THE LEADER

By

Robert Dante

"You have to believe it will happen," he says. "The forks often continue to bend after I've touched them".

....

BANACHEK, a dapper dresser with curly black hair and a slightly worried expression, describes himself as "shy" and is hesitant to discuss personal matters.

"I'm a very private individual" BANACHEK said. "I was the kid who sat at the back of the classroom with a heavy coat wrapped around him, hoping the teacher wouldn't call on him".

He relates his own history as merely matters-of-fact: He was born in England with his two half-brothers and moved to South Africa, where he was abandoned by his mother. He raised his two brother's single-handedly. When he was old enough, he set out to find his father, tracking him to Australia.

His visit didn't turn out well, and BANACHEK found himself in the United States, living alone and trying to finish high school while holding down three jobs to pay for his apartment and groceries.

He began performing Kreskin-like mentalist feats at parties for extra money. His reputation began to grow and he was able to command larger fees for his unique talents.

....

You take your index card and shred it into tiny pieces. You shield the pieces from his eyes to make sure he doesn't peek.

BANACHEK produces another blank index card. He places the card and a pen in the center of a scarf, folds the corners towards the middle and lifts his hands away. Under the scarf , the end of the pen rises up and wriggles.

He pulls the scarf away and shows you the card: faintly scrawled across it is the word "valve". You examine the card, the shreds of the first card and take the pen apart: nothing is unusual---no wires, no magnets, no strings attached.

....

At Halloween, STEVEN'S services are in demand. This year he hosted a recreation of a Victorian séance at the Montrose -area Lovett Inn at 501 Lovett Blvd. Three shows allowed 12 guests each to experience, table rapping and other hocus pocus associated with the season.

Amid the contrived special effect, BANACHEK performed his own show, using his abilities. The question then became, what was real and what was fake? BANACHEK won't say.

That morning, BANACHEK sat in on another séance at a "haunted house" with on-the -air personalities from radio station Z-104. An entity supposedly spoke to the gathered group through several disc jockeys by turn, reducing one to convulsive tears which she was unable to remember later.

For all his expertise in this area, BANACHEK was not prepared for what happened next.

"I felt a rush come through me," he said. "I don't know what happened but I was told later that I slammed my hand down on the table and shouted, 'this is my house! Take your heathen sluts and get out!' we knew it was a violent person".

The séance ended almost immediately. A tape recording of the event was aired several times that day and evening. BANACHEK said he had never experienced anything like this before.

The séances he hosts, hold no such surprises since Banachek admits it is all an illusion and he recreates the 18th century séances for what they were, carefully crafted illusions.. Guests are suitably impressed with their apparent interactions with the 'other world' and BANACHEK does his best to make it an enjoyable, albeit spooky, experience.