Stage Hypnosis - Oversaturated?

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Permalink Reply by Patrick McInnis on January 10, 2009 at 5:22pm

Live entertainment will never be replaced by youtube or internet productions anytime soon. Short of some Solient Green/1984 future society, people will continue to pay to be entertained as they have for over 2000 years now. Thankfully people will still see ordinary people become Wayne Brady right in front of their eyes thanks to stage hypnosis. Here is a fairly subjective review of my first show where a volunteer who happen to be a hypnotherapist(on this site no less) https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1446345528779760054&po...
To respond to the original thread, I don't believe that stage hypnosis is saturated in the least, it may be more prevalent today, but thats it.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Taylor C.Ht on January 10, 2009 at 8:15pm

Funny how in the late 90's just before I became interested in hypnosis, I would not know where to find one. Now I see them everywhere. I would think with the talented and untalented there is enough work to go around as ther is in any industry. If you are not getting enough work then perfect your craft and increase your marketing. Give your customers more than they expect and do it better than your competition.

Bruce Taylor CHT

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Permalink Reply by Marc Savard on January 10, 2009 at 8:36pm

Well said Bruce. :-)

Marc

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Z - The HypnotiComic on January 11, 2009 at 11:09am

Thanks, Emily. Showing stage clips is a great convincer.

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Z - The HypnotiComic on January 14, 2009 at 9:27am

"Alway give them 15 minutes more than they paid for." is fine advice as long as you, at the same time, leave them wanting more.

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Permalink Reply by Buzz Collins on January 14, 2009 at 10:49am

It never ceases to amaze me, with all the stage hypnotists shows out there, when I ask my audience at the beginning of a show as to how many of them have been to a hypnosis show before, it's usually less than 5 per cent of the audience. As has been pointed out throughout this thread - anyone can learn hypnosis - however, there are much fewer that can grasp the concept of what it take to be a performer.

BC

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Permalink Reply by Karl V on January 15, 2009 at 7:15am

Agree that the business is over saturated...
Insurance fees are rising...
Theaters don't want to take the risk...
Past year was almost dead...

BUT you need to find new markets and options, You need to find your niche or make one.

In my case, I'm doing more Motivational Speakers presentations and I'm combining Motivational Speaking with Stage Hypnosis to support some of my points during a presentation with successful results.

Just my 2c

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on July 31, 2009 at 5:25am

Ah ... Some life in the Thread ... Boy James you struck a real nerve here. Like it or not most of the clients we see will have seen or vicariously experienced a stage show of some type and will have formed an option if not a "core belief" about how hypnosis "works" from the experience, Further ... like it or not.. a good hypnotist's "skill set" is very much shaped but how well he knows "stage effects" and can use them as client convincers and change tools. I am in total agreement with you on the book issue and the quality of Stage Hypnosis education that occurs when folks don't really vet the trainer they have chosen. I know there are some GREAT trainers out there. I have personally studied with both Richard Nongard and Richard Rumble, I have seen both of them in a broad range of performance situations. They do what they tell you to do. They don't hand you scripts of the Nongard Kein Erickson Elman induction because they are good enough on their own to not need the feigned association with legends of the craft. They answer emails and phone calls and genuinely care about the quality of the information they give you. Then there are the "others" who hand you word for word magic scripts, write books filled with fluff and pump them full of marketing hype and "less than readily identifiable awards" from organizations you never heard off. Well in some circles an expert is someone who is fifty miles away from home with a brief case, but that sure doesn't fly in hypnosis ...or does it? I for one am really tired of hearing "I played Vegas" from folks who only rented a conference room there and flew out a few days later. That demeans the accomplishments of folks like Michael and Terry and Marc and Justin. (If you need last names you don't really need to be reading the thread). I for one would want to ask any trainer how much experience he has and I would want to know "how many shows he did and where he did them". In this era of You tube self promotion, I would sure want to see a video or two or ten of my proposed trainer in action in a real show hypnotizing adults, not teenagers who haven't slept in 24 hours. It would be great to see the whole show, unedited, with all the little glitches and course corrections, because that is what makes a good show great and that is what happens in a real show. Real shows are not two minute stooged video clips.
Do you REALLY want to "learn" stage hypnosis? Watch the Masters first. Study Martin St. James, Jim Hoke or Ormand Mcgill. Then find a mentor and teacher whose style "works" for you. I mentioned Richard Rumble and Richard Nongard. There are of course others Brian David Phillips, Mike Doubet, Justin Tranz, Marc Savard and the inimitable John Cerbone, are only a few that come to mind. But for goodness sakes remember that a hypnotist can only "be as good as his core beliefs allow him to be". The real danger in choosing a "less than experienced and adequate" trainer is that he can imprint his beliefs about what can be accomplished on his students. Perhaps, just perhaps, that may be why there are some less than stellar performances gumming up the works in the stage hypnosis market .... Hmm.. Nod your head if you understand.



