I will preface this with I have been doing my show for almost 30 years now. I have been doing it over 5 nights a week average and probably more. I change audiences so often that changing the show is a rare thing. It works great, it rolls smooth and is tight as can be. I work more on the timing and the environment than I do on the routines.

Having said that the past few nights I found beats in the show I never knew existed. By beats I mean in this case comic moments that just flow naturally and are not forced or jokes. These are by FAR my favorite as they are organic and absent from most hypnosis shows in general.

There is an ancient way to do the "amnesia" bit where you tell them they are contestants on a game show. Then I tell the when they want to buzz in they raise their hand. The act of raising their hand causes them to forget the answer to the question. The key to the routine is obviously to have the most simple questions possible so that when they forget the answer it is that much more amusing. I don't claim the idea of amnesia as new, or even this routine so lets not get bogged down in that.

I have been doing this particular routine for decades and thought I had discovered everything I could with it. A couple nights ago I started with "who was the first president of the United States". The woman waited then blurted out "Donald Trump". I NEVER take a political side on stage as it is stupid in my view in an entertainment venue. But the simple answer, "no, he just thinks he is" killed EVERYONE.

Believe it or not THAT was not the discovery! That was just fun. But the discovery came later. I said "the answer is Grover Cleveland". That is where the magic happened. She immediately put on an expression of "OF COURSE HOW COULD I FORGET!" And light bulb went off in my head because it got a HUGE laugh.

Next question "what is 2 plus 2"? They get it wrong and the laugh hits, and I said "no I'm sorry the answer was 46. HUGE laugh when the guy snaps his fingers and says "*** I knew that!"

Last question "what is your name"? He has NO clue and I said "of course the answer is "Erasmus of Rotterdam". AGAIN the look of "lord how could I miss that" came out and killed the room. That extra beat is almost as funny as the routine and is just so organic. I am almost embarrassed I didn't find it 20 years ago!

Ha. Nice. That is a good addition.

I like it precisely because of the organic nature of it. It does not have that forced feeling that so many hypnosis shows and routines have to resort to for laughs. The genuine nature of the interaction is what is so charming and so unexpected and therefore so funny.

This is the way I try to structure my show. Having that natural flow and feel to it really sells it to the audience.

Do you do something (non-obvious) to elicit that "Of course!" response?

The amazing part is no. Not when most would think it needs to happen.

As I am telling them they are contestants, I tell them they are very excited contestants. Then I sort of give them the game show host excitement stuff and pump them up so they are competitive about it.

In that state it almost always hits that response. And I usually make sure I find the right first person and if they do it they get a laugh and the next one is even better. Sort of modeling behavior I'd the key.