Comedy Stage Hypnotist Richard Barker on TODAY Show
As some of you know I appeared on the TODAY show in NYC at the NBC Studios. I thought I would give you an insight into the day and even the day before. Let me tell you though first; I appreciate the flood of love and support I received from friends and the public after the show went “live” I couldn’t believe the outpouring of interest for “Hypnosis.” I received 764 emails in the first 30 minutes of the show and another 1433 within the first two hours after the first 30 minutes! During this crazy morning I strengthened my website server bandwidth to handle the additional traffic. I sold instantly 421 instant downloads of hypnotic products from weight loss to show programs.
My 1-800 Toll Free line had a couple of operators ready and we took 211 calls in the immediate two hours during the segment day. Most, if not all callers, wanted personal Hypnosis sessions with me and some wanted to book my show. I have not counted the endless calls and emails that followed; just the day of the filming traffic.
NBC and my PR representative were very gracious and accommodating during the build up to the segment and certainly helped the process along. NBC took a massive risk and I did too, think about this for a minute. Nobody has a direct conclusion to what happens during hypnosis yet, research is still learning about the brain. We didn’t know if it would work or not or who would be hypnotized. I stressed that hypnosis has no actual guarantee and yet we all still rolled with it. I could have gone on National TV and crashed big time; producers could have quickly axed the segment but instead I hypnotized two out of three anchors and the segment ran for close to 20 minutes instead of the intended 3 minutes.
Make no illusion, this is television and tightly controlled although I was given a free reign. I did this for the Public and to educate them on the benefits of Hypnosis; I certainly did not do this for other comedy stage hypnotists. I did this because I honestly want the public and our society to learn and take advantage of the benefits of hypnosis. I wanted to inform and educate and demonstrate the power of the mind to the public.
So we went into this convinced that Ellie would be hypnotized the fastest and would be the deepest and that Al Roker would be the hardest to hypnotize- go figure the opposite happened!
Lots happened and I won’t go into detail but I’m very happy about the results and public interest in hypnosis. I am pushing and will continue to push hypnosis and it’s many benefits. The day before the filming I met Al Roker and the early morning of the filming met with Ellie Kemper and Natalie Morales. I had 5 minutes to give a short pre-talk and introduce myself. I let them know what I was going to do and not to worry (Classic Hypnosis).
Talk about stressful; being in front of the camera ready to go out to the nation. I cannot begin to tell you what it felt like. I used self hypnosis to overcome fears and just went for it. I loved the genuine reactions of the three volunteers and the fact we saw 3 different levels of hypnosis. I am here to tell you nothing was staged or fake and what you saw was in real time. Television is very demanding and performing a skill such as Hypnosis where you don’t completely know the end result is quite daunting. My friend and fellow Hypnotist Chris Jones recently appeared on AGT (America’s Got Talent) and took a massive leap of faith using instant and rapid inductions; hats off to you Chris, you were awesome.
I spoke at length with the Producer at TODAY Show about inductions and technique and we determined the best approach would be a Passive Relaxation Induction. In other words I wanted to demonstrate that hypnosis is relaxation and the old myths of zapping people and pocket watches are more aligned to Hollywood.
The highlight for me