Sharon Lau
Staff Writer
Boston-based comedy hypnotist David Hall performed before a modest, but enthusiastic crowd Monday in LaFetra Lecture Hall.
To start his act, Hall selected 10 students to perform a hypnotic induction for one hour and make them do all kinds of hilarious things.
“I thought I would just volunteer and do it. The entire time I was aware of what was going on,” said junior psychology major Darian Manago. “It was fun and weird.”
Hall began by turning on soft music and told the students to close their eyes and breathe deeply and slowly. He told them to follow the sound of his voice and to relax their bodies.
Four students were ultimately sent back to their seats because the hypnosis apparently didn’t work on them.
Throughout the show, the audience tossed around a colorful beanbag, whoever caught it could choose scenarios for the hypnotized students.
The audience laughed as the hypnotized subjects talked to their shoes as if they were smart phones, spoke alien languages, or re-lived their 5th birthday parties.
The highlight of the show was when hypnotized students broke into the Harlem Shake, the Dougie and the Gangnam Style dances.
“It’s funny, entertaining and fun,” said junior education major Amber Deloye, who was in the audience Monday. “I am definitely a believer of hypnotism now.”
At the end of the show, Hall returned all the volunteers to their normal conscious states, telling them they should feel well-rested and motivated to do well at school when they awoke.
“I volunteered because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and thought it would be fun,” said freshmen computer engineering major Cassidy Aranda, who had participated in the hypnosis.
“Most students are excited to come to a hypnotist show because students are the stars of the show and they want to see how their friends are going to perform,” Hall said after the show.
Sharon Lau can be reached at sharon.lau@laverne.edu.
