Patrick Wanis is an Australian human behavior and relationship expert,[1][2] clinical hypnotherapist,[3][4] life coach and author based in the United States. He has coached various celebrities such as Hulk Hogan and Xtreme[5] and is recognized as a Celebrity Life Coach.[6][7][8][9]
He has published numerous books on human behavior, relationships, and the mind. He has been featured as a relationship expert and columnist for Date.com and Matchmaker.com,[10] is the human behavior and relationship expert for AMI Mini Mags, a featured behavior and relationship expert for Playboy Radio and is the relationship expert to CupidDates.net[11] and the 2010 motion picture "The Putt Putt Syndrome."[12]
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Wanis began working as a radio show host at Radio 2RG Griffith while also serving as anchor of the regional television news on MTN-9, and hosted regional segments of the “Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital Telethon.” In 1985, he became the youngest talk show host in Australia at age 23 for Radio 7BU with syndicated talk shows on TBN - The Tasmanian Broadcasting Network (including a Sunday night “Lonely Hearts” call-in show) and interviewing the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke on numerous occasions. He also won First Prize in the Australian Tourism Awards for Tas Travel – his weekly syndicated radio show. Wanis next became a talk show host for Canberra’s news/talk radio 2CA and Political reporter for Ten News television, in Canberra interviewing the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke on television on numerous occasions and interviewing the candidates for Canberra’s inaugural state elections before becoming executive producer of 3AK Talk-back radio in Melbourne, serving as executive producer for the Don Chipp morning radio show and hosting his own afternoon drive talk show. Wanis also presented a live radio show from Australia's Parliament House, Canberra on the eve of the 1990 Federal Election.[13] Wanis received the ranking of “A+++ Grade Journalist” (the highest industry grading possible) from the Australian Journalists Association.
In 1990, Radio 3AK was sold to businessman Peter Corso who sacked most of its workforce in preparation to relaunch 3AK as Australia's first commercial Italian-language radio station.[14] While interviewing Corso live on-air, Corso offered Wanis the opportunity to stay on as a broadcaster and show host. Wanis declined, stating he was going to travel overseas for three months.
Wanis subsequently began working and traveling in Africa, England, Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United States. He performed hypnosis, dance, comedy, musicals, and murder mystery musicals in multiple languages. Wanis claims that in 1991, he became the first person to introduce pantomime musicals to West Africa, with his own original musical parodies of Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood. Wanis directed and co-hosted the “1991 Miss Africa World Beauty Pageant.” In The Gambia, West Africa, Wanis observed and studied the link between the belief in spells, curses, Juju, witchcraft, healing doctors (using witchcraft) and the behavior of The Gambia's people and its various tribes. Wanis concluded that the spells and curses only had power over those people who believed in them, forming a basis for his later work and studies in hypnotherapy and the power of the mind and beliefs.
In 1993, Wanis directed and co-hosted (in English and Spanish) “Miss Verano” beauty pageant in Spain before a live audience of 5,000 people; produced and co-hosted the 1993 “Junior Miss” and “Junior Mister” for 2000 children in Spain and won awards by Thomson Tours 1991, 1992 and 1993 for “Best Entertainment - The Gambia, West Africa”. In 1993, European TV program, Canal Plus “24 Horas” did a feature on Wanis.
In Spain (Ibiza and Salou), Wanis began to perform stage hypnosis shows.[15] His first shows used stooges (actors); Wanis claims he got the inspiration after watching another English performer do the same thing in a resort in Ibiza. Wanis began to read books about hypnosis and hypnotherapy to provide a convincing show and hypnotic induction. One day in Cozumel, Wanis decided to leave a few volunteers up on stage with the stooges/actors as an experiment and two of those volunteers became hypnotized during the hypnotic induction. Subsequently, Wanis would have less stooges and more volunteers in his weekly shows, until he eventually stopped using stooges and actors, and only used real volunteers.[15] While on vacation in Cozumel, a psychologist from Canada saw Wanis’ hypnosis show and suggested that Wanis study hypnotherapy. Wanis began to use hypnosis to work with clients wanting to lose weight and stop smoking and in 1993 began to study with the IACT (International Association of Counselors and Therapists) which Wanis became critical of for allegedly handing out hypnosis certification to anyone who paid and completed a weekend training program.[16]
In 1995, he graduated from W.I.C.S. in Pennsylvania with degrees in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Advanced Hypnotherapy. In 1995, Wanis became the first resident hypnotist on Carnival Cruise Lines, and was invited to Las Vegas to meet David Copperfield. While working on the cruise ships, Wanis also began motivational and training programs and workshops for Steiners’ Salons, Carnival Cruises.
