How long is your stage induction?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Cressman on July 6, 2010 at 5:15pm

No hard and fast answer to that question... as long as it takes... and not a second more or less.

I use Geoffrey Ronning's EKG induction, which is typically about 5-10 minutes, depending.

Sometimes I do a deepener, sometimes not. It just depends. Sometimes I walk out and bring up people from the audience, or just get their eyes open.

It's really a hard call.

John Cressman

Permalink Reply by Brian David Phillips on July 6, 2010 at 6:46pm

I've done quite a few shows of the 25-35 min. range in addition to my regular shows. I've posted the induction section (group handclasp which takes about one minute to go down the row) to youtube and here as well. 5-10 min to get everything into it, depending upon context . . . sometimes you need more time and other times they are primed and ready at the get-go. No hard fast rule, note your audience and work from there.

- Brian

Permalink Reply by Brian David Phillips on July 6, 2010 at 6:47pm

However, do keep in mind that sometimes too quick can confuse folks. The mystery of the induction can be part of the experience (so if you use a speed induction then roll into deepeners and suggestibility effects to compound responsiveness and engage the audience in the sense of wonder). Honestly, sometimes if it seems to easy - and it is - people are less likely to believe it. The joy of the Catch 22.

- Brian

Permalink Reply by Justin James on July 6, 2010 at 9:27pm

Ok Normally you would go.
5 Min Intro
5 Min getting volunteers on stage
5 Min Induction...

15 min total... fine on a hour show... Not good on a 30 min
So you have to compress everything ...

So intro and getting volunteers has to be compressed and so does your induction... You can compress it all to under 5 minutes however you really need to be polished on your pretalk and your pre show marketing needs to be good...

What is the venue that you are performing in that requires such short shows??

Justin James..

www.thehypnosiscompany.com
www.JustinJames.us
www.safeonstage.com

Permalink Reply by Denise Oatley Hall on July 7, 2010 at 4:37am

HI James,

I agree with John and Brian. No more, no less and truly for the venue you are playing, the induction can really be a great part of the show. I think as a hypnotist that sometimes I forget that the whole process can be magical for those watching...if I make it magical and entertaining. It is not just the beginning of the show for audience members. They like trying to figure out "who is really in". I had a camera guy who was right in the audience filming footage for me last year and I had the best time listening to him tell me what the audience was saying all through the show. It was illuminating for me.

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on July 7, 2010 at 6:04am

Thanks, all, for your responses. I really appreciate your willingness to help someone who is still new to stage hypnosis. I've done one show, in which I had a leisurely 30-minute comedy pre-talk with imagination games, optical illusions, lots of NLP to build expectation, and so on. This experience is making me really boil things down to the basics.

@BDP--I'm planning to make hand-clasp the center of my induction, so I'll check out your video. I definitely want to make the induction part of the entertainment, which is why I like the hand-clasp.

@Justin--I'll be performing at a pirate festival, very similar to a renaissance festival, which I know is a venue Denise and John have both done. A typical show (of any type) in that setting is thirty minutes with a fifteen minute buffer--in other words, 45 minutes between when I step on stage and when the next act steps on stage, and it has to run like clockwork.

So my goal is to do a three-minute pre-talk and a five-minute induction, so I can have 20 to 25 minutes for the show itself. That gives me five minutes to draw a crowd (which I'll have been working on all day) and 5-10 to collect tips--unless I come up with a tip-collecting skit . . . *sound of brain gears turning*

@Denise--Thanks for all your insights!

Xie-xie,

James

Permalink Reply by Justin James on July 7, 2010 at 7:07am

You need to add buffer time to set up and tear down chairs then.... In that setting I do recommend that you aim to get an hour time slot if you are not very experienced.... As for tip collecting are you not getting paid by the festival???

If you are I would be very careful with that... If and the other performers are doing the same then I would work that into the show....

Give a volunteer a single and make him run to the tip Jar praying to the tip god.... I don't know....

Denise & Brian are right in that a good induction can be good for a show.. looks cool as they melt... however people have no clue what to expect.... So if you are hyping the show all day... Then you can get volunteers to do anything if you set expectations...

Justin James

www.thehypnosiscompany.com
www.justinjames.us

James Hazlerig said:

Thanks, all, for your responses. I really appreciate your willingness to help someone who is still new to stage hypnosis. I've done one show, in which I had a leisurely 30-minute comedy pre-talk with imagination games, optical illusions, lots of NLP to build expectation, and so on. This experience is making me really boil things down to the basics.

@BDP--I'm planning to make hand-clasp the center of my induction, so I'll check out your video. I definitely want to make the induction part of the entertainment, which is why I like the hand-clasp.

@Justin--I'll be performing at a pirate festival, very similar to a renaissance festival, which I know is a venue Denise and John have both done. A typical show (of any type) in that setting is thirty minutes with a fifteen minute buffer--in other words, 45 minutes between when I step on stage and when the next act steps on stage, and it has to run like clockwork.

