Inside The Mind Of Alexander Duvall

The house lights go down and the show is about to begin. The music from the movies the Exorcist or Damien starts to play. The stage lights come up and the DJ or MC comes out and says something off-the-cuff like this:

“Ladies and gentlemen tonight we a hypnotist, NAME, here to hypnotize you all and he is going to be looking for volunteers, so how about you Madame, are you going to volunteer… he promises not to TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF, well not in the show maybe after, what about you Ted come on, you’re game for a laugh… I hope you have your underpants on, also he told me that he does not hypnotized drunken people because they do strange things under hypnosis… and besides, it’s dangerous… well ladies and gentlemen without any more time wasting here is the hypnotist give him a big round of applause…!”

On the face of it, the above sounds reasonable, right?

WRONG.

What’s gone terrible wrong is in the first and the last sentences. In time and through experience you’ll be able to foresee that had the above been said that the hypnotist is likely to have problems getting volunteers.

Let me break it down for you. First, the music. NEVER PLAY SCARY MUSIC. And no music with lyrics. You don’t want people singing along and you certainly don’t want to scare or otherwise alters people’s good mood. You aren’t in the Rocky Horror picture show, are you? So, lose any mood-altering music.

Choose interesting, unfamiliar music like that of Enigma or Enya or Cirque de Soleil or Paul or Sally Okenfield or Oxygene or any instrumental music that DOESN’T date you. There’s nothing more embarrassing than old-timer stage hypnotists who haven’t changed or updated their intro and routines music since the days of their youth, which makes them terribly out dated and out-of-touch or reach my younger audiences.

STAY FRESH and reachable by using current and group-relevant music EXCEPT top-40 or pop music with lyrics. Again, instrumental music is always best and you’ll always be able to find fresh, new pieces over time as you modify your choices of music.

I have been to other stage hypnotists’ shows and the atmosphere has been jolly and light, with people enjoying themselves. I was even seated with two people who had decided to volunteer, but when the theme from the movie The Exorcist (1970) music played it changed the mood of the room from happy to eerily scared or scary.

You want people to feel comfortable enough to volunteer. So always remember that if your music sounds good, people will feel comfortable enough to volunteer and your show will turn out better. Again, use positive energy types of intro music that gets the heart and adrenalin racing for fun and laughter.
The DJ or MC—Friend or Foe—You Decide
The disc jockey or MC or whomever the venue appoints to help you can be your worst enemy or your best friend. Their ineptitude can ruin your show’s timing and trip up your confidence. In my early days, I found that most DJs and others like the MC are told to help you out, which they’ll do only half-heartedly and reluctantly at best. And it’s that half-ass, not concentrating or paying limited attention to you and your cues or signals or routines that can result in your embarrassment.

Be forewarned. Either make friends of that person and give that person clear verbal and written instructions and grease their palm with MONEY or you risk looking less than professional when s/he messes up.

Make sure they know your name and know HOW to PRONOUNCE IT.

Also, only you are responsible for your introduction. Write up a short intro, type it up in LARGE, easy to read type and secure this cue card in a plastic sheet protector. Give that to whomever and go over it with them beforehand. Leave space for the name of the venue so the idiot can insert it at the appropriate time or place during the intro reading.

Repeat to them that this is what you want said—nothing more, nothing less and NO ADLIBS.

And, in no uncertain terms tell that poor SOB that if they don’t read it as written, the show will end before it starts… and they’ll be at fault.

The reason for the cue card is very simple—most of these folks fancy themselves comics. They like to wing it, adlib. They want the lime light as well as you, the professional entertainer, and there is also high likelihood that s/he has had too many drinks by the time you’re on.

If they open their mouths and mutter more words then you have written and you’ve foolishly let them choose the intro music, you have unwittingly been set up to face a big, black hole and silence when you’re standing on stage asking for volunteers.

I am sure you will experience one time, it’s a horrible feeling when everybody starts looking around the room. You get this feeling of ‘oh my god, why did I come here to night….’

Then you start asking and asking for volunteers your voice strains under the desperation you’re feeling. You will become stressed and you are only going to get the volunteers who feel sorry for you or who are very drunk… or who just want to see the show start already.

These people are a waste of your time. Now they may have good intentions but they are wasting everyone’s time. I tell you why—every PERSON THAT COMES UP TO HELP YOU GET THE SHOW GOING IS KNOWING THAT THEY SHALL SOON BE GOING (that’s the wrong frame of mind).

You have also got to think about what the disc jockey or MC can say on your behalf. Maybe they are only joking but, hey, people in the audience hear what they want to hear and that was above ‘TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF’ and that hypnosis ‘CAN BE DANGEROUS.’

