Tips for aspiring stage hypnotists

Training and education are first

I believe it's important to be a master of your craft. For that reason I think it's essential for anyone who wants to do stage hypnosis to get training in hypnotherapy.

The first step of doing stage hypnosis is to become extremely skilled at creating trance and managing it safely. Then, and only then should you consider how to do it on a stage and under a variety of difficult circumstances. Walk, then run.

Read everything you can get your hands on

on the subject of hypnosis and stage hypnosis. Have an extensive library. I must have over 50 books on NLP alone.

Take classes and advanced trainings in both hypnosis and stage related subjects like voice quality, acting etc. My point here is that the first essential is to take your craft seriously.

Be a professional

Success is not determined by your desire, your goals or your dreams. Success is determined by your habits, by how you show up. Show up every day like a consummate professional. Not just on stage, but when you get to your office.

Be a showman, charge a fair rate, be a pleasure for them to deal with. Be a master your craft. These are all the signs of a true professional.

Have a well crafted show

in which the subjects take the bows. Routining is important and must be good. Each routine scripted out and honed to a piece of entertainment.

You must be able to stage a bit of entertainment the way a magician stages the presentation of an illusion.

A show can't drag out too long or it becomes boring to the audience. It must make sense. Most of all it must crescendo to a finale type ending that leaves the audience with a gasp, a laugh or simply in awe.

Preferably all three! Each routine in your show should be organized with a beginning, middle and end.

Constantly improve - both yourself and your show

Get better from every single show. This is true of both the show and the business.

Regarding your show, there are two keys

First and foremost, is being highly skilled at hypnosis. You must be clinically trained before you even think of hypnotizing other people. And you've got to be good at hypnotizing others before you begin to think of doing it in front of an audience.

You have to know how to create trance, manage it safely and do it in a variety of situations filled with all kinds of surprises.

Second is charisma and showman ship. Stage hypnosis is entertainment. Presentation skills, voice quality and stagemanship are essentials.

Many years ago, the famous magician, Albert Goshman, taught me one of the most important lessons in my life. He said, "You are the magic". They don't come to see the trick (if you're a magician) , or the hypnosis, if you're doing stage hypnosis. They really come to see you! When it's all done, you are the real gift the audience walks away with.

The real art of the stage hypnotist

Stage hypnosis is an art. Especially when performed as corporate entertainment.

The greatest experience I've had on stage is sort of difficult to describe. It is a very real, very definite feeling that happens to me. I know exactly when it's happening on the stage.

In my 21 years as a corporate and party entertainer, I've never experienced anything quite like this one particular feeling that happens to me when I'm on stage doing my show.

It's actually the feeling that I have disappeared, and is a sensation of simply witnessing something that's creatively generating on it's own.

I believe it comes from having organized a sequence of events with precision. It only comes from practice and from doing it a lot. It's the feeling that I am not really part of it. But I've set it all up, orchestrated it all to happen, then stepped back to let them all enjoy it.

A unique connection is spontaneously unfolding between the audience and their friends and colleagues on the stage - the hypnotized subjects.

Your volunteers are your show. Highlight that 'special something' in each one of them and they'll remember you for a long time after the performance.

Good luck!