What was your first show like?
What did you learn?

My first show was a door deal at a local bar. I had great subjects, since it's a semi-rural area, it really is a bar/reastaurant so I had two high schoolers on stage. They weren't out but had fun and did what I asked so I kept them. I had a 60 year old guy who was the star and a 50+ lady that was awesome at forgetting her name.... They packed it out and I felt like a rock star. Sound system problems taught me the importance of good equipment, but in the end, people are probaly still talking about it. It was my second show that sucked.... LOL


Richard

My first show was for Sandals in Jamaica. Montego Bay. The property bordered the airport. Try having a plane take off in the middle of the induction process and see how your show goes LOL. I learned LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

AWESOME. Hypnotized and entire pro hockey team to hump chairs, think their "member" was on fire, swear and fight each other. The crowd loved it - never got invited back. Moral of the story the crowd may like your show, but if the person cutting the check doesn't, it doesn't matter.

Tim

Tim, they do that without even being hypnotised!

I remember doing the anti-gravity body lift and it not working. I then thought maybe the induction wouldn't work either. I considered excusing myself for a moment to "go get something" and heading down the road, never to look back.

I went ahead anyway and the induction went well and so did the show.

Wonder how many have quit in the midlde of a show?? Bet more than a few

My first show was in 1967, while I was still in high school, at a church coffee house across the street FROM my high school.

I got about fifteen volunteers on stage, ten actually went under. When the Pat Collins Red Coats Are Coming/They Are Not/You're Crazy ripple effect bit actually worked, I was waling on air!

While the show was NOT all that well routined, I did get re-booked and have been performing ever since.

And twenty-five years later, I met one of the people who was in that show and whom I hadn't seen SINCE that show. She asked me if the trigger that I'd used to re-hypnotize the volunteers back then would still work on her. I asked her if she wanted to find out and she agreed.

It worked SO well that I had to catch her as she collapsed to the floor!

And those people from Guinness are NEVER around when you need them, either!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Reminds me of an adventure...

I was at the end of a grad party show and had set the post-hypnotics. One I had set was "the British are coming" at a signal.

When I gave him the signal word he jumped up and yelled, "the British are coming"...

Problem was, he really thought the British were coming and wanted to be nowhere around when they got here.

He took off out of the gym and down the hall running full blast screaming over and over, "the British are coming"...

I ran after him and saw him about to leave the building. I yelled "FREEZE"...he stopped.

We were gone just the right amount of time...by the time we walked back in the gym together the principal was just peeking his head around the corner to see what was going on.

The student crowd was tense and when we walked in together it was one of the loudest cheers I have ever heard...of course I acted like I do this all the time.

Even a blind pig finds and ear of corn now and then.

An excellent story, mota! Thanks for illustrating, yet another reason why training AND forethought alone do NOT a stage hypnotist make!

I'd love to hear more of these "war stories," people!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

War stories: My second show I did hypnotic amnesia with the ladies name. When I asked her her name, she responded "Mary" thinking to myslef this didin' work I quikly covered, sent her back to her chair and moved on with my average show. After the show I learned her name wasn;t Mary but that Mary was another lady onstage! She stole her name! And I blew what could have been VERY funny material by not being attentive or getting her name FIRST.... Learn a lot by doing.... I will never forget the second show. It sucked! LOL

Richard

War stories. I was doing a athletes department College Show out on the college track. I did my napkins on the ground were really $100 dollar bills. It was my first outdoor Hyp show. Apparently my star thought he saw one of my $100 dollar bills on the other side of the track and took off across the field. It put a damper on the routine as I had to give suggestions to him as he ran away that it was just a napkin. He returned as I finished the skit and had put everyone else back under. He took his seat and got me to look away. When I watched the video later I realized the reason he wanted me to look away was to grab the napkin/$100 bill off the ground in front of them. I had told them they could only pick them up when I had my backed turned and he stayed to the rules. I was nervous there for about 30 seconds that I had lost my best volunteer for the show. He did an awesome Inspector Cluseau from Pink Panther after that.

I almost forgot, my first show went great. I put 10 of the 20 volunteers under and had a great show. It wasn't as tight or well routined as it is becoming now but they were talking about if for the rest of the evening. It was the college show that didn't go as good as it should and it was my fault. I was late starting and I skipped doing the pretalk and just had them come up. Big mistake that I will never repeat again. No matter how hyped up they are you still need to get some kind of rapport and response from the crowd before you ever ask for volunteers.

Martin

I'm doing my first hyp show tomorrow... So what if only 50-75 people show up to the show...I'm going to have 15 people come up on stage...I've been asked what if nobody goes under...Is that possible???? or will there always be quite a few to go under?? Thanks!

Mike

The first person I ever hypnotised had an abreaction. It scared me half to death.

Quite ironically, having hypnotised hundreds of people since, nobody has experienced an external abreaction.

Now I appreciate the importance of mentoring!

My first show was when I was 19. It was for a dentist and his staff at his house. One of his dental assistants pulled me aside and made me show her card tricks after the show! We then started dating...Oh yeah, she was 29!