So my goal is to do a three-minute pre-talk and a five-minute induction, so I can have 20 to 25 minutes for the show itself. That gives me five minutes to draw a crowd (which I'll have been working on all day) and 5-10 to collect tips--unless I come up with a tip-collecting skit . . . *sound of brain gears turning*

@Denise--Thanks for all your insights!

Xie-xie,

James

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on July 7, 2010 at 8:21am

Hi, Justin,

Thanks again for your advice, and for the reminder about set-up and tear-down time.

I am getting paid by the festival, but I make sure that I always have "active hat pass" included in my contract. (I have over ten years as a comedy musician in these venues.) If a faire won't agree to that, I have to up my price.

As for getting an hour time-slot--it's too late for this festival. When I can, I get that for my music shows, but it's often like pulling teeth to get an entertainment director to agree to it. I feel lucky to have the fifteen-minute buffer.

Once I'm better established as a stage hypnotist, I'll have the pull to demand it, but as I said, it's too late for this time around.

And, yes, I am planning to use all of my free time to hype my show. That's something else I've learned from ten plus years doing music. :-)

(A few months ago, I was doing a little street hypnosis in between my music shows at a festival, and people kept asking me when my hypnosis show was . . . )

Thanks for your help,

James

Justin James said:

You need to add buffer time to set up and tear down chairs then.... In that setting I do recommend that you aim to get an hour time slot if you are not very experienced.... As for tip collecting are you not getting paid by the festival???

If you are I would be very careful with that... If and the other performers are doing the same then I would work that into the show....

Give a volunteer a single and make him run to the tip Jar praying to the tip god.... I don't know....

Denise & Brian are right in that a good induction can be good for a show.. looks cool as they melt... however people have no clue what to expect.... So if you are hyping the show all day... Then you can get volunteers to do anything if you set expectations...

Justin James

www.thehypnosiscompany.com
www.justinjames.us

James Hazlerig said:

Thanks, all, for your responses. I really appreciate your willingness to help someone who is still new to stage hypnosis. I've done one show, in which I had a leisurely 30-minute comedy pre-talk with imagination games, optical illusions, lots of NLP to build expectation, and so on. This experience is making me really boil things down to the basics.

@BDP--I'm planning to make hand-clasp the center of my induction, so I'll check out your video. I definitely want to make the induction part of the entertainment, which is why I like the hand-clasp.

@Justin--I'll be performing at a pirate festival, very similar to a renaissance festival, which I know is a venue Denise and John have both done. A typical show (of any type) in that setting is thirty minutes with a fifteen minute buffer--in other words, 45 minutes between when I step on stage and when the next act steps on stage, and it has to run like clockwork.

So my goal is to do a three-minute pre-talk and a five-minute induction, so I can have 20 to 25 minutes for the show itself. That gives me five minutes to draw a crowd (which I'll have been working on all day) and 5-10 to collect tips--unless I come up with a tip-collecting skit . . . *sound of brain gears turning*

@Denise--Thanks for all your insights!

Xie-xie,

James

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on July 22, 2010 at 6:11am

Since this thread developed into a discussion on my upcoming show, I thought I'd give an update. It's like a war story before the show has even started . . .

So I emailed the pirate fest producer to touch base, make sure we were getting the right number of folding chairs lined up, see if I could find out my schedule, and so on.

He wrote back to say that I was scheduled on three different stages, of differing sizes, only one of which has PA. And he added that "for the smaller two stages, you might want to just do your music act instead." Oh, and then he added that show times were 30 minutes with no buffer. And my one time on the big stage was 11 o'clock each morning. (translation = dead time!)

So I wrote three emails, deleted each of them, ranted to my wife, and finally wrote a very succinct email asking if he really wanted a hypnosis show at his festival . . . If he did not, I wanted to know now; if he did, we needed to discuss what was required to make it a success.

I was pretty much prepared to walk away, which I admit I was rather torn up about. I'm sure to the veterans who have done hundreds or thousands of shows, that might seem silly--but this is only my second shot, and I was excited about getting to find out once and for all whether this is really what I want to be doing.

So, I checked my email a few minutes later, expecting to read, "No, just come play music," in which case I was going to turn down the gig. Instead, the email read, "We definitely see the value of a hypnosis show at our festival. Please call now to discuss."

Well, I called, and we had a great discussion. The final verdict--I'm getting my own stage, with no one pressing me for time. My chairs can stay set up there the whole time. After looking at the grand schedule, I get to declare my own show times, which will appear in the printed program. The festival management is even working on getting shade for my audience and volunteers.

Whew!

Back to the topic at hand--I'm still really glad that I have worked on a three-minute pretalk and an entertaining five-minute induction. But I'm also glad to know I can spend a little bit more time deepening, and add another skit or two to my show. :-)

James

Permalink Reply by Justin James on July 22, 2010 at 7:42am

Yes James you are going to get many more like that.... It is good you got things turned around in your favor however you will be faced with hard shows and tight spots... The quicker you learn how to handle them and "if you even want to" the better..... Otherwise you will land a bigger show one day and flop when it becomes difficult.......

