Banachek is an American mentalist

Mentalism

Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats and rapid...

. Banachek has written books on mentalism, such as Psychological Subtleties, and invented various magic and mentalism effects, including the Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...

 bullet catch

Bullet catch

The bullet catch is a conjuring illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at him—often in his mouth, sometimes in his hand or caught with other items such as a dinner plate...

 and the original "buried alive." Banachek is also the Director of the James Randi Educational Foundation JREF's Million Dollar Challenge.

Biography

Born in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and raised in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Banachek has been performing since his arrival in the United States in 1976.

Banachek is often sought out by various top entertainers and magic TV shows around the world as a consultant. The entertainers include Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...

, David Blaine

David Blaine

David Blaine is an American illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his high-profile feats of endurance, and has made his name as a performer of street and close-up magic. He has set and broken several world records...

, Lance Burton

Lance Burton

Lance Burton is a stage illusionist. He has appeared on numerous television programs, and also performed for Queen Elizabeth and President Ronald Reagan...

, James Randi

James Randi

James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...

 and Criss Angel

Criss Angel

Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos , better known by the stage name Criss Angel, is an American illusionist, writer, director, musician, and actor...

.

Banachek is renowned for fooling scientists at Washington University into believing that his supposed psychic

Psychic

A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...

 abilities were genuine during the Project Alpha

Project Alpha

Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi. It involved planting two fake psychics, Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards, into a paranormal research project. During the initial stages of the investigation, the researchers came to believe that the...

 hoax in the early 1980s. He also took part in an investigation with Randi exploring Peter Popoff

Peter Popoff

Peter Popoff is a German-born American faith healer and the president of Peter Popoff Ministries. He conducts revival meetings and has a national television program...

, which ultimately exposed Popoff's false claims.

He has appeared on several television programs including CNN Live

CNN Live Today

CNN Live Today is an American television news program on CNN. It aired weekdays from 10:00 a.m. ET to 12:00 p.m., and also during Your World Today from 12:20 p.m. ET to 12:32 p.m. It was last anchored by Daryn Kagan...

, Mindfreak and Unscrewed with Martin Sargent

Unscrewed with Martin Sargent

Unscrewed with Martin Sargent was a late night American television show focusing on the comedy of technology. It was produced at TechTV and aired from May 26, 2003 to December 2004...

.

In 2008 he toured as part of a stage show called Hoodwinked with Bob Arno

Bob Arno

Bob Arno, is known primarily as a comedy pickpocket entertainer and more recently as a criminologist specializing in global street crime. He became a U.S. citizen in 1992.-Career:...

, Todd Robbins

Todd Robbins

Todd Robbins is an American magician, lecturer, actor, and author.-Biography:He was born in Long Beach, California, the son of soap executive and a schoolteacher. In 1980 he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theater...

 and Richard Turner

Richard Turner (magician)

Richard Turner is an American playing card technician. Although an accomplished magician in his own right, Turner does not perform "magic tricks" in the true sense of the term - he has dedicated his life to mastering and demonstrating the moves used by cardsharps old and new to cheat the uninitiated...

.

On July 12, 2009 he conducted a preliminary test of Connie Sonne's dowsing

Dowsing

Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation , without the use of scientific apparatus...

 ability for the James Randi Educational Foundation

James Randi Educational Foundation

The James Randi Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. The JREF's mission includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled...

's Million Dollar Challenge that was witnessed by hundreds in person and hundreds more via live webcast.

Opinion of psychics

Banachek, as the Director of the JREF's Million Dollar Challenge, states his views concerning psychics. On the Nightline

Nightline

Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction is an American television anthology series created by Lynn Lehmann, presented by Dick Clark Productions, and produced and aired by the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. Each episode featured five stories, all of which appeared to defy logic, and some of which were...

program, reporter JuJu Chang

JuJu Chang

Hyunju "Juju" Chang is a Korean-American Emmy Award-winning television journalist for ABC News, and currently serves as a special correspondent and fill-in anchor for Nightline...

 called him a "crusader". Banachek stated that psychics like James Van Praagh

James Van Praagh

James Van Praagh is a self-proclaimed medium who has written several books on spirituality and spirit communication.-Early life and career:Van Praagh was born in Bayside, New York and is the youngest of four children...

 have "crossed the line" when they claim to talk to the dead. "I think these people are scum...grieving is a part of death" talking to a person's dead relatives to "make them feel better" is not allowing them to grieve. About psychic phenomenon, he stated that there is no scientific evidence, "its not science, it never has been science". And the A&E

A&E Network

The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

 show Psychic Kids

Psychic Kids

Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal is a paranormal television series broadcast on the A&E television network. Hosted by Chip Coffey, an American psychic investigator, with Edy Nathan, Chris Fleming, and Kim Russo, the show brings together children who report having psychic abilities with...

, the treatment of the children on the show "borders on child abuse".

Awards

• Psychic Entertainers Association Dave Lederman Memorial Award (Awarded for Creativity in Mentalism) 1997
• APCA (Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities) Entertainer of the Year 1998, 1999.
• APCA College Campus Novelty Act of the Year 2000.
• Psychic Entertainers Association Dan Blackwood Memorial Award (Awarded for Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Mentalism) 2006
• Psychic Entertainers Association Dunninger Memorial Award (Awarded for Distinguished Professionalism in the Performance of Mentalism) 2007
• His book Psychological Subtleties 2 won the first place in The Magic Woods Awards, for best book in 2007.
• Awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership at PSYCRETS (British Society of Mystery Entertainers) Tabula Mentis VII in April 2010

External links

• Official website
• Interview with Banachek at Phenomenon (TV series)
  Phenomenon (TV series)
  Phenomenon is a competition show judged by mystifier Uri Geller and illusionist Criss Angel and hosted by Tim Vincent which debuted live on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 on NBC. The show featured ten contestants competing to become the next great mentalist, to be determined by viewers voting by phone...
  
   web site
• Interviewed on Point of Inquiry by D.J. Grothe
  D.J. Grothe
  Douglas James "D. J." Grothe is an American writer and public speaker who talks about issues at the nexus of science, critical thinking, secularism, religion and the paranormal. He is president of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
  
  , 13 Nov 2009.