I speak from experience here, dear reader. One time I was working in a big family-oriented hotel with lots of children watching the show. I told the MC that they should say over the microphone: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please can you have your children to stay with you at your table… through out the show for safety reasons.’

Before the MC said that she turn to me and asked, why safety reasons? I told her that people move all around on the stage and I didn’t want any of the under-18 year old children coming up onto the stage whilst I was performing as it could be DANGEROURS to the them and the volunteers.

Oh, she said, now I understand. Well, two minutes later I am at the back of the venue having a glass of water just before going on and I hear her say…

Ladies and gentlemen PLEASE, CAN YOU KEEP YOUR CHILDREN WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES BECAUSE THIS HYPNOSIS SHOW CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS!

I nearly choked in disbelief as I spewed my mouthful of water all over the place. I didn’t hear the rest of the intro except the applause as the venue’s manager motioned for me to come along and get on stage.

On my way to the stage I overheard a woman standing next to me say to her husband, “I told you it was dangerous, you are NOT volunteering… do you her me, you are NOT volunteering… or else!”

Needless to say by that point in my stage hypnotist career I was able to clear things up and undue most of the unintentional damage done my the bimbo MC in my three-minute pre-show talk about the myths and benefits of hypnosis and the stage show experience.

Still, I did a successful show that evening despite taking longer to get volunteers and longer than my usual rapid induction. And, oddly enough it seemed that I lost lots of volunteers that night due, in part I think, to the fear factor associated with the venue’s wrong choice of music AND the MC’s errant words about ‘dangerous’ and ‘taking clothes off’ such.

Trust me. This sort of worse case scenario will happen to you (only once I hope) unless you are proactive and manage or control as many details of your show as is humanly possible and feasible… every time and in every place.

Leave nothing to chance or in the hands of others until they are in your trustworthy employ.

Two very important points or stage tactics at this point: Keep the volunteers’ eyes closed and have them stay seated during the first three routines. That’s eyes closed and locked tight and remain seated as you (perform the suggestion to follow). Both things will deepen their trance experience. You want them to access their respective imaginations and experience hypnosis in their heads, first.

Here are some routines I recommend you adopt and make your own:

 Imagine playing a piano or other musical instrument like a violin or fiddle (aided by instrumental background music)
 Imagine driving a speedy race car or flying a jet plane (aided by background sound effects)
 Imagine holding their favourite small pet or bird

The reason why I suggest these routines is that they are easy to IMAGINE FOR YOUR VOLUNTEERS. IMAGINATION IS THE KEY TO A GOOD HYPNOSIS SHOW.

There’s no STRESS or DANGER following these types of suggestions, as they are seated with eyes closed. Such suggestions ARE EASY TO DO and get into. You want the volunteers’ easy and full compliance that such routines will help establish. THEY ARE ALSO EASY for you, the hypnotist, to MANGE ON STAGE. (The piano playing routine is great for the above mentioned prompting of certain, under-performing subjects. I’ll talk more about this later on in this ebook.)

Many stage hypnotists, frankly, use either these exact routines or variations on them. The best do the first two or three routines mentioned with the volunteers’ eyes closed and seated. Many also do the old hot to cold—imagine you’re lying on a sandy beach. However, that can be problematic and here’s why. Better yet, let me ask you this: why might this beach routine cause the loss of some volunteers, especially women?

You will be surprised how many people can imagine playing a piano, even a violin—although some people can’t imagine playing a violin as easily as playing a piano.

Anyway.

The lying on a beach with the suggestion that it’s getting hotter and hotter can more often than not cause people, especially body conscious females, to feel UNCOMFORTABLE lying imagining they are in the sand.

Furthermore, not everyone likes the beach, especially older, out of shape women (more than men), many people don’t like the hot sun, sticky suntan oils, resulting sunburn, don’t enjoy sand in their swim suits, and so on. Also, imagining heat is much more difficult for people than imagining cold.

And believe it or not, I’ve asked people who’ve gotten up suddenly and walked off stage, out of trance, why they are leaving the show—the majority of whom are women, the LYING ON THE BEACH routine caused them to think they’ll have to take their clothes off and to have get-naked thoughts.

So, stick with the piano playing and driving a car and then suggest that they imagine a small pet, and your show will always get off to a successful start.

OK. Right. So you’ve decided to become a stage hypnotist. You’ve searched your soul and you’re ready, willing, able, and committed.

One of the first things you must do is create a stage name. Yes, you need a moniker, an alias, a pseudonym,

While many hypnotists use their given name, for many that’s not good enough. Think about. How exciting a name is Tucker P. Fuddpucker the Hypnotist? Or Marvin Swartz? Weird sounding? Maybe. Memorable? Possibly. Sufficient? NOT IN THE LEAST.

