To Bump or Not to Bump

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Rumble on January 16, 2011 at 3:42pm

Hi James.....

 

I will stick my neck into this one and add my 2 cents... 

 

Were you doing a show as a comedy hypnosis show... or was it supposed to be a demonstration on how wonderful the powers of hypnosis were and you were trying to convince people that they could be hypnotized for other things like smoking cessation or weight loss?  ( that was tongue in cheek for those of you who don't know me that well)  

 

Bottom line... did the client that paid you enjoy the show?  Did the audience enjoy the show?  Did YOU enjoy the show?    Pretty much in that order.... as a stage hypnotist that is the job as I see it.  When you have really small shows like this.. when you start bumping the ones you don't THINK are really hypnotized... you can find yourself in a situation with only one or two people on stage...  I have been there and carried it off.. but its a LOT more fun for everyone if there are 5 or 6 or 8 on stage still..... 

 

My rule of thumb... if they are on my stage and being compliant... I keep them.  If they are a distraction, I see if I can make up a skit that is perfect for their distraction and use it...  generally once they see that I am in control of what I let happen on the stage... they either drop into total compliance or are suddenly "AWAKE" and self eject from the show....   I have had situations where I have bumped some clown who is being really disruptive to the show... and because he ( and it is generally a HE) is the Alpha male of his group or perhaps even the Alpha male of the school... the crowd turns on you.... 

 

I have a show in a few hours for a nice small party of 20 ish... people here in Laguna Beach...  I expect I will have 10 to 15 volunteers.. I expect to keep 8 - 10 of them.. but if I don't, it will still be a good show with the kids I keep on stage.  Its all about who YOU are as an entertainer and can you make it ENTERTAINING for everyone under all conditions.

 

 

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on January 16, 2011 at 4:04pm

Wow, thank you, Richard. I feel a lot better about my show now. I know your question was rhetorical, but my view is that I'm there to entertain first and promote hypnosis second. (Since I do run a hypnosis practice in the area, picking up smoking cessation clients and so on is one side-benefit to doing the show.)

 

I look forward to hearing all opinions, of course.

 

James

Richard Rumble said:

Hi James.....

 

I will stick my neck into this one and add my 2 cents... 

 

Were you doing a show as a comedy hypnosis show... or was it supposed to be a demonstration on how wonderful the powers of hypnosis were and you were trying to convince people that they could be hypnotized for other things like smoking cessation or weight loss?  ( that was tongue in cheek for those of you who don't know me that well)  

 

Bottom line... did the client that paid you enjoy the show?  Did the audience enjoy the show?  Did YOU enjoy the show?    Pretty much in that order.... as a stage hypnotist that is the job as I see it.  When you have really small shows like this.. when you start bumping the ones you don't THINK are really hypnotized... you can find yourself in a situation with only one or two people on stage...  I have been there and carried it off.. but its a LOT more fun for everyone if there are 5 or 6 or 8 on stage still..... 

 

My rule of thumb... if they are on my stage and being compliant... I keep them.  If they are a distraction, I see if I can make up a skit that is perfect for their distraction and use it...  generally once they see that I am in control of what I let happen on the stage... they either drop into total compliance or are suddenly "AWAKE" and self eject from the show....   I have had situations where I have bumped some clown who is being really disruptive to the show... and because he ( and it is generally a HE) is the Alpha male of his group or perhaps even the Alpha male of the school... the crowd turns on you.... 

 

I have a show in a few hours for a nice small party of 20 ish... people here in Laguna Beach...  I expect I will have 10 to 15 volunteers.. I expect to keep 8 - 10 of them.. but if I don't, it will still be a good show with the kids I keep on stage.  Its all about who YOU are as an entertainer and can you make it ENTERTAINING for everyone under all conditions.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on January 16, 2011 at 5:24pm

Well ... Richard trained me and I have never gone wrong following his advice so I am going to say the same thing. I don't bump anyone unless they try to mess with my show or the other folks in my show. if they follow my instructions ... They will acheive trance. and if theywant to Pretend they are in trance... I'll let them use thier powerful imagination all they want.   You never know if someone imagines long enough what it might be like to be hyonotized, they just might find they are truly hypnotized.

 

      Hugh Cole

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on January 16, 2011 at 7:07pm

That's an excellent point, Hugh. Thanks.

