Buried Alive

Banachek

Here is the story I alluded to earlier and said I would post for those who are interested, it is copied from an old web site of mine that is now defunct, hence the third person description:

Buried Alive. October 31^st 1998, The United States and Europe tuned in to watch a young man perform the impossible. A feat that almost killed the great Harry Houdini. Banachek was to be chained, shackled and locked in a Plexiglas coffin, lowered into a 9-foot hole and buried. Banachek would have two hours to extricate himself from the restraints and physically dig his way to the surface to safety. The weather this Halloween night was cold and rainy. IN fact it had rained for thirty-two hours straight. After a frightening one hour and forty-Seven minutes, Banachek emerged; he had succeeded where his predecessors had failed.

Since the special hosted by William Shatner, two people have died trying to repeat Banachek's incredible stunt, and Banachek vowed never to perform this difficult feat again unless the money was right. Well folks, the money was right and Banachek performed the stunt again on August 4th 1992 on Japanese soil. Once again it rained, only this time a small typhoon hit the Island of Tokyo. The hole was full of mud and had to be pumped clean before Banachek could perform the stunt, only thing was, the storm had left a small stream flowing in the bottom of the burial pit. But the show must go on and Banachek performed the stunt despite his new nickname, Rainman.

UPDATE:

Since that time, I sent my tape to a well-known producer (this was shortly after Penn & Teller performed the bullet catch on World's Greatest Magic.)

This producer told me he loved the look of it but did not know how to bring it to TV in a short period of time. I told him I had some thoughts on that and if he was serious we should talk. I did not hear back, but less than a month I saw mention that a well know and liked (I like him too) was going to perform a buried alive. At the time I was suspicious as this producer was also the same one I had spoke to. But waited just to see. Yup, the way the fellow was handcuffed, was exactly like mine, the Plexiglas case, the bulldozers and everything on the tape was mine.

Well, I called the performer and he was truly sorry, in fact he called me back a few times. It was not his fault, seems the producer approached him with the idea. At first this performer was to appear driving one of the bulldozers. But that type of effect had been performed ad nausea and hence it reverted into my buried alive.

As a result, the performer and I became well acquainted. I never sent anything to that producer again (especially since a few things from my pal Dean Gunnerson had been pilfered as well.)

http://www.alwaysescaping.com/toc.html

So all well that ends well, and that is the basic history of my buried alive. I would like to perform it one more time before I am too old on my own TV special.

The producer who is mentioned above has since passed away.

A Holiday Effect for You From Me

Banachek

This my version of an old Eddie Joseph effect. I love his thinking.

I once posted it elsewhere, and sent a copy on to Teller, he liked it enough to put his own presentation together for his book, How To Play In Traffic, also available at my site. I gave them a few other things for the book too but that is another story.

I thought you would enjoy it so reposting it here in the spirit of the season! Have fun.

Okay, I want you to get a deck of cards. It must be a full deck. Remove the jokers, in fact, throw them away.

Now remove all the odd cards this includes the Kings and Jacks.

Set the even cards off to the side in a pile for now.

Pick up the odd cards and shuffle them, now look at the top card and the bottom card and add the values together, Aces would be one, Jacks eleven and Kings thirteen.

Now set the odd cards face down to the side and pick up the even pile. Note the card at that position from the top in the deck down while keeping the cards in the same order.

In other words, if the total number of the two odd cards were 18, you would remember the 18th card down in the even pile keeping the cards in the same random order.

Now let us review the situation up to this point. The odd packet is on the table. And the even pack is in your hands face down. You have two things in mind. One; a certain number and two; a playing card.

If I was in hearing distance I could tell you what that card is. On the other hand, I could wait until I hear from you then disclose the identity of the card. But this might take too long as it is Christmas and I have relatives to visit and I do not have time to answer all of you. I could, of course tell you right here what that card is, but then you would lose interest and not care to try this little experiment out.

Therefore I propose to do better... I shall try to find that card even though several miles separate us. I know you don't believe such a thing is possible but I shall prove it to you in the next few minutes.

Oh, I forgot one instruction; you will need a full deck to continue so please place the ODD packet of cards on top of the even cards in your hand.

Have you placed the ODD cards on top of the EVEN pile?? Good!

Now deal out in a row a number of cards face up corresponding with the total number you have in mind (the total of the two odd cards you added earlier). I am asking you to do this because I wish to impress that number deeper in your mind this number is your mystic number.

Have you got the row of cards in front of you?? As I wish you to identify your personality with mine and the cards lying in that row, please spell out my name

S T E V E N B A N A C H E K

Lay out one card from the top of the deck on the face up cards for each letter of my name. If by chance you do not complete the spelling by the time you cover the last face up card in the row, do continue again with the first card and carry through until finished.

Done spelling my name? Good. Now look at the top card of the deck. Bet you thought that was going to be your card. No, Sir! Put it back on top it's not that simple. I have a wish for you this holiday season and for it to come true you need to spell out the wish, deal one card as before for each letter of my wish below.

H A P P Y H O L I D A Y S

Right, now cross your fingers and think of your card. Now turn over the top card of the deck. What do you see? Don't bother calling to tell me, I know.

It is my wish for you.

As we get closer to the New Year you can change Happy Holidays to "A happy new Year" or any sentence that has 13 letters.

Enjoy.

Oh, one more thing. For this effect I used Steven Banachek however in the real world my name is Steven Shaw, my stage name is not Steven Banachek, it is just Banachek. In other words my stage name is Banachek and my real name includes the Steven.