Sometimes all you’re talking about is either a new first or last name.

For example. Take me. My God-given English name is Timothy Alexander Boocock. Yes, Boocock. And hence where the “Alexander” came from.

Now, when you’ve finished laughing. Let me tell you what happened to me when I first began performing. My posters were vandalized with every imaginable variation of ‘Boocock’ possible. I thought I had heard them all during my childhood and school days. Nope. The world’s populated with some creative, devious types who’ll do most anything for a lark.

After a couple of such instances, I took my middle name and added the surname ‘Duvall’ after kicking many names around with friends and family.

My point?

Don’t be tied because of your ego to using your own, real name. Change it if it’s one that just doesn’t convey the right professional image, as do neither of the above two examples. Period.

Think of your stage name as a long-term investment. Cover all bases, regarding your Internet web site’s “domain” name, especially in this age of the Internet marketing, and protect it now. The cost is miniscule at about $30 a year or less to register a name with Internic—the only reliable Internet registration and name management company to use.

Are you going to be on TV? Do you fancy yourself a Paul McKenna or Andrew Newton and intend to entertain on the tube? Then why not register a .TV name because you never know when you might need it and it’s there if you need it. So make sure your stage name and the domain name are easy to pronounce, aren’t easily the butt of jokes, and easy to remember. Involve your friends and family in a naming game.

Be a Life-long Learner—READ BOOKS ON HYPNOSIS and Hypnotism.
Read as many books by stage hypnotists as you can buy. There are many to be had in paperback. Also, read all you can on hypnosis—the history, the science and art behind hypnotism. You want to discover the learning curve that a stage hypnotist climbed to learn the flow of a good show. You’ll soon realize that there’s very little originality in stage show these days. Most stage hypnotists working today hobble together their shows from routines borrowed or taken outright from others. While many do the very same shows that their instructors do. BORING! Still, there’s much you can learn watching other stage hypnotists work. So, buy every videotape performance you can secure right now before you become known and most of your competition refuses to sell you their videotapes.

If there is a local hypnotist travelling through your area or in residence at a club or theatre then go and see every show. It’s expensive but it’s schooling. Go and take mental notes, study them, think what would you do and how would you say things, look at how that stage hypnotist handles him or herself on stage. Watch for what they do well and poorly, with an eye towards avoiding the same mistakes or bad habits. Believe me, after you’ve seen a handful of shows or watched hours of videotapes you’ll begin to recognize and separate the good from the bad and embarrassing ugly.
Costu

The trick here is to dress better than just appropriately for the audience. Sort of like the old adage in business to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. For corporate work, I recommend wearing a tuxedo or expensive, trendy, even collared suit. For clubs, trendy, colourful shirts over black dress pants (NOT JEANS) might be in order.

Here’s one key success factor to remember about colors: choose dark colors that hide perspiration and sweat marks like black. Remember the commercial with the line, ‘never let them see you sweat.” Also, choose fabrics that breathe so that the shirt’s material doesn’t stick to your sweaty back or chest or armpits because you will sweat on stage, regardless if it’s from nerves or the hot lights or venue or all three (especially when you’re just starting out).

So, ask yourself, what are you going to wear? Decide whether or not you’re style is flashy or conservative or over the top Las Vegas entertainer. Are you going to be discrete or border-line outrageous and possibly offensive? They say you should never judge a book buy its cover but people do. For in the exact moment you walk into a room or on stage the audience is sizing you up. They are thinking, OH MY GOD IS THAT THE HYPNOTIST! From there it’s not far to them concluding, I BET HE CAN’T HYPNOTIZE ME.

Equipment
As soon as you can afford it, buy a wireless or radio microphone, full duplex. And next buy yourself a cable mic as a back up.

Also, keep plenty of fresh, spare batteries for both on hand because when you least expect it, the mic can and will go dead due to the batteries. Trust me on this. That’s why I always replace the batteries between every show. It’s a small investment and face saver.

I learned the hard way at too many venues in my early days where the venue said they’d supply me with a wireless mic and it went dead because of weak batteries. You end up straining your voice the balance of the show. Not a fun time for you and your subjects and audience. If you are not yet a pro who can recover quickly from such turns and twists, you risk loosing many people waking up out of trance and leaving the stage when that happens and they can’t hear you well like before.

Music Equipment
CD or Mini Disc Player, Extra Jack Plugs and 3 Different Jack Adapters are essentials in your mic bag. As are tiny flat head and Philips head screwdrivers are necessary to open the mic battery storage door. Always double check that you packed things EVERYTHING, especially your music CDs and that the entire lot are packed down and secure before you go to a show. One time I went to a show and I had forgot all my music! Talk about having to work from memory and ad lib.

