Its amazing to see who is watching me,I guess alot of other hypnotist from the usa and the uk
The house lights go down and the show is about to begin. The music from the movies the Exorcist or Damien starts to play. The stage lights come up and the DJ or MC comes out and says something off-the-cuff like this:
“Ladies and gentlemen tonight we a hypnotist, NAME, here to hypnotize you all and he is going to be looking for volunteers, so how about you Madame, are you going to volunteer… he promises not to TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF, well not in the show maybe after, what about you Ted come on, you’re game for a laugh… I hope you have your underpants on, also he told me that he does not hypnotized drunken people because they do strange things under hypnosis… and besides, it’s dangerous… well ladies and gentlemen without any more time wasting here is the hypnotist give him a big round of applause…!”
On the face of it, the above sounds reasonable, right?
WRONG.
What’s gone terrible wrong is in the first and the last sentences. In time and through experience you’ll be able to foresee that had the above been said that the hypnotist is likely to have problems getting volunteers.
Let me break it down for you. First, the music. NEVER PLAY SCARY MUSIC. And no music with lyrics. You don’t want people singing along and you certainly don’t want to scare or otherwise alters people’s good mood. You aren’t in the Rocky Horror picture show, are you? So, lose any mood-altering music.
Choose interesting, unfamiliar music like that of Enigma or Enya or Cirque de Soleil or Paul or Sally Okenfield or Oxygene or any instrumental music that DOESN’T date you. There’s nothing more embarrassing than old-timer stage hypnotists who haven’t changed or updated their intro and routines music since the days of their youth, which makes them terribly out dated and out-of-touch or reach my younger audiences.
STAY FRESH and reachable by using current and group-relevant music EXCEPT top-40 or pop music with lyrics. Again, instrumental music is always best and you’ll always be able to find fresh, new pieces over time as you modify your choices of music.
I have been to other stage hypnotists’ shows and the atmosphere has been jolly and light, with people enjoying themselves. I was even seated with two people who had decided to volunteer, but when the theme from the movie The Exorcist (1970) music played it changed the mood of the room from happy to eerily scared or scary.
You want people to feel comfortable enough to volunteer. So always remember that if your music sounds good, people will feel comfortable enough to volunteer and your show will turn out better. Again, use positive energy types of intro music that gets the heart and adrenalin racing for fun and laughter.
The DJ or MC—Friend or Foe—You Decide
The disc jockey or MC or whomever the venue appoints to help you can be your worst enemy or your best friend. Their ineptitude can ruin your show’s timing and trip up your confidence. In my early days, I found that most DJs and others like the MC are told to help you out, which they’ll do only half-heartedly and reluctantly at best. And it’s that half-ass, not concentrating or paying limited attention to you and your cues or signals or routines that can result in your embarrassment.
Be forewarned. Either make friends of that person and give that person clear verbal and written instructions and grease their palm with MONEY or you risk looking less than professional when s/he messes up.
Make sure they know your name and know HOW to PRONOUNCE IT.
Also, only you are responsible for your introduction. Write up a short intro, type it up in LARGE, easy to read type and secure this cue card in a plastic sheet protector. Give that to whomever and go over it with them beforehand. Leave space for the name of the venue so the idiot can insert it at the appropriate time or place during the intro reading.
Repeat to them that this is what you want said—nothing more, nothing less and NO ADLIBS.
And, in no uncertain terms tell that poor SOB that if they don’t read it as written, the show will end before it starts… and they’ll be at fault.
The reason for the cue card is very simple—most of these folks fancy themselves comics. They like to wing it, adlib. They want the lime light as well as you, the professional entertainer, and there is also high likelihood that s/he has had too many drinks by the time you’re on.
If they open their mouths and mutter more words then you have written and you’ve foolishly let them choose the intro music, you have unwittingly been set up to face a big, black hole and silence when you’re standing on stage asking for volunteers.
I am sure you will experience one time, it’s a horrible feeling when everybody starts looking around the room. You get this feeling of ‘oh my god, why did I come here to night….’
Then you start asking and asking for volunteers your voice strains under the desperation you’re feeling. You will become stressed and you are only going to get the volunteers who feel sorry for you or who are very drunk… or who just want to see the show start already.
These people are a waste of your time. Now they may have good intentions but they are wasting everyone’s time. I tell you why—every PERSON THAT COMES UP TO HELP YOU GET THE SHOW GOING IS KNOWING THAT THEY SHALL SOON BE GOING (that’s the wrong frame of mind).
