If you’re planning a comedy hypnosis show, you’ve come to the right place.
You might be putting on a hypnosis show for someone’s birthday, a New Year’s party, or an office get-together. They’re a great entertainment option for many occasions—but how do you get everything set up once you hire your hypnotist?
In this post, we’re going to go over everything you need to know about putting on a fun and safe comedy hypnosis show. From the sound system to the stage setup, to the seating, lighting, and helpful volunteers; everything is crucial to making sure that this event goes off without a hitch.
Getting a great hypnotist is the most important part, but there’s a lot of work to do after you get them booked. Let’s get your party planned now so you’re not doing it last minute.
Setting Up Your Hypnosis Show
Assuming that you’ve never held an event like this before, we’re going to take you through basic event setup principles to ensure that your performer and your audience are going to have a good time.
Then, we’ll talk about the lighting, audio, and safety measures that you should take to ensure that it’s a successful event.
What Type of Event Is This?
Okay, first thing’s first—what type of event are you holding?
The way that you’ll set up your venue will depend on what kind of venue it is and the kind of venue will depend on your event. If you’re holding a fundraiser gala, it might be at a banquet hall. If it’s a birthday party, it might just be a large living room.
It goes without saying that more preparation will go into a bigger event. The stage will be larger; you’ll need a more powerful sound system to communicate to a larger crowd; the lighting rig will be more extensive to put a bigger show on; more safety measures will need to be taken.
For the sake of this post, let’s say that you’re holding a mid-sized event for 200 or so people at a small banquet hall. The same basic principles will apply, but you’ll scale up or down, depending on the size of the event that you’re holding.
Volunteers
When planning the event, you should have plenty of volunteers ready to give you a hand with the setup and teardown. The hypnotist won’t necessarily show up with any of their own gear, but they will have some personal and technical requirements of you and your volunteers.
You should always be in communication with the hypnotist and/or their management to make sure that they know what’s going on at the event they’re performing at. They might want a specific kind of microphone or lighting; they might require a certain number of chairs on stage and have a stage plot.
When it comes to a comedy hypnosis show, the word “volunteer” means two things. Not only will you need people to help you set up the show, but you’ll also need people to be in the show.
The hypnotist will require volunteers to put on the show, so source out people that are willing to be hypnotized and have fun at their expense. Find people that are good-natured and won’t take themselves too seriously.
Setting the Stage
Now it’s time to start planning the actual stage setup.
If you’re going to have about 200 audience members, then you’ll need a sizeable stage so that everyone can see what’s going on. The hypnotist will also be bringing volunteers on stage, so you’ll need room for up to 30 people to sit or stand.
The optimal stage size is 16’x28′, but the bigger the better. For smaller performances, you can actually have the hypnotist on the same level as the crowd. For audiences over 100 people, this isn’t recommended since they won’t be able to see the performance.
As long as the performer is raised above the audience, it can be as large or as small as you need.
Audio
You need a good sound system so that your entire audience can hear all the nuances of the hypnotist’s show.
If you can’t hear at a comedy show, then what’s the point? Go to a local instrument shop or speaker shop and talk to a professional to find out how big of a system you need for your audience size.
You can rent audio equipment for a relatively low cost. Make sure that you get a wireless microphone setup so that your hypnotist can walk around. A big part of the performance will be talking to the volunteers and moving around the stage.
For this reason, you should also get stage monitors. Not only will the audience need to hear what’s happening on stage, but your performer and the volunteers will also. For a 16’x28′ stage, you will probably need 3 monitors across the front so that every volunteer can hear what’s happening, no matter where the performer is.
Lighting
You don’t need to go overboard with the lighting for a comedy hypnosis performance. The focus should be on what’s happening on the stage—so if the venue has house lighting, then just turn them up and have fun.
If you need to get your own lights, just get a basic lighting rig and focus on making the performer and the volunteers visible to every part of the audience. This is an area of lesser concern. As long as people can see, the show should work well.
Seating
When we talk about seating, we aren’t referring to the audience seating. You’ll have less control over that. If it’s a fundraising gala, you’ll often see round tables, so encourage the audience to face the stage. Hopefully, you’ll be set up in such a way that the audience can easily see what’s going on.
The volunteers seated on stage should be in a straight line, allowing for plenty of room for the hypnotist to walk in front of and behind them. You can use folding chairs for the volunteers, but make sure to inspect them beforehand to ensure that they’re safe.
Since the volunteers will be drifting in and out of consciousness, it’s important that the chairs are secure and sturdy. You might even consider taking some duct tape and taping the legs of all the chairs together so that they don’t move around.
You’re Ready for Hypnosis
There you have it! You’re all set to put on a hypnosis show. Now all you need to do is find a good comedy hypnotist and you’ll be ready to delve into the depths of your volunteers’ weird and hilarious minds.
To book a funny, professional, and entertaining comedy hypnotist, check out Incredible Hypnotist. Richard Barker is one of the most requested hypnotists in the world, mesmerizing thousands of people all over the planet!