I'm doing my first hyp show tomorrow night in a small town... It wasn't heavily advertised, 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?? I've been studying and doing hypnosis for about 4 years off and on but never on stage and a few months back, I bought the Geoffery Ronning course. I have hypnotised people before so I do have confidence but I wanted to check it out with the pros who have had a small crowd. I'm ready to do the show but I just want to know if there is any chance of not having anyone go under even if I have a good pre-talk and Induction...They all know that it is a hypnosis show from the ads.
I appreciate it. Thanks!

Mike

I don't know anything about hupnotism really. But shouldnt you know if you can hypnotize people before you go on stage?

I would have to agree with chichi - it would be really beneficial to try hypnotising more people offstage before accepting paid, onstage performances. A good sense of confidence in yourself is required, as well as the participants feeling confident in your ability. This can be achieved through successful demonstrations, publicity or simply motivating introductions.

Good luck with your show though. I hope all goes well.

By all means if you have never done this type of induction, don't go try it in front of an audience. Get a group of volunteers to work with and learn the dynamics of this type of group induction. Not the same as one on one. Get some practice getting random groups of people up and see what your percentages of inductions are, get confidence there. Takes more than some video watching and experience with one on one to get up and do a stage show.

Do you know what to do if you don't hypnotize anyone? It happens...

If you don't know you aren't ready.

See the faq for hypnotism in this section.

How'd it go?

I bombed......Nobody went under. Had around 46 people show up and had 3 volunteers!!! I knew it was going to be tough but I kept my cool and I tried just like I've been practicing and rehearsing.

I have hypnotized people one on one but never as s group and I figured as long as I went along with the script maybe I'd be lucky enough to keep at least one of the three....I had some mentalism for backup so it didn't go AS bad.

Right now I don't wanna do stage hypnosis anymore...and am probably not gonna want to read what people are going to say next.

anyways...It's over with.

Hey take it as a learning experience.

I sure will...lol

This one bad experience does not mean that you should give it up. As with magic, even the pros screw up from time to time. Did they give up after their first flub in front of an audience? HECK NO! Keep working on it and you'll eventually get it.

Sorry.
Doesn't say much for the Ronning Course. What would you say was the biggest weakness? I'm sure you will analize the heck out of this. I'm interested to see what improvements you will make.
Good Luck
Dave

Mike, I recommend you pick up Alexander Duvall's "Giant Ebook of Little Known Secrets of Stage Hypnosis". It's the best source I've seen for the really practical information about pre-talk, getting and keeping volunteers, and what to do if you either don't get any volunteers or can't get any to go under.

You can find it here: http://www.hypnosis.org/stage.htm

It's pretty cheap, and well worth it.

Mike,
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience, but honestly you need to go back and make sure you have truly integrated the materials you own into your performance, in this case the Rolling course -

I have done loads of shows for groups under 50, heck I have done shows for 30 people and had GREAT results, so the size of your audience isn't really the problem. On the other hand if after your pretalk you only had three volunteers and decided to go forward with the show, you were only asking for problems. What happened to your plan to get 15 people?

Second, A stage hypnotist lives and dies based his rapport skills and the effectiveness of his pre-talk. If you only got 3 volunteers it's probably because you didn't have much success with your pre-talk.

Based on your initial post, it sounds like you might start by giving yourself a little talking to as well. If you've not sure how this stuff works, how do you expect your audience to trust you to 'take them for a ride'?

I studied under Geoff and left feeling 100% confident which is probably one of the reasons I've never had the problem you describe. I would say, in general, if you still have questions about Hypnosis, you need to get more training or experience.

Peter

I believe the best way to learn stage hypnosis (prior to getti on stage yourself) is to watch as many live shows as you can possibly find. Although I had the knowledge, I sat watching my late mentor night after night. All in all I would have seen him perform no less than 300 times. I saw what he did when the nights were bad and nobody volunteered and I also saw how he handled large crowds.

I recently returned from a trip in Vegas and even though one or two hypnotists might not have had the best or cleanest shows on the strip they were brilliant sources for learning

I gotta agree with Suspectacts...I was surprised when it was implied you had done the course (have you?)...read his post carefully, it tells you what you need to do.

First thing I thought was pre-talk too.

If you don't have Ronning's course on stage hypnotism it is a good option.

Here is my first thought.

DON'T QUIT.

Take your energy, and the nerve it took to go up there completly unprepared and unqualified, and DON'T QUIT. Channel that into actually spending the time to learn.

Here is another thing. Personally I wouldn't blame the Ronning course. I am not a huge fan, but the failing may not be his.

A battle is won or lost long before a soldier ever steps on the battlefield. This is true of what we do also. The environment in which you placed yourself was tough, but not insurmountable. Heck in Branson we did shows for 12 people and it went great. Not 12 volunteers, 12 PEOPLE. It CAN be done.

Most courses only cover how to do shows in optimum conditions. When in reality you only end up in optimum conditions less than half the time. The rest is tough.

So study,spend more than simply a weekend learning, and prosper. I am sure you can do it.

Welcome Back Danny!!!

Forget I said anythig.

Danny is back. The Café has been a bit dull without you.

I'll wager money that he is just visiting.

:spinningcoin: