Last Thursday’s Late Night Binghamton hosted the world renowned mentalist Banachek. While the turnout wasn’t very impressive, there was a decent student representation for a mind-blowing show.

Banachek opened by explaining to his audience that he did not possess supernatural powers, or anything of the sort. Instead, he claimed to use something along the lines of a sixth sense.

Most people sat with their arms crossed, drawing blank faces, ready to find a way to disprove it all. Banachek, ready for anyone who came in with this predisposition, offered a grand total of $10,000 to anyone who could ‘uncover’ any of his tricks. And by the end of the night, no one walked away any richer than when they had walked in.

His show included mind reading tricks where he had people hold out their hands and he told them the number they were thinking of. Restricting their choices to a number between one and ten seemed a little too easy for him, yet when he then picked up a board that had been lying face down the entire performance and it accurately revealed everyone’s numbers scrawled across it, a collective chill seemed to run down the spines of the audience.

Another segment of the show was devoted to the voodoo doll. Although putting a ripped piece of paper back together may have been a trick, when he poked the doll and an audience volunteer began to bleed while her hand was outstretched, that may have been something else entirely.

It was possible to conceive explanations for every trick by thinking of ways he could be merely manipulating people’s minds. The show passed quickly, and after an engaging hour and a half Banachek began to prep the audience for his grand finale. It would be dangerous, he said; he could get killed. Then, he proceeded to call on five people to aid him with the last big stunt. As luck would have it, I was called up on stage to be part of a trick that might kill him. No pressure there-and no risk of me being a hired stooge.

On the table lay five sealed envelopes. In two of the five lay real knives with real blades. The other three held only the base of the knife - no blade. The envelopes were sealed in a way where no one could tell by looking which was real, and which was fake. He then lined us up in order and called us one by one to pick any one of the five packages, then place it behind our backs without looking to see whether or not we held a real knife.

I was actually rather nervous when I walked up to the table. He informed me that I could choose any knife I wanted. I felt it was my choice, so I randomly (or so I thought), picked an envelope and walked back. After everyone had chosen, he proclaimed that one, four, and five had fake knives. I was number two. Lo and behold, behind my back was a real blade.