 

James

Hugh Cole said:

Well ... Richard trained me and I have never gone wrong following his advice so I am going to say the same thing. I don't bump anyone unless they try to mess with my show or the other folks in my show. if they follow my instructions ... They will acheive trance. and if theywant to Pretend they are in trance... I'll let them use thier powerful imagination all they want.   You never know if someone imagines long enough what it might be like to be hyonotized, they just might find they are truly hypnotized.

 

      Hugh Cole

Permalink Reply by Richard Rumble on January 17, 2011 at 9:35am

So... Last Nights show...

 

It was at a BEAUTIFUL house at the top of a hill... home is designed for entertaining and has a stage style living room because the Mom is a classical pianist.  16 year old party... just like I did her older sister when she turned 16 two years ago. 

 

10 volunteers.....   3 guys and 7 girls.   One guy self selects to boot himself by not closing his eyes and not following my directions during the induction....  Second guy is WAY WAY deep and going into an AB reaction and not responding to my skit suggestions.. so I bring him up and send him back with SPECIFIC direction to not close his eyes and to stay wide awake for the rest of the evening...   he does fine.  ( I have had them sit in the audience and drop back into trance even though I told them not to...) 

 

That leaves me with one guy.... 7 girls...  two didn't think that they were hypnotized during the induction... but I am getting some really funny physical results out of them... the verbal responses are not really that funny so I just do sight line and physical skits.  No talking responses required.  Great Show... got a big tip on top of the fee....  stuck around for 30 min. after the show to chat with the AB reaction kid and some of the girls to make sure that they were not doing the DRAMA QUEEN oh I am still stuck in hypnosis thing....  and everything was great...  Handed out some cards and chatted to the parents.... and all is well with the world.

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on January 17, 2011 at 10:20am

Sounds like a good show. I can't thank you enough for sharing your expertise with me.

 

James

Richard Rumble said:

So... Last Nights show...

 

It was at a BEAUTIFUL house at the top of a hill... home is designed for entertaining and has a stage style living room because the Mom is a classical pianist.  16 year old party... just like I did her older sister when she turned 16 two years ago. 

 

10 volunteers.....   3 guys and 7 girls.   One guy self selects to boot himself by not closing his eyes and not following my directions during the induction....  Second guy is WAY WAY deep and going into an AB reaction and not responding to my skit suggestions.. so I bring him up and send him back with SPECIFIC direction to not close his eyes and to stay wide awake for the rest of the evening...   he does fine.  ( I have had them sit in the audience and drop back into trance even though I told them not to...) 

 

That leaves me with one guy.... 7 girls...  two didn't think that they were hypnotized during the induction... but I am getting some really funny physical results out of them... the verbal responses are not really that funny so I just do sight line and physical skits.  No talking responses required.  Great Show... got a big tip on top of the fee....  stuck around for 30 min. after the show to chat with the AB reaction kid and some of the girls to make sure that they were not doing the DRAMA QUEEN oh I am still stuck in hypnosis thing....  and everything was great...  Handed out some cards and chatted to the parents.... and all is well with the world.

Permalink Reply by John Cerbone - The Trance-Master on February 27, 2011 at 4:03pm

In my shows, I generally give them time for the pyramiding and fractionation to do its job even if they are still in a relatively light state of trance. 

The thing to be looking for which is easily noticed, is varying degrees of REM states from light eyelid flutter in early stages, to left and right eye ball movement, behind the eyelids. 

In hypnosis show, depth states can vary greatly, From almost not hypnotized whatsoever, until one of us yells sleep, and the person slumps down into the chair like a ton of bricks.  I have seen potentially great subjects from other shows dismissed, often out of turn.  Recognize that hypnotic depth varies greatly from show to show, from person to person, from moment to moment, having a wide variance of depth in a show. So keep your eyes open for fakers, and keep seeking REM state eye movement. 

Permalink Reply by Debbie Taylor-Lilly on April 23, 2011 at 4:55am

It's always great to hear everyone's experiences. I did a show yesterday in a warehouse. It was a retirement party for one of the executives and we had about 70 people, mostly men, macho types. I did get 10 good volunteers, let 2 go after a while, and there were a few that I knew were just playing along, but, they were playing along so I kept them.

