Belligerent Drunks at Hypnosis Stage Shows

Over the past few years I have had occasion to host a few shows at private parties, which had several or more drunks in attendance. I have seen the full range, from trying to get into my show and acting up, to stupid, nasty or even somewhat confrontational comments about my show and what Hypnosis is and is not. Almost too drunk to stand on their feet, and like a drunk, highly opinionated on things they know nothing about. One drunk, at a major University, actually, also a steroid junkie, wanted to fight me, to prove some point, as he claimed he learned on the Penn and Teller show that Hypnosis didn’t exist.

I have usually handled them carefully, as drunks tend to be very unstable people, either making a friend of them, or just ignoring their words as unimportant, giving so little importance to what they say, as they then sort of just wander away.

To others in the stage show world, how do you deal and what worked?

Tags: Belligerent, Drunks, Hypnosis, Shows, Stage

Favorite

0 members favorited this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Rumble on May 30, 2011 at 1:50pm

Well... when someone wants to fight you over hypnosis being real or not... i suppose the BEST thing is just to have security bounce them out.... OR.. you could use the carotid artery induction that Ormand has in the EARLY renditions of his book.... chop chop and down he goes... LOL ( that was a joke for those of you who do not know me... LOL... )

I generally don't have problems with drunks... on the few times I have.. i either make then an ally or make them the foe and turn the audience against them... i like to stay away from hostile crowds... but thats just me...

Richard

Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on May 30, 2011 at 2:15pm

Unfortunately, when dealing with drunks, rational approaches usually fail. I suppose you have a couple of choices:

1. tolerate and diffuse

2. challenge and conflict

3. call in the gens d'arme

4. let them puke on your show (this is a play out of my book, when one actually puked on my shoe.)

Permalink Reply by Richard Rumble on May 30, 2011 at 2:26pm

i like to get them offstage before they puke... HEY... you could always make the suggestions that they are going to puke and get them off the stage that way....

Permalink Reply by John Cerbone - The Trance-Master on May 30, 2011 at 4:52pm

In the cases I am referring to, they either generally tried to invade my showed to be a part of it initially, only to get bounced out, those people you can be friendly with. The others, normally start their antics post show. Richard, I kind of like the carotid artery induction, it sort of reminds me of Mr. Spock. I live in NYC, it tends to be a be a bit hostile here ROTFL

Kelley, I have used all of those tactics.

I suppose a good portion of this comes from the fact that so many of us these days, are not actually doing shows on a standard stage, but on the floor right in the middle of the audience. When up on the stage, there is a space, the buffer, distance between you and the audience. When you were working on floor level, those things simply do not exist. At a thousands of shows I’ve done, there have only been about six or seven times when this is an issue, but, nonetheless, it is a bit ridiculous.

Going back to my Star Trek reference, it was a line in one of the episodes, “his words are unimportant.“ Often, giving little or no value to what someone is saying as they are being annoying, is generally the best defense.

In those moments, I am relatively well defended. LOL

Generally a rule of thumb here is, the more challenging the room, the more challenging some of the members of the audience and to be.

Permalink Reply by Justin James on May 30, 2011 at 5:03pm

John I have always preempted the drunks and make pepper my initial commentary that while the more you drink the funnier I get however if you have had more then a few perhaps kicking back in the audience and just enjoying the show is the best place to be because licking up your own puke is not fun....

Now I am paraphrasing here however normally this works...

Next step is looking at people who are being idiots and telling telling the audience that we are all here to have a good time and everyone has spent there dollars to be able to enjoy the evening.. Right? and the Audience cheers... If my gut says not enough I will tell everyone that sometimes... It is rare but sometimes we get someone who wants to be a jerk and spend the night proving me wrong.... Now if you are that type of person I am sorry because you are not getting a refund however out of respect for everyone else here please just kick back and enjoy the show.

In a worst case scenario if recruiting the audience has not helped then I guess you can call security. 99% of the time the audience will police the idiot.

