It's time for me to have a professionally recorded voice-over intro. I would love to hear what others feel is important to include. You ideas can be everything from specific lines to emotions to suggest. So far I want to:

Feel the excitement in the room and get energized for the show
Suggest they BEGIN TO THINK about volunteering
State my advanced credentials and list impressive places I've appeared

What else would you want in YOUR introduction?

I think that the guy doing it is important.

A member here ALEXANDRE is one of the best.

Things I would suggest including:

1) Music that builds, goes under for the actual vocal intro, then builds again with canned applause.
2) A brief bio saying how wonderful and experienced you are ("Has hypnotized over 100,000 people!)
3) Get ready for the most unusual and most fun experience of your life!
4) Hypnosis is safe and fun. Only the most intelligent and creative people are easily hypnotized
5) Some of you will be lucky enough to be invited on stage and become the superstars of the show. The more fun you have and the more you do, the more applause you'll get.
6) Your chance to be the life of the party and a true superstar

I hope some of these help. Adapt as you can.

That's not a prerecorded introduction, that's a pretalk. I also agree with Danny the right voice and tone set the stage for both the performance and style of the entertainer and the right voice can make this happen correctly.

I would just get the whole show done on the intro - put it on and go for a beer.

I took Jon Chase's advice and did not scrimp on quality on this element of the show so glad to hear you are having a professional job done too.

Keep it short and to the point and simply announce who you are in stupendously OTT terms. Nothing more is needed. If you use music make sure it is suggests bigtime drama. I included in mine an instruction to get comfortable and put down your drinks. It makes it easier for people to clap when I come on.

Anthony

OTT ?

Over The Top

Greatest/Fastest/Most Outrageous/Mysterious/Master of the Mind/ etc

Anthony

Thanks. Your advice is always AMAZING and you are often deeply insightful to the point of seeming supernatural.

OTT, got it.

I think you want your introduction to do 3 basic things.

1) Build credibility through your experience. (Eg. He's played Vegas, Cruise Ships, Grandma's 100th birthday, Hypnotized 5000 people, etc.)

2) Excite the imagination. (Tonight, he will take only a lucky chosen few on a journey to the depths of the human mind, etc.)

3) Build Positive Expectations. (Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare for the most fun you will have in years, the most laughs, be rolling in laughter, etc, etc. Plase welcome so and so!)

This post is merely for the concepts, not my horrible examples, haha.

Marc

Is it not really just an emotionally charged message que to let you know the show has now started?

I used to play weird quiet music for a minute or so. The place went silent and the excitement grew as the audience thought there was some kind of subliminal programming going on. You could feel the nervous giggles laughter. Then a loud short energetic blast and short intro was all that was needed.

You may have a few intros to suit different venue's and types of audiences.

When I was doing theatre type venues. The way I let them know something was happening was to put out the lights. Everyone was in complete darkness. Couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. Then weird new agey music for what seemed like ages. Was only a couple of minutes. The mass hysteria meant that a large part of the audience were already in trance...

Whilest in the darkness we started smoke machines then strobe lights. This had an incredible cloud like effect. In the darkness it looked like lightening crashing through clouds.

I used all sorts of music. I used Simple Minds "Youve been Hypnotised" for a while.

Quite often the theatre would have a deafning foot stamp before I walked on..


The soft eerie music also worked in club type venues. Its good to do that for a while before your upbeat intro. Put some fake "subliminals" in. Suggestions they can sort of hear and watch the hysteria build.

I think the emphasis on rapid inductions and doing things ultra fast is missing out on the theatre and build up. your audiences are missing out without it.

I remember as a kid going to see Robert Halpern in a theatre in the height of his career. As you walked in and paid he was sitting behind a curtain "spying" on those walking in to the theatre. Of course the curtain was wide enough for everyone to get a glimpse. The mass hysteria that was built up before you even got to your seat was electric.

I would somehow try and build some of that into your intro.

Hey all,

this is my first post on the forum. I'm a freelance drummer and voiceover artist here in London and have been studying hypnosis for the last 6 months or so, having taken classes with the fantastic Jon Chase, Richard Nongard and John Cerbone. I have been bitten by the bug and am on lots of forums and sites, researching, reading and trying to better myself.

I have made friends with lots of hypnotists and have made a few intro's for my new friends. This topic interests me as it pertains to what I do for a living. I wanted to upload intro's that I made for John Cerbone, Jon Chase and Catherine Hickland's hypnosis stage show, but this site won't allow it :-(

I have zipped them up for you and upload them to yousendit.com, they will only be up for a week or so I think, so get them whie they're hot! You can have a listen to them by clicking on the link below:


https://rcpt.yousendit.com/643979422/601......79d2a7b8


I asked for a script from them and what music they would like and I voiced and produced the intro for them. In the case of Catherine's, I chose the music for her as she originally wanted Eye Of The Tiger and I thought it was too cheesy and dated, so I had a flash of inspiration! I'm really happy with her intro! In Jon Chase's case, he had his music already chosen and I think it sets the mood really well.

As for how these intro's work, I purpously put the music up front before my voice so it grabs the audiences attention and shuts them up! I purpously don't add reverb as there will be a natural acoustic of the theatre and I think that reverb can sound cheesy. You'll hear that the scripts "big up" the hypnotist and put them in context, so the audience will be primed, they create expectation. Let me know what yu think and ENJOY!!

Darren x

I gotta say I just ran into Rusty Z's promo video online the other day and it has great use of voice overs.
http://www.zingproductions.com/hypno.html

Click on the link above and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the "videos"

Very well done in my opinion...

Thanks, Keir. It's handy to have friends in the voice-over business.

I think if a pre-recorded voice tell them to turn off their cell phones and then mentions the fact that you're a hypnotist and then says, "Please welcome... (your name here)! That's pretty much enough.

I cheat. I get part of the opening lecture done. The disclaimers, and a couple other things. Why not?

Well looking back at the topic of this post I understand now that the poster was asking about voice overs for Introductions and not for promo videos. Sorry for going off topic, however the video I mentioned is still worth looking at...

Keir

Hey all,

I recently made an intro for actress and hypnotist Catherine Hickland for her stage show. She emailed me today to say that she's added images to it for her website. Check it out:

http://catherinehickland.com/hypnosis.html

Enjoy!

Darren

Darren,
I know Cat. Great job,with her intro.
Bravo,
-JS

Cheers Jon!

suspectacts if you want me to make your intro for you, have a think about your script and what music you'd like. We can find a royalty free karaoke version on iTunes.

PM me on here and we can have a chat.

Cheers!

Darren x