Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Holiday Season is Here!

Tis the season ,from now untill about December 20th ,the calls begin coming for those holiday parties,everything from the big lavish corporate events to the handful of office workers looking for a little something extra or even a family holiday get together. My personal preference is to always avoid anything with excess drinking and an open bar ,groups with lots small children ,and groups of less than 75 people. the first one is a no brainer ,drunker is not better,the more they ingest the worse the show becomes for obvious reasons.nothing more dissapointing than mixing alcohal with hypnosis,the two do not go together at all,one or two drinks is fine if you are a participant,other than that please do not insist you are ok to to be hypnotized and make an ass of yourself on stage by continueing to insist  you are not drunk.The next one is easy ,take the kids to see Santa, get a clown or do some balloon twisting,there is always some idiot adult who thinks it will be fun for the kiddies to watch moms and dads get hypnotized at the family Xmas party,think again ,these tykes are not of age to comprehend what is taking place,and there is always a baby who breaks out in a full fit if crying in the middle of the induction .Last but not least any party with an audience of less than 75 people lets face it the hypnosis stage show should be just that A SHOW! not some half ass wannabe pretending to be a top shelf entertainer doing hyponsis in someones living room for a holiday party of eleven ladies ,or the break room of a law firm using a boom box for sound ,keep it professional.It is better to turn down a lowpaying gig for the sake of all the true stagehypnotists out there than to be a hypnowhore for a few bucks, and make the rest of us look like crap.The bottom line here is this, if you take cheap gigs you look cheap , dont work cheap ,or you get paid cheap,go out and act like a pro or don't go at all. Pick and choose your holiday parties carefully ,you'll be glad you did ,your reputation will thank you for it.Sometimes saying NO to a particular event is a lot better in the long run for you and the client,you will avoid the embarrassment of a less than good performance and an unhappy client whose expectation you did not live up to as a stagehypnotist. See you all next year

Friday, June 8, 2012

Try to change it up

It's 11:30 and guess where I'm giong ,thats right off to do another high schoool grad night,75% of my high schools are repeat clients ,some as long as 16yrs. in a row,sure I'll get a few new ones every year ,and some will book once and not be heard from again, but for the most part my regulars contract on the same night before I walk out the door for the following year .so  for that reason I have to keep coming up with new material ,the students change every year as well as the parents but it's still nice to keep things fresh and up to date,believe me the crowds needs to be able to relate to your material ,you can always count on some of the standard skits for a clean high school show ,we have all used them ,but try to present them using your personality put your own spin on it if you can.I have found by doing things a bit different my old clients are happy ,my new client get to see something different from the previous hypnotist they hired and I don't put myself into a repetative" here we go again " routine.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Flourishing Profession or Dying Art

Well it's been some time since my last blog,almost a month,not much has happened just keeping up with work,  it's high season with proms and grad nights for the next 7 weeks,this is when all the crazy calls come in,you know the ones looking for last minute entertainment because the guy they hired cancelled on them,or someone on the committee had an after thought about getting a hypnotist ,or some are still price shopping hopeing you will discount your fee.As I've stated in the past if you have never seen a stage hypnotist performance before ,the first person you see is always great because you have nothing to compare it to. and it is pretty hard to screw up a high school show,especially if you do the standard cookie cutter routines you just learned that everyone else is doing  that they also learned in stagehypnosis class,but as time goes on the once great profession of being a fulltime stagehypnotist will go the way of the Dodo bird and males stripers, nearly extinct or part time weekend wonders st,of course a few will manage to rise to the top, but most will dangle on the edge. The competition isn't  getting better it's  gettting saturated ,and the once unqique skits now become mundane and repetative and worn and tired like an old shoe.and you can't keep beating a  dead horse.I won't even get into stage presence or personality, we'll save that for later. As long as the public is willing to spend as little as possible  for entertainment and expecting to get  more for their dollar,and as long as you have people trying to make money telling people how to make money ,and performers willing to work for cheap to supplement thier income,eventually the once honorable profession of stagehypnotist will get a reputation of "if you've seen one you've see them all" move along folks nothing to worth watching here!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Can you really become a professional stage hypnotist in 3days?