You have also got to think about what the disc jockey or MC can say on your behalf. Maybe they are only joking but, hey, people in the audience hear what they want to hear and that was above ‘TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF’ and that hypnosis ‘CAN BE DANGEROUS.’
I speak from experience here, dear reader. One time I was working in a big family-oriented hotel with lots of children watching the show. I told the MC that they should say over the microphone: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please can you have your children to stay with you at your table… through out the show for safety reasons.’
Before the MC said that she turn to me and asked, why safety reasons? I told her that people move all around on the stage and I didn’t want any of the under-18 year old children coming up onto the stage whilst I was performing as it could be DANGEROURS to the them and the volunteers.
Oh, she said, now I understand. Well, two minutes later I am at the back of the venue having a glass of water just before going on and I hear her say…
Ladies and gentlemen PLEASE, CAN YOU KEEP YOUR CHILDREN WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES BECAUSE THIS HYPNOSIS SHOW CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS!
I nearly choked in disbelief as I spewed my mouthful of water all over the place. I didn’t hear the rest of the intro except the applause as the venue’s manager motioned for me to come along and get on stage.
On my way to the stage I overheard a woman standing next to me say to her husband, “I told you it was dangerous, you are NOT volunteering… do you her me, you are NOT volunteering… or else!”
Needless to say by that point in my stage hypnotist career I was able to clear things up and undue most of the unintentional damage done my the bimbo MC in my three-minute pre-show talk about the myths and benefits of hypnosis and the stage show experience.
Still, I did a successful show that evening despite taking longer to get volunteers and longer than my usual rapid induction. And, oddly enough it seemed that I lost lots of volunteers that night due, in part I think, to the fear factor associated with the venue’s wrong choice of music AND the MC’s errant words about ‘dangerous’ and ‘taking clothes off’ such.
Trust me. This sort of worse case scenario will happen to you (only once I hope) unless you are proactive and manage or control as many details of your show as is humanly possible and feasible… every time and in every place.
Leave nothing to chance or in the hands of others until they are in your trustworthy employ.
Picture this—it’s your first night, your first show and in just a few minutes you face a five hundred-seat venue. You’re a topsy-turvy mixture of nervous excitement and anxious energy waiting to perform… hopeful that all goes well.
Perhaps you’re even feeling a little sick, don’t worry this is nerves. Trust me—it will get worse before it gets better. And it will invariably vanish as you get into performing your show.
You’ve arrived at the venue. Everything has been double checked and re-checked. The clock’s ticking… 20 minutes to show time.
But wait.
One of the most important parts of the hypnosis show is before it starts. You can save yourself a lot of time and hassle by arriving at the venue the day before is it’s far out-of-town. You don’t want jet lag or tiredness to interfere. So, always factor in costs related to an early arrival. Some venues won’t pay fee plus expenses, others will. But always ask and quote accordingly.
If the venue is local, get there early in the day whenever possible. Check out the stage, the location of power outlets, get a feel for the space. This will cause you later on to feel comfortable and familiar with the venue, even if it’s your first time there.
Now, if it’s a place you’ve performed in before then I urge you to arrive no more no and no less than 30 minutes before the show starts.
And for every venue, it’s helpful to get there early in the day and do a sound check and locate the back or side entrance for the talent (you!), the back-stage restroom and/or place to change into your performance clothes. (You mustn’t come in the front door and walk through the crowd in uniform, so to speak because you want your entrance to be first and foremost on stage.
Once there and early the day of the show, test your sound and music playing equipment out with the place’s the sound system. Get up on and walk the stage, get a feel for it, and imagine yourself performing in front of all the people as you complete the sound check. And most of all imagine that today, tonight, in this place as you familiarize yourself with it, you are going to have a winning, successful show! Imagine it—expect it and you will experience it!
Working with the DJ / Sound Person
Great! Now you’re at the venue talking to the sound or DJ guy. Your equipment checks out fine. All is well. Now comes the moment when you’ve got to engage that person to do your sound. And by sound I mean cueing your music and playing it at the right time, on your cue.
Now, what I do is I have my routines typed out in LARGE, BOLD PRINT so that it’s easy to see at a glance under poor lighting conditions. I recommend that you put your ‘routine / cue sheet’ in a plastic sleeve (front to back) like you find in office supplies stores so that the inevitable spilt drink doesn’t destroy your papers. My cue sheet is on two pieces of paper, in just such a plastic sleeve, so that the sound person can easily read and handle it, on both sides.
