ledderman award and the Society of American Magicians Melbourne Christopher award for contributions to the art of magic.