 

Here's my question though, at one point, I was doing a skit with a lady that was very deep, it was a skit where you have them stutter when they say their last name, and she looked at me and said she didn't want to do it. I told her it was just temporary and that she'd have fun, so we did it, but I think it kind of took her out of trance because she didn't want to do it. She played along, but I don't think she was still under.

 

Now I know you can't make anyone do anything they don't want to do under hypnosis, so how should I have handled this.  My concern was that if I gave in to her request not to do it, that it might give others the idea that they too could refuse a suggestion.

What should I, could I, have done instead? All you pros out there???

 

And I'm going to copy and paste this from James' post above: P.S. If you feel a strong urge to reply by saying that I'm not experienced enough, don't have enough training, and should stop performing before I've ruined the business for the "real professionals," please feel free to type all of that out and then delete it. Thanks.

 

Debbie

 

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on April 23, 2011 at 7:17am

I would immediately move to something else. For instance, I had a volunteer who didn't forget her name, so I asked, "Do you love your name?" When she said no, I asked, "What name would you rather have?" She told me one, so I said, "From now on, that's your name; in fact, you're incredibly proud of that name, so proud that it's pushing out every other word in your vocabulary, so from now on, you answer every question just by saying that one word, and you feel a big burst of pride every time you say it!" 

 

The thing about stuttering--there's a good chance that someone in the room had a stuttering problem in their youth, or even still has one. For those who have suffered that way, it's extremely embarrassing and humiliating. So I would avoid stuttering as a source of comedy.

 

On the other hand, very few people ever had a problem with say, forgetting their name, and having kids on the playground mock them and laugh at them because they forgot their name. 

 

One great suggestion my wife gave was to have volunteers say their names backwards and lose the ability to say their name forward.

 

Be sure that suggestions are fun for the volunteers as well as the audience.

 

James

Permalink Reply by John Cressman on March 31, 2012 at 8:57pm

I'll throw in my two cents.

I've been in a similar situation many, many times.  But, the bottom line is... if you're doing a comedy stage hypnosis show... it's a show.  It is NOT a demonstration of hypnosis.  That's secondary.  Most people are there to see people do funny things... especially their friends or people they know.  If people are enjoying the show... you are succeeding, even if NO ONE is under.  (And if you know they weren't under, but just following your instructions... throw out a suggestion at the end that they will believe that they weren't hypnotized.  If they then try to convince people that they weren't hypnotized, it just seems like they're following your suggestions)

My basic rule is... if they are following my suggestions and NOT disrupting the show, I keep them.  That said, if it's obvious (to me AND the audience) that they're not under... then I boot them.  But, if they're following my instructions, they're obviously doing it for a reason... peer pressure, embarrassed to be the person who didn't get hypnotized, they want to be the center of attention, using hypnosis as an excuse to break out of their shell, etc.  I see no reason (other than my ego) to boot them if they're following suggestions.  Sometimes, I've even gotten them under later.

But that's just me.  I'm hypnotist, yes.  But I'm an entertainer too.  Few people care for true demonstration of hypnosis. They want to be entertained.  That's why it's COMEDY stage hypnosis.

Again, that's my perception and it's worked pretty well for me so far.  I HAVE had some instances where people who were just going through the motions were too over the top and actually knocked some others out of trance.  But overall, it's been a positive experience.

Permalink Reply by John Cressman on March 31, 2012 at 9:04pm

Debbie,

As someone who stuttered as a kid, I can think of two reasons why people wouldn't want to stutter.  One, they were exposed to a bad experience earlier... either stuttering themselves and getting teased about it... or watching someone stutter and get teased about it.  Trust me... if you went through speech therapy to get rid of a stuttering issue, you would NEVER want to have it come back - even for a little bit.

The second is... in business and corporate environments especially, it's not exactly politically correct to basically mock someone with a speech handicap and that might have triggered warning bells in their head as they internally thought their actions could be interpreted as such.

Just some thoughts.

John

Debbie Taylor-Lilly said:

Here's my question though, at one point, I was doing a skit with a lady that was very deep, it was a skit where you have them stutter when they say their last name, and she looked at me and said she didn't want to do it. I told her it was just temporary and that she'd have fun, so we did it, but I think it kind of took her out of trance because she didn't want to do it. She played along, but I don't think she was still under.