Go over your routines, especially the first three and agree upon a signal from you to whomever, when to fire off the music and when to cut or stop it. I use a direct look at them and a quick nod of my head as my signal to play the music. I also tell them what I typically say when I’m about to end a musically aided routine—such as: ‘all right… good… STOP…’ or the equivalent.
Chairs for the Volunteers
I always ask for at least 10 and as many as 25, but don’t always get, ARMLESS, straight-back chairs. NO FOLDING or PLASTIC LAWN-TYPE CHAIRS, depending on the venue, which is why I strive to check out the place every time, even if I’ve been there before because things change, places are remodelled.
I prefer to set the chairs up on stage myself early in the day when I’m the only act. Or arrange them at the ready back stage, behind the curtain, if possible so there aren’t any troubling surprises.
An Alex Duvall Key Success Factor
Set the row(s) of chairs on the stage in a slight curve AND separate them by at least the width of your hand (if space is tight) or (better still) the width of your legs standing between each chair (again, if space permits). The reason behind this, in my experience, is that you don’t want the movements of the people you’ll ask to leave after the induction and/or during the first, critical to success routines, to bother or disturb the remaining volunteers. So, chair type and placement on stage are both important and can help or hinder the hypnotisability, albeit in a small way, of the volunteers and the unfolding show.
A Short and True Side Story
One time I was performing my stage show in a forgettable place, and I had asked for volunteers to come up on stage. To my surprise for this place I got more than enough people to hypnotize. However, in that group I also got two village-idiot types. Now, I didn’t know they where card-carrying village idiots because it was not stamped on their heads either, but I was sure ready to stamp it on their heads forcefully after the show.
Here’s what happened. Most of the volunteers went quickly (as is my style and technique) into hypnosis and they where all leaning on each others’ shoulders in their chairs… very relaxed, very comfortable. So far, so good… or so I thought. Until all of a sudden one of the both of the village idiots who were in cahoots, jumped up and out of their chairs and shouted loudly together to all present, “Ha! I knew you could not hypnotist me!”
Well, because the stage CHAIRS WERE TOO CLOSE together the other people were GOT BUMPED AND KNOCKED and STARTLED. And there idiocy caused a domino effect, such that one volunteer after the next, woke up, stood up and said, ‘It’s not working…..”
The reasons why I lost most of the volunteers that night are 1) the chairs were too close to each other, and 2) each got jostled and could hear the village idiot pals scream, “I am not hypnotized.”
An Alex Duvall Key Success Factor
As you learn to recognize the village idiots amongst your volunteers, get rid of them early. Even if your gut gives you the feeling that someone is going to be a problem, get rid of them before you do the induction.
However, if you don’t catch them straightaway then get everybody on stage to close their eyes and then grab hold of the person’s hand whom you want off stage and pull them towards you so they stand up, and quickly whisper in their ear ‘thanks for coming up but your not hypnotized’ and, still holding their wrist or hand, lead them off the stage. Remember, you’re the boss, you’re in charge, YOU are the professional stage hypnotist.
Another way to go it to get the best volunteers identified and seated. And all the people that you are going to weed out of the show have them stand up. I tell them that you I’m also going to hypnotize them and that I just want them to stand up during the induction. And then, as I proceed with my rapid, sure-fire induction, I’ll tap most if not all on the shoulder and say, ‘leave, please, thank you’. (More on this later, so keep reading!)
Hitting the Boards
Hitting the boards is an old vaudeville term for walking on stage. Now, following your marvelous, crowd arousing introduction (more about this later) the instant, the very moment that you walk on stage the audience (and venue personnel) are sizing you up, judging you, rolling over in their collective minds whether or not you seem to fit their pre-conceived notion of a hypnotist… so, regardless, bound lively onto the stage, big smile… and speak slowly, confidently and have fun!
KSF Reminder
Avoid coffee, stay away from the bar before the show (don’t hang around the bar waiting to go on because people will think you’re a lush), don’t drink alcohol before the show, don’t smoke cigarettes—not a one before the show, and don’t eat foods with strong, smelly flavors like garlic that can and will affect your breath… and the volunteers’ perception of and responsiveness to you—the master stage hypnotist. Being a pro starts with acting like a pro.
Another Side ‘Bar’ Story
A friend and fellow stage hypnotist, BLAZE, told me that many years ago he saw the famous and younger comic, Rodney Dangerfield, live at his own club “Dangerfield’s” in New York City, New York, USA.
