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Back up material - what to do when the crowd locks up

We have all had shows where the audience has failed to respond for one reason or another - you were pulled as a surprise on them (and it scared the daylights out of them), th room layout was so bad that no one could see OR hear you or there were five people in the front row who simply would not shut up...

So what do you do when that happens? Do you have a backup act that you can use? Is this a part of your strategy and do you make sure that the client is aware of the possibility - or do you hope that it won't happen and try to "wing it" when it does?

I have two different backup acts that I have and that I use for those rare times that an audience will lock up and I'll fill you in on them in a bit. But right now - it's your turn... what do you do ... what do you do?

Tags: backup, hypnosis, hypnotism, plan, shows

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Permalink Reply by Lee Darrow on November 13, 2008 at 4:03pm: This is a great set up for high schools and for younger audiences and would probably play well for fairs and fund-raising event programs. It has excellent engagement of the audience and a good lead-in to getting participation.

Your explanation of the reasons for each interaction were also excellent and well thought out as well. Kudos.

Unfortunately, and I'm speaking from experience in this, this same routine would get most (not all, but many) performers eaten for breakfast in a nightclub or bar setting. Audiences in those venues are often either of the "I'm from Missouri" school of thought or, when they lock up, start to heckle and the opening line in the presentation is a wide open door for a drunken heckler and, where one enters, others will often follow. In many nightclub venues, the audiences expect and actually seem to want a show that features embarrassment. And hecklers, unless handles very very carefully, will escalate and actually further alienate a performer from the rest of the audience, especially if the performer engages in a "put-down duel" with the heckler.

But no one solution will fit every situation, so applause for this one as it does a superb job in a number of difficult program settings! The more tools we each have in our tool kits, the more jobs we will all be able to successfully conclude!

Lee Darrow, C.H.
The Hypnosis Safety Guy; ▶ Reply to This