In 1996, he produced, performed and directed New Line’s The Mask! in a live musical production. Wanis went on to consult on a TV comedy variety show version of “The Mask!” with New Line Television. Meanwhile, after witnessing Wanis’ hypnosis show Hipnotica a United States production company sponsored him to come to America. In 1996, he co-produced Al Gore’s visit to Orlando during the 1996 campaign. In 1998, he was a regular co-host and hypnotherapist on the syndicated radio show America Talks Health.
He created and produced the show Blues Brothers 2000 for Daytona (licensed by the Belushi Estate) for a live audience of over 195,000 people.
From 1996-1998, Wanis volunteered with the department of Youth Education and the Children’s Ministry for Unity Church of Christianity Houston, Texas, serving as a Sunday morning teacher and event leader for Uniteens (10 to14 year-olds) and he wrote, directed and produced two full scale Christmas musicals involving children, teens and adults for the church in 1996 & 1997.[17]
In 2001, Wanis voluntarily directed the 7th annual televised Celebrity Mascot Games (NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, NHL and NCAA) to raise money for the New Hope Children’s Wish Foundation (now known as New Hope For Kids) and also co-hosted various television talk show specials with teens on terrorism and the September 11 attacks in 2001[18] and “September 11 – One Year On.”[19]
Since 2000, Wanis has presented motivational training programs for various schools in Florida, Texas and New York, and in Australia.[20][21]
In 2002, Wanis began to write pocketbooks (Mini-mags and Micro-mags) for American Media, starting with "How to Hypnotize Anyone." With the publication of more titles and books, he became recognized as a relationship expert and soon after as a human behavior expert. Subsequently, he was regularly featured and interviewed on syndicated radio and TV shows including Mike and Juliet Morning show, Montel Williams show,[22][23][24] Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Fox news online[25] and magazines Cosmopolitan, VIVA and The New York Observer.[26]
Wanis has often spoken out publicly on television, radio and in print about celebrity narcissism[27][28] and meltdowns. In 2007, Wanis began his annual list of The Top Ten Celebrity Meltdowns and became recognized as the expert on celebrity meltdowns;[29][30][31] his list is featured each year on FOX News Channel.[32][33][34]
In November 2011, Chaz Bono threatened to sue the National Enquirer over an article that cited Wanis and which claimed Bono's weight, stress, and the medications and issues associated with his gender reassignment, could increase the likelihood of an early death.[35] Wanis was cited in the Enquirer article as a Human Behavior Expert (and contrary to claims by Bono’s attorney, Wanis was not cited or credited as a transgender specialist or medical doctor.)[36] The following day, Wanis recorded a personal video message to Bono[37] heeding him to “ignore the sensationalism of the Enquirer headlines such as ‘liver damage agony’ but still take action about his health, to surround himself only with people that really care, and to beware of Hollywood’s parasites.”[38]
Wanis has often criticized Hollywood, the media and advertising for their portrayal of women and the sexualization of young girls and babies.[39] “Women are bombarded everyday with advertising and messages that there is something wrong with them, something missing – all of these [wedding reality] shows target the insecurity of women” he told Fox News.[40][41][40][42]
Wanis also claims the media often ignores domestic violence against women and instead gives priority to racism.[43] Wanis criticized television executives for ignoring Charlie Sheen's violent behavior against his wife (Sheen pleaded guilty to assaulting Brooke Mueller in 2010) and for waiting for Sheen to make partial racial slurs against his boss before firing Sheen from the hit TV show "Two and a Half Men."[44]
In July 2010, eight months prior to Charlie Sheen’s infamous meltdown, Wanis told Alan Stock of Newsradio 840 KXNT Las Vegas and Russ Morley 850 WFTL Newstalk radio Miami: “We are showing favoritism towards Charlie Sheen. We watch Charlie Sheen on his weekly TV show and for almost 7 years, and we welcome his TV character and welcome him in life as a bad boy but we refuse to see him as a man who has abused a woman. The reality of his abuse, of his violence against a woman, is ignored because people generally seem to like him, to find him affable, viewing him as basically just a boy who is slightly wild and has not yet grown up. If we had heard the conversation between Charlie and his wife, would we still be giving him the free-pass? People quickly condemned Chris Brown for assaulting Rihanna but was that because we saw the photo of her bruised face or because Chris Brown is black and so our bias and prejudice spiked our anger and condemnation?”[45][46]
In March 2011, Wanis criticized toymaker Mattel for its Clawdeen doll stating that it is actually "encouraging a young girl to dress like a stripper" and to believe that she should be sexually enticing to everyone around her.[47] Wanis also criticized clothing retail chain, Abercrombie & Fitch, for marketing padded bikini tops to girls as young as eight years of age, stating to Fox News that the padded tops are both disturbing and dangerous: “Are we sexualizing young girls to get the attention of men or to encourage women to use their daughters to compensate for their own lack of sexual appeal by living vicariously through their daughter?" Wanis asked. "Is this the extreme extension of the beauty-pageant mother who now seeks to make up for what she can never be?”[48]