Hugh Cole
The pretty goodest hypnotist on the planet.



James Szeles said:

Many times people who book a stage show have no idea what they are buying and go by price alone. So if your working at Wal-Mart (no slam to the people who work there) and are making $9.00 a hour then $300 to $400 a show is a lot of money. They not only lowers the bar on price, but not having the right training and doing a bad show hurt the chance of the client ever using a hypnotist again. How many time have you got a booking because someone seen a hypnotist at school, college, club and thought it was a good idea for them? I ask hypnotist who run the school why then do it and it's alway "someone has to teach them how to do it right" But if you think about it, if you are really making a living performing they why teach? Could it be you don't have the booking they can not make a living performing and are looking for a quick buck? I have worked on a one to one basic with several hypnotist over the years free of charge and would expect other hypnotist to do the same. If you have really made or are making a living performing then have some respect for the business by 1.) not filling the market with three day hypnotist and 2.) helping hypnotist who are trying to get started with out ripping them off. The only people I've see who think Orman McGll book is outdated are hypnotist trying to push their own books or selling a hypnosis course. Each year it gets harder to find good insurance. I think it would be fare to charge stage hypnotist who teach a extra fee for insuring them. Why should we have to pay for there greed. Sorry but this is one subject that really piss me off.
James

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Permalink Reply by the grumpy hypnotist on July 31, 2009 at 9:59am

Interesting... I almost never have to address the "clucking like a chicken" thing. And I don't understand why anyone would need to explain to any client that they should take hypnosis and/or me the hypnotist really seriously. I would assume that any client who is in my office and willing to give me moolah does not need convincing.

It is good and profitable to attract clients who are not ignorant fools. I suggest the following marketing experiment: place in your marketing materials the warning: "If you are worried that I will make you cluck like a chicken, you are likely an idiot who is not serious about solving your problem. So please seek help from another practitioner." Because individual humans like to think that they are not the ignorant and foolish ones, they will automatically think that you must be the right practitioner for them, the smart ones. I would not be surprised if someone who ran this experiment saw an increase in their business, with higher quality clients.

Anyway, I don't "get" stage/street hypnosis either (I find any sort of live entertainment to be repulsive), but I think there are more significant reasons for the hypnosis industry to be mock-worthy, that have nothing to do with stage shows. If this is not a "very serious profession" I think it's probably because most "clinical hypnotherapists" don't seem to take it very seriously in the first place.

I wonder, is it possible that pre-emptively addressing these misconceptions, and feeling frustrated about "having to", is actually based on practitioner insecurity about the lack of respect for the profession, not on what a client is really needing or wanting to understand?

Emily said:

Personally, I'm not a fan of stage hypnosis. I have to explain to nearly every client what stage hypnosis is and why they should take what we're doing seriouslly. I find stage hypnosis to make a mockery of what should be a very serious profession. Again, this is only MHO. I hope that all stage hypnotists take the time to explain the serious benefits of hypnosis to their audience.

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Permalink Reply by Pattie Freeman CH.t, MST on August 4, 2009 at 6:46pm

Rusty Z

So true,the personality is so important and the cream of the crop will rise to the top and the Part time wannabes will fade off and drop off realizing just how much time a stage hypnotist dedicates to his profession.
I have put alot of time. money and schooling into my profession and each and every time I do a show it is different and high powered. No matter for a small or large crowd they get me 110%.
I love what I do ..no matter how much you get paid if your doing it for that reason only you won't last in this profession..
I love seeing new Hypnotist it just brings me more business knowing experience pays off in the long run..My only concern with these new ones is that they feel they need to provide shows from anywhere from $100-300 a show, do they realize it just makes them seem desperate and they need to refocus and by doing this they are selling them short and it looks as hypnotist are not considered as a career but as a hobby.
I am a full time stage hypnotist and hypnotherapist and I never have to sell my self low to get a gig or session they see what they are getting and they are willing to pay the price. I know I hear this from many stage hypnotist and other hypnotherapist they wish everyone would take pride in what they do and show that you are worth it...

Sorry this was long I just needed to view my thoughts...thanks


Rusty Z - The HypnotiComic said:

It's only oversaturated with bad acts. Your act has so little to do with hypnosis per se, and everything to do with personality.
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people (and their attached personalities) who shouldn't be on a stage anywhere ever, are plunking down a couple of thousand bucks so that they can be "certified" show business professionals.
p.s. At least people who do karaoke know that they're amateurs. If they'd paid someone to teach them to sing and given them a "Certified Singer" certificate, I bet they'd refer to themselves as professionals.

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