12
Derren Brown and Banachek
Banachek has produced more than 100 TV programs with Criss .
Banachek says during these intense creative sessions , they sat in a room and would brainstorm up to 350 tricks in a single setting , not having any idea what the method would be for at least ¾ of their ideas . And even when they did work on the methods , the street locations sometimes totally interrupted their plans .
“ When I perform effects , I want people to think that I ’ m in their heads , in the moment , and that I know what they ’ re thinking , how they ’ re thinking , and when they ’ re thinking it .”
“ Sometimes we would get to a location and go ‘ Wow , we can ’ t do what we were going to do . How are we going to do this ? We ’ ve got to deliver ’.”
The magic community loved perpetuating the myth that Mindfreak was filled with stooges . Banachek says this is simply because nobody could decode the methods .
“ Criss would talk and perform for 25 minutes . Well , every episode is 22 minutes so we would have to edit that . And magicians would go around saying ‘ Everything ’ s editing , everything ’ s stooges .’ And it was like ‘ No it ’ s not . It ’ s because they couldn ’ t figure out how it was done ,” he explains .
VANISH SPECIAL EDITION 2024