Good luck with the shows...

PS... You do have your liability insurance to perform right? www.safeonstage.com


Justin James

www.JustinJames.us
www.thehypnosiscompany.com



James Hazlerig said:

Since this thread developed into a discussion on my upcoming show, I thought I'd give an update. It's like a war story before the show has even started . . .

So I emailed the pirate fest producer to touch base, make sure we were getting the right number of folding chairs lined up, see if I could find out my schedule, and so on.

He wrote back to say that I was scheduled on three different stages, of differing sizes, only one of which has PA. And he added that "for the smaller two stages, you might want to just do your music act instead." Oh, and then he added that show times were 30 minutes with no buffer. And my one time on the big stage was 11 o'clock each morning. (translation = dead time!)

So I wrote three emails, deleted each of them, ranted to my wife, and finally wrote a very succinct email asking if he really wanted a hypnosis show at his festival . . . If he did not, I wanted to know now; if he did, we needed to discuss what was required to make it a success.

I was pretty much prepared to walk away, which I admit I was rather torn up about. I'm sure to the veterans who have done hundreds or thousands of shows, that might seem silly--but this is only my second shot, and I was excited about getting to find out once and for all whether this is really what I want to be doing.

So, I checked my email a few minutes later, expecting to read, "No, just come play music," in which case I was going to turn down the gig. Instead, the email read, "We definitely see the value of a hypnosis show at our festival. Please call now to discuss."

Well, I called, and we had a great discussion. The final verdict--I'm getting my own stage, with no one pressing me for time. My chairs can stay set up there the whole time. After looking at the grand schedule, I get to declare my own show times, which will appear in the printed program. The festival management is even working on getting shade for my audience and volunteers.

Whew!

Back to the topic at hand--I'm still really glad that I have worked on a three-minute pretalk and an entertaining five-minute induction. But I'm also glad to know I can spend a little bit more time deepening, and add another skit or two to my show. :-)

James

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on July 23, 2010 at 6:58am

Thanks, Justin--I really appreciate your advice. I understand that there will be tough shows and tight spots, and I'm not planning to shy away from them. But I'm also going to do everything I can to stack the deck in my favor. :-)

James

Justin James said:

Yes James you are going to get many more like that.... It is good you got things turned around in your favor however you will be faced with hard shows and tight spots... The quicker you learn how to handle them and "if you even want to" the better..... Otherwise you will land a bigger show one day and flop when it becomes difficult.......

Good luck with the shows...

PS... You do have your liability insurance to perform right? www.safeonstage.com


Justin James

www.JustinJames.us
www.thehypnosiscompany.com



James Hazlerig said:

Since this thread developed into a discussion on my upcoming show, I thought I'd give an update. It's like a war story before the show has even started . . .

So I emailed the pirate fest producer to touch base, make sure we were getting the right number of folding chairs lined up, see if I could find out my schedule, and so on.

He wrote back to say that I was scheduled on three different stages, of differing sizes, only one of which has PA. And he added that "for the smaller two stages, you might want to just do your music act instead." Oh, and then he added that show times were 30 minutes with no buffer. And my one time on the big stage was 11 o'clock each morning. (translation = dead time!)

So I wrote three emails, deleted each of them, ranted to my wife, and finally wrote a very succinct email asking if he really wanted a hypnosis show at his festival . . . If he did not, I wanted to know now; if he did, we needed to discuss what was required to make it a success.

I was pretty much prepared to walk away, which I admit I was rather torn up about. I'm sure to the veterans who have done hundreds or thousands of shows, that might seem silly--but this is only my second shot, and I was excited about getting to find out once and for all whether this is really what I want to be doing.

So, I checked my email a few minutes later, expecting to read, "No, just come play music," in which case I was going to turn down the gig. Instead, the email read, "We definitely see the value of a hypnosis show at our festival. Please call now to discuss."

Well, I called, and we had a great discussion. The final verdict--I'm getting my own stage, with no one pressing me for time. My chairs can stay set up there the whole time. After looking at the grand schedule, I get to declare my own show times, which will appear in the printed program. The festival management is even working on getting shade for my audience and volunteers.

Whew!

Back to the topic at hand--I'm still really glad that I have worked on a three-minute pretalk and an entertaining five-minute induction. But I'm also glad to know I can spend a little bit more time deepening, and add another skit or two to my show. :-)

James

Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on July 23, 2010 at 8:25am

I am voting with the no hard and fast rule folks like Brian. The pretalk and setup is an intimate part of the induction. I like to work with individuals seperately as part of the induction. So I sort of consider the induction as part of the show skits. Since I mostly work with smaller groups. I make the pretalk a bit educational and the induction a bit fancier. Usually I can spot my No 1 and No. 2 volunteer during the pretalk and go out and get them. They help get the rest if I need more. You can do a rapid progressive in two minutes and you can do it on the whole audience as part of the pretalk. Only the fun folk will go along .... isn't THAT what you want. ??? Hmmmm

Hugh Cole
The Pretty Goodest Hypnotist on the Planet

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