The club’s stage was small and close to the bar. A few warm-up comics readied the audience for Rodney, the bug-eyed comic, best known for his self-mocking line, “I don’t get no respect,” was scheduled to entertain at midnight. Well, as the bewitching hour arrived, from where my friend sat, in primo seats with an unobstructed view of the stage and the bar area, he and his “blonde squeeze” at that time, watched in surprise as the bartender pours and Rodney slam back liquid courage and downed several bar glasses full of straight hard liquor—one right after the next—bang, bang, bang—as the house announcer was introducing Dangerfield.
The affects of that alcohol became apparent as Rodney did his memorable and outrageous stand-up ADULT comedy act. He became raunchier, wittier, and looser but he slurred his words.
Now, neither you nor I am in Dangerfield’s league. And neither of us wants or needs a drinking problem, either. Right?
Ok, so now it’s your time, the moment you have been waiting for—your first show. You’ve practiced and rehearsed everything down cold. You’re ready and anxious to get on stage and get it over with.
So, too, is your audience waiting anxiously for you—the stage hypnotist. They have been discussing your show and perhaps your appearance over beers, meals at restaurants around the venue, with friends. And, they have been debating whether they can be hypnotized or not, and if they are going to volunteer.
Key Success Factor—Practice
No one needs to know that this is your first show. NEVER tell anyone that it’s your first time on stage because perception is reality. Tell no one associated with the venue that fact. You might think they’ll appreciate your honesty, but you’ll damage their perception of you as an entertainer.
Accept the fact that no people don’t want to see and especially pay to see an amateur. People want a professional entertainer. Professionals practice so that they don’t make amateurish mistakes. The way I look at it is this, because you’ve practiced and rehearsed, rehearsed and practiced, regardless of doing it alone or for family or friends, you’ve actually performed your show from opening to close so many times before this event, and that you’ve gone over and over everything you’ll say and do, each suggestion… and so on, this public show ought to feel familiar to you like you’ve done it before, which, in essence you have… so neither think of this public show as your first show, nor tell anyone that it is your first public show.
Two very important points or stage tactics at this point: Keep the volunteers’ eyes closed and have them stay seated during the first three routines. That’s eyes closed and locked tight and remain seated as you (perform the suggestion to follow). Both things will deepen their trance experience. You want them to access their respective imaginations and experience hypnosis in their heads, first.
Here are some routines I recommend you adopt and make your own:
Imagine playing a piano or other musical instrument like a violin or fiddle (aided by instrumental background music)
Imagine driving a speedy race car or flying a jet plane (aided by background sound effects)
Imagine holding their favourite small pet or bird
The reason why I suggest these routines is that they are easy to IMAGINE FOR YOUR VOLUNTEERS. IMAGINATION IS THE KEY TO A GOOD HYPNOSIS SHOW.
There’s no STRESS or DANGER following these types of suggestions, as they are seated with eyes closed. Such suggestions ARE EASY TO DO and get into. You want the volunteers’ easy and full compliance that such routines will help establish. THEY ARE ALSO EASY for you, the hypnotist, to MANGE ON STAGE. (The piano playing routine is great for the above mentioned prompting of certain, under-performing subjects. I’ll talk more about this later on in this ebook.)
Many stage hypnotists, frankly, use either these exact routines or variations on them. The best do the first two or three routines mentioned with the volunteers’ eyes closed and seated. Many also do the old hot to cold—imagine you’re lying on a sandy beach. However, that can be problematic and here’s why. Better yet, let me ask you this: why might this beach routine cause the loss of some volunteers, especially women?
You will be surprised how many people can imagine playing a piano, even a violin—although some people can’t imagine playing a violin as easily as playing a piano.
Anyway.
The lying on a beach with the suggestion that it’s getting hotter and hotter can more often than not cause people, especially body conscious females, to feel UNCOMFORTABLE lying imagining they are in the sand.
Furthermore, not everyone likes the beach, especially older, out of shape women (more than men), many people don’t like the hot sun, sticky suntan oils, resulting sunburn, don’t enjoy sand in their swim suits, and so on. Also, imagining heat is much more difficult for people than imagining cold.
And believe it or not, I’ve asked people who’ve gotten up suddenly and walked off stage, out of trance, why they are leaving the show—the majority of whom are women, the LYING ON THE BEACH routine caused them to think they’ll have to take their clothes off and to have get-naked thoughts.
So, stick with the piano playing and driving a car and then suggest that they imagine a small pet, and your show will always get off to a successful start.