I often wonder how some people who teach stage hypnosis can make that claim,It took me more than 3 days and a lot of hard work to get where I am now ,and twenty years later I still work hard to keep working, yet more and more so called experts and national organizations are running schools  giving courses and selling instruction dvds touting how successful and profitable your life will be with all the extra money you'll be making if you take their course .They boast of traveling the country performing on the Queen Mary or some luxury resort ,doing shows  and stop smoking seminars collecting back of the room sales from what?  you guessed it more dvds. Lets be honest here ,how many of you out there are really full time fully insured stagehypnotists whos sole income is derived from performing,how many are working 2 to 3 nights a week or more, it ain't easy and as time goes on Hypnosis shows and StageHypnotists are going the way of the comedy industry back in the 80's everybody and his brother jumped on the band wagon and it's like Starbucks, one on every corner .Now everyone is an instructor,  yeah you'll always get those extra calls for prom and grad nights but it's seasonal and if they have never seen a  real stagehypnotist before it's like someone who 's been eating chopped sirloin they won't know the difference until they try a filet mignon  .The trick here is to set yourself apart from all the others,kind of hard to do on the internet because anyone can make themselves look good on a website . What I'm getting at is this it take more than 3 days or week to become a true professional ,you need time and a lot of shows under your belt,any beginner with a little bit of know how can go do a high school, but it take a master to walk into a room or comedy club with less than a sellout crowd and put on a show ,They won't teach you that in hypnosis school!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Educate your clientele

When it comes to booking comedy hypnosis shows I find that most people have no idea what a really good hypnotist charges for a ninety minute performance ,I had a club owner in New Hampshire call 2 days ago wanting to book a show with a budget of $200.00 and a room capacity of 50 people.Now I'm sure they found some wannabe just staring out who will probably take that gig ,but I made sure I took the time to explain in detail to the club owner exactly what kind of performance he will get for his money.I'm not saying you'll get two grand  and a crowd of 400 people everytime you go out the door and of course every client has a different budget ,but be realistic when booking ,if you're doing backyard parties for 30 or 40 people for a few extra bucks and they have never seen a hypnois demonstration ,ther're going  to think WOW!then they go see a full production ,well the difference is night and day  pick and choose, sometimes you're better of to politely decline than do a lousy show for low pay.  

Friday, March 23, 2012

Spring Came Early

Wow! I cannot believe the sumer like weather the past few days,it's like winter never exsisted.Got a lot done around the house and yard(trip to The Home Depot with my wife ) ,did a bit of spring fishing,spent time with my homing pigeons(eggs are strarting to hatch) I even fired up my 1960 Austin Healy ,(was tempetd to go for a spin ),but I'll wait a week or two till the roads are really clean.Going to get ready for tonight @ Princeton Station ,another hypnosis show, looking foward to a fun night ,and a good crowd .

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Can't beat a good time

The college show in New York was great ,got invited back for the fall semester,lots of laughs ,great crowd ,traffic was a breeze.saturday show in Lowell was even better nice club ,finished up as they were starting to get a bit loud and a lot drunker ,hey what can I say another Saturday night in show biz!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Back on the Road

Well it's almost spring ,you know what that means high school post prom and grad night events local and nation wide coming up,this week it's off to New York to work ,let's see how the gas prices are out there,then back to Boston and out to Connecticut,been taking it a bit easy the last 4 weeks time to get out there and do some good old fashion comedy stage hypnosis ,20 yrs and counting!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Welcome to Hypnotic Thoughts!

Hey there! I am Joe DeVito - Master Stage Hypnotist. I hope you enjoy my new blog...I am going to share lots of great hypnotic information and more! Please add your question or share your thoughts with me by leaving your comment!

For more info about me please feel free to visit my personal website at http://www.joedevitohypnotist.com/ where you will find all kinds of interesting facts, including how you can bring my nationally recognized stage hypnotist show to your town today!

Plus for great examples of my hypnotic show visit my new and exciting Youtube Channel - TheStageHypnotist at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheStageHypnotist. The channel is constantly having new videos added....so make sure to add it to your favorites and share with your friends too!