Magic Tricks

I'll say this up front: I'm not a mentalist. I've dabbled in it here and there, but it's just not my character to seem "psychic" or "all-knowing" as a mind-reader. And I've never, ever wanted to bend a fork or a tine for an audience.

And yet this video is enough to make me reconsider... certainly I learned so much.

This video grabs you from beginning to end. It's a long lecture, so I sat down on a Sunday afternoon thinking I'd break this up into an hour here, an hour there over the next few days. Instead, I couldn't turn it off. I watched the whole thing, beginning to end, in one sitting. I can't wait to watch it again and sort out what I want to do with it all!

(How annoyed I was when Dan said "we're outta time!" Come on, Dan! More please! Dan suggests they do a sequel. Sign me up now.)

Banachek proves to be a great teacher, coach and mentor, and is always compelling. He becomes palpably passionate at times, urging us to step up our game. A central theme here is for us to devise our own presentations, effects, and methods, using the "tools" he teaches. He expects of us that we become better professionals; he never once talks down to us but instead treats us as serious craftsmen.

An example: the phone book test. After explaining the method, Banachek moves on to teaching many other effects. Later, he begins a book test using the Holy Bible. As we watch, the savvy viewer senses that this could be done with the exact same method as the phone book...which is precisely the point. The Bible test has some interesting variations in presentation, but it's really the same "tool" that works. Banachek returns to this theme again and again. It should inspire you to find your own way.

He often explains why he performs something in a particular manner, but encourages us to find our own path as performers. (He'll say, "This is what works for me, but it's completely the performer's choice.") Still, he's not above calling out the presentations he has seen in his career that he finds lacking or just plain wrong, and he explains his reasoning.

Perhaps my favorite part of this lecture is the general history of mentalism over the last 40-50 years. He doesn't mention Corinda, nor Annemann. He instead speaks about Uri G, the Amazing Randi, and...um... Peter Popov. Banachek talks at length about his role in Project Alpha, too. It's really interesting stuff.

Lest you say, "But I'm putting my money down to learn secrets..." Trust me, the tricks are all here. The background history is a hugely needed bonus, a boon to scholars of magic/mentalsim and the merely curious. This conversation is just as interesting as the effects taught.

Caveats? Almost all the effects require some sizable audience to work with. Maybe some of this could be adapted for table hopping, but this material is ideally suited for a standard stage or parlor act. A great deal of audience management is required in many of the effects, but Banachek gives ample assistance and guidelines.

Speaking of audience management: Mentalism is an area where things can go wrong very easily. In fact, there are clips of Banachek in performance where things do NOT go the way he wants. (In one case, a spectator looks at the first word on the top of a page in a book, and selects the "wrong" word. Agh!) He explains how to prepare for these things. His casual coolness in keeping up the performance rather than crumbling under pressure is very inspiring. This is what makes a pro a pro, guys. Really valuable stuff.

I could go on and on. This is a long review, but it IS a long lecture. I'll stop writing now so that you can stop reading this and start watching the video!