When I did my show for MTV. I did have a girl puke all over however she was very noticeable and I had placed her on her own.. ( we did the induction back stage)

Justin James

Permalink Reply by John Cerbone - The Trance-Master on May 30, 2011 at 5:12pm

The idiots are the ones I was thinking of at a recent show. There is no cure for stupid! And you are quite right, the people will generally police themselves.

Permalink Reply by Justin James on May 30, 2011 at 5:18pm

I very clearly point out this show is for you guys and you have paid to be here. I put the responsibility back on them and do not move forward with the show until the problem is solved which can briefly break rapport but if you handle it well usually does not cause any problems

Permalink Reply by Tommy Vee on May 31, 2011 at 7:33am

John & Friends-

Here's what I do & teach to our Stage Hypnosis students.

First of all, it rarely happens that a hypnotist has a problem with a drunk or heckler. Believe it or not, these people are actually afraid of a hypnotist. They will challenge a magician, comic or singer, but rarely a stage hypnotist. It has happened to me less than 5 times in over 20 years of shows and they happened earlier in my career.

Here are the steps to take:

1. Ignore the person.

2. If they continue, ask them to cooperate. Please sir or miss, I am trying to do a show here, please help us out.

3. If they continue, turn the audience on them. Ladies and gentlemen, it is apparent that this person wants to disrupt the show and
your evening. This should work well.

4. If steps 1, 2 & 3 fail, you ask the management to remove the person from the room.

If you have a feeling that there are drunks in the audience & you do not want them volunteering, then mention in your pre-talk that if you have had a few drinks too many, please enjoy the show from your table. Absolutely NO drinks are to be brought on stage & if a drunk makes it past you & you find out during the show, simply dismiss them.

The other thing to do is gather a little background information when you book the show! How many people coming? Are you having dinner? Is my show right after dinner? Is this a bachelor party? Questions like these can help you get a feel of the audience. If you run into a drunk or heckler at your show, stay calm and follow the steps listed above. In most cases, they will cooperate if you ask them.

Good luck!

Tommy Vee

Again this is rare and I hope this information is helpful.

Permalink Reply by Justin James on May 31, 2011 at 7:38am

LOL Tommy I think I had just said that...

Permalink Reply by Justin James on May 31, 2011 at 7:46am

John I was a a Metallica concert one night and some idiot was throwing bottles at the band. They stopped the show dead and told the crowd to deal with the idiot... It was not pretty but it was dealt with very quickly....

And although it has been very rare as Tommy has pointed out when it does happen it can through a show off kilter if you are not prepared.

Justin James said:

LOL Tommy I think I had just said that...

Permalink Reply by Brian Parks on May 31, 2011 at 2:01pm

Irish quote - “A drunkard is like a whiskey bottle, all neck and belly and no head”

Drunk people can be difficult to hypnotize and unruly once you do. Like Tommy advises I encourage them to not volunteer. Then again if only 20-30 people show up or it's private party of 20-30 you have to make due.

Since bars and nightclubs rarely have a back stage I end up mingling. I encounter, as you do too I assume, the alpha male macho men who make a point of stating that they cannot be hypnotized. Logical explanations are not too effective in bars. Some hypnotists take this as a challenge, especially if control and power are part of their schtick. I usually deflect with something like "I have ADD too, but if you listen and follow my instructions you can do it". One of these guys is usually the drunk that fears you and will want to challenge you. If I spot them and can make them laugh, preferably at themselves, by showtime it's all good.

I saw the Penn & Teller Bullshit where they investigated hypnosis. It included a segment with Wendi the orgasm lady. At the end they decided that hypnosis is a social agreement of some kind. (???) I think I read that in the wikipedia entry for hypnosis also. In a later episode they backed off to a "we just don't know" position. What-eevver. Hey it works. People stop smoking, painless dentistry, fun on stage.

Permalink Reply by John Cerbone - The Trance-Master on June 1, 2011 at 7:07am

Thanks for sharing all the insights guys.

For me, it's always been a matter of rising to the occasion, being bigger than the challenge you are confronted with. The crazier the audience, and circumstances, the bigger I am energy wise.

These drunks are almost always in situations where there is no security, and no stage, in a bar, restaurant, or a catering hall, where this stuff happens. Good to know I am not alone.