Gerard's Blog - Musings, Thoughts and Commentary Page 2

People find me online in all sorts of different ways. Word of mouth, general searches, looking for corporate entertainment ideas and fun things to do.

The one that makes me chuckle is when people search for “hypnotizers near me”? Are they looking for therapists or entertainers? Or perhaps they are seeking Arnie “The Hypnotizer”?

[Another word that has started to come up a lot more recently is “hipnosis” ]

How can you make your event fun? The short answer is that you need to do something a bit different.

Don’t Play it Too Safe

The easiest things to do for corporate events are what you did last time and what everyone else does.

If you play it safe the event will almost certainly be unremarkable. Just the same old thing.

So do something different - take a small risk. Different means unfamiliar and that means you wont know exactly how it will go.

What is my show really called? Is it a Comedy Hypnotist Show? That is: a show performed by a comedy hypnotist? (That I am). Or is it a Comedy Hypnosis Show, a show where hypnosis is performed in a funny way?

On balance I prefer Comedy Hypnotist Show because although I am funny and do funny things, I take the hypnosis part seriously (even though the audience will be laugh-crying while I do it).

You’ll not have to search for long before you find someone advertising themselves as a corporate entertainer or offering corporate entertainment.

But how is that different from any other entertainment. Is a corporate comedian somehow different from a regular comedian? What about a corporate hypnotist or juggler? What defines a corporate magician or mentalist?

There’s nothing to prevent an artist from billing themselves as a corporate anything, and some do who probably shouldn’t. To be a corporate entertainer implies that you also meet the following requirements:

I visited my friend Rich Guzzi recently. He is arguably the most successul comedy hypnotist in the USA (he gets nearly all the comedy club bookings) and he is certainly one of the busiest and best.

We got to talking about our shows and why we choose to do things the way we do. Rich pointed out that his choices are all guided by the underlying principle that he wants to audience to know that it is real hypnosis. Not faked, staged or set up.

I was a bit apprehensive about going to an adults only magic show at the Adelaide Fringe. Generally I avoid such things and do family friendly shows myself. The show was entirely not what I expected, funny, and not sleazy. Sam and Justin did an awesome job.

I can see why it had to be billed as “adulkts only” but despite that name it wasn’t at all sleazy or even “sexy”. Just utterly hilarious and the two magicians worked so well together that made an great team.

Is Stage Hypnosis Real? What is real hypnosis?

Summary (TL;DR)

1. Hypnosis is real: Wikipedia
2. Stage hypnotists are good at selecting the most easily hypnotised subjects
3. It is easy to get good volunteer subjects so fakes are not needed
4. The Hypnotist will quickly dismiss unresponsive or troublesome people
5. By carefully choosing suggestions the hypnotist can make the subjects more and more compliant
6. Even though a few claim they weren’t “under” its obvious to the audience that they were doing things they wouldn’t normally do.

How Stage Hypnotism Works.

This article breaks the question down into several parts.

Having a comedy hypnotist at your club function or awards night is a popular choice.

But if you’ve never booked an act like that before, you might be wondering how to go about it.

It is not very hard to do.

Make Contact

Make Contact and Request a Price and Availability. The main thing is to contact the act you are interested in and check that they re available and what they would charge.

Why are so many comedians rude, mean or offensive? I’m not talking about touching on mildly uncomfortable topics, but rather the all too common practise of being rude or demeaning to one group or another.

The reason is simple and is has to do with two things, skill and fear.

To write a lot of good clean material that is super funny is hard work. It takes genuine skill and considerable effort. Whereas the cheap shots and offensive words are comparatively easy. Sometimes people cover their discomfort and embarrassmewnt with a laugh.

You’ve got a great fundraiser. People are going to have an absolute blast. But they don’t seem to be buying your tickets.

Here are some of the reasons why that could be.

1. You’re Relying On Social Media

Social media is great. You can sit at home and post stuff online. Done right you can get lots of people to click on, or to like what you post online.

You can really get the idea that you’re going to have a sellout night.