Next time you get a bout of the mid-week blues, treat it with a belly-full of laughs. What’s going to make you split your sides laughing, you may ask?
Other people behaving particularly strangely works for most of us – and people who have been hypnotised on stage tend to do some odd things, as Weekender discovered at Derek Marshall’s Comedy Hypnosis Show.
Derek just returned from Las Vegas where he was performing in a comedy hypnosis at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, filling in for Marc Savard, whose training programme he took last year.
“Derek leaves an impression on everyone he meets,” Mr. Savard said. “His understanding of hypnosis and the powers of the mind combined with his stage presence and entertainment experience made him a great candidate to fill in, in my absence.”
Now that he is back he is once again bringing the weird and wonderful world of hypnosis to the western end of the island. Derek has been performing regularly on Tuesdays at Morritts in East End, however he has just returned to Seven Mile Beach on Wednesdays and Thursdays, performing at the Great House in the Strand (the refurbished former Vivendi).
The majority of people, unless they already know a great deal about hypnosis, will have certain misgivings and apprehensions about actually being hypnotised. But the show depends on audience participation and Mr. Marshall addresses this by starting the show with any explanation of what hypnosis is and how it works:
“If you say you haven’t been hypnotised before you are all liars,” he said.
“It’s a naturally occurring state of consciousness we all experience in between being awake and being asleep.”
He also briefly explains the difference between the conscious and subconscious minds and how the power of suggestion works in the subconscious mind. In case this is not sufficient to convince members of the audience to volunteer to be hypnotised, he guarantees the experience will leave them feeling wonderfully relaxed and rested, as if they had just had a full night’s sleep, and also promising they will sleep like babies when they get home that night.
It takes Mr. Marshall a few minutes to guide volunteers into a state deep relaxation, that increases with every click of his fingers.
They appear to have no awareness of what they are doing as the slump over onto one another, some so relaxed they slide right off their seats.
As the audience sip on drinks, they watch their friends acting out driving fast cars, talking their way out of imaginary speeding offences, speaking languages they never knew they spoke and playing in rock bands. Depending on the volunteers’ receptivity to this power of suggestion, he said, they may well have their eyes open, be talking and to all intents and purposes appear fully awake.
Mr. Marshall delivers a slick, well-rehearsed and fast-paced show and keeps audiences laughing all the way through.
While hypnosis is a powerful tool, he said, not only for making people laugh, but also for changing thoughts and habits, there is no danger that you will remain locked in a hypnotic state for evermore as every time you fall asleep or wake up, you emerge from that state of consciousness.
“Hypnosis can help people change bad habits: it can be used on people who want to quit smoking, lose weight or work out more, for example,” he said. “Sometimes I have these group sessions where everyone gets hypnotised at once and the results are amazing.”
For more information or to make a reservation call 328-4439.
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