Props
In your beginnings as a working stage hypnotist, you’ll feel the need to use props, such as big, clown glasses, stuffed toys, and most anything that you can scheme up a routine from. There are loads of great props and ideas for routines to be found in new and old and used toyshops and junk shops.

In America and the UK, there are, for instance, Goodwill and Salvage Army and clothing consignment stores from which you can purchase all sorts of toys and clothing cheap. Become a regular visitor of such places and others like them in your area.

Yard sales or garage sales or boot sales are especially good places to find neat and inexpensive props. So, be always on the look out for junk and novelty toys, old large-size men’s and women’s clothing that you can use to embellish your routine with a visual element. When you see something think how you could use it to enhance a current or new routine.

Props add another dimensionality to routines. There’s something more believable about your volunteer dancing like Michael Jackson when he has a black Fedora hat like Jackson wore in his MTV video.

Don’t ever be afraid to try things on stage, and always make sure people cannot hurt themselves or other people when working with a prop.

This is very important.

As a stage hypnotist, you earn your living with you mouth, your throat and your voice. Treat them well like opera singers do. Did you know that opera singers avoid drinking cold liquids? That’s because of the shock factor and in some people cold liquids trigger their sinuses to run, resulting in the annoying habit or clearing the throat. So, again, never drink ice-cold liquids before going on stage. Room temperature bottled water is best. And hydrate your body well in the hours before the show so that you don’t become faint from de-hydration.

And, for goodness sake, take some breath mints with you to every show, but not smelly or fruity mints. Cool, refreshing breath mints will do the trick. Keep a few in your pocket and pop them through out the show. Many stage hypnotist loose subjects because they have bad breath or stink of garlic, bear, cigarettes, whisky, too much after shave lotion, B-O and worse. Don’t be one of them

I know you might be laughing but I have made these mistakes myself. One night I went to a restaurant before the show and ate pizza with chunks of garlic the size of peanuts. Later on, the reactions on some of my volunteers’ faces as I gave them suggestions close up, embarrassed me terribly as they winced from the heavy smell of garlic on my breath. I lost many people that night. The fact hit home like a bomb dropped on me when one subject said to me, “Alex I was Hypnotized but when you talked to me I could smell strong garlic and it just made me feel sick.” Ouch. That was the last time a did anything like that again. No I eat hours before my show, watch what I eat, and drink plenty of H20 before, during and after my show.

Promotional Posters & Flyers

Most stage hypnotists haven’t a designer’s bone or eye in their bodies. Hire a pro, even a struggling pro to design your promotional posters. The trick is to design your poster so that is clear and readable from a distance as people walk past it. Black and white and bold, block letters are essential.

Hypnosis or Hypnotism
Two words that catch passers-by attention are, of course, the words: HYPNOSIS SHOW!  HYPNOSIS SHOW!  HYPNOSIS SHOW! repeated twice or three times at the top of the poster like a headline.

Two words NOT to put atop the poster are YOUR NAME. And that’s because you have a long way to go before your name even achieves easy, instant, everyday, household recognition, such that it can headline a poster or marquee. Suffice it to say that you are nothing. Your name is meaningless as a headline. You are only someone who is going to create THE HYPNOSIS SHOW,

Design the posters so they can also be seen in low-light corridors because many venues post shows’ posters in corridors that have low light—if people don’t know that there is a stage hypnosis show coming — HYPNOSIS NEXT MONTH, NEXT WEEK OR TONIGHT  THEN YOU MAY AS WELL GO HOME BECAUSE IT WILL BE THE HARDEST NIGHT AND MOST DIFICULT SUBJECTS YOU WILL EVER MEET – turn out will be low.

TO BE SEEN OR NOT TO BE SEEN

Are you going to have a picture of yourself on the poster or not? I say NOT for the first 3 years you need the breathing space when you arrive at a venue. I’m handsome, but like my name, nobody then came to see Alex Duvall. Nope. They came to see a HYPNOSIS SHOW performed by a HYPNOTIST for just happened to be me.

For the last ten years I never had my picture on my posters. The reason is that when I walked in to the room nobody would have pre-judged me by my appearance and, more importantly, before the show I can walk about the audience and listen to peoples’ comments. Doing that I’ve heard crap like this — “HE will not hypnotize me, I won’t let him…” or “Watch me, I will make a fool of him tonight and pretend…!” This bit of stealth recognizance helped me avoid the fakers, the drunks, the hams and others out to sabotage my show to get a laugh. I advise you do the same so that you too can avoid those types of jerks. Simply note who and where they are sitting and stop them coming up on stage. It’s really that easy, especially if you’re as good as I am at remembering faces. (Now names are another story entirely!)