Banachek
Only trick I couldn't figure out how was done was the dice trick. Anyone know how he did it?
shareHow did he do the fork trick?? A friend once told me that a mentalist bent a spoon that HE (my friend) was holding in his own hand!
As for the rest, it seems like for most of them he's just honing in on verbal cues that he directs Joe into. For the dice trick, I'm sure he's figured out that statistically most people choose one, because they think of "snake eyes", so that's his go-to question to start with. Something about the way Joe responded made him go with it and he was right.
When he told him to do it again, I swear something in me said "he chose 4". I was figuring he would want to go away from 1, but not as far as 6, but something on the upper-half of the die. Not 5 because that's almost 6, so settle on 4. I just had a gut feeling, but when he said 4 I was still shocked that I was right. That kind of gave me an idea that one could hone that skill and get really good at it. I didn't even have a single thought about the whole switch from 2 to 4 thing.
As far as the other tricks, the amazing thing to me is to get 100% of them right. I would figure that no matter how great you are at it, it's still a bit of a guessing game, so you would have to get some wrong. Really remarkable!
You know... a small part of me wonders if maybe someone who really does have a gift would purposely go out of their way to say "remember, it's not magic it's just a trick" to throw people off!
The fork trick is one of the oldest tricks. The fork is prebend/twisted. I do not know if you have the show recorded, but if you notice he gives the fork to joe, while he pulls out another fork and holds his fingers right at the spot where it is twisted. The fact that Joe has a fork in his hand plays a mental part of the trick. It makes him think the fork that is being "bend" is like the one he is holding. It is a variation of a very old trick and it always requires the spoon to be prebend. He simply makes it appear as if it is bending infront of his eyes through slide of hand. I have had a mentalist "bend" a spoon in my hand as well. I knew the trick and just played along. It is still very impressive slight of hand.
The book trick is a trick he can only do with a book he has picked out that he has trained with for a long time. He needs to know one word for each page in the book. The trick is fairly simple. He looks quickly on the opposite page and through lots of training he knows which word will be at the top. 90% of what he says during the trick is just nonsense to throw you off and make it seem more incredable. The whole letter arrangement and stuff is all noise to make the trick work better. He knows instantly which word it is
The trick with the bill is an old trick as well. And you can find videos all over the internet where it is explained. How would coins over his eyes help him see less? Think about that. There is always a reason when a prop is brought in. Nothing is random, and the coins have a purpose. The coins create space which allows you too peek out a little at the bottom.
Anyways. Banachek is freaking awesome at what he does, and he does it a lot better than all these con artists :-D
As for the dice trick. There is no way it is as complicated as your theory. It is always a lot more simple than people think. I cannot figure it out though, but I am sure someone will post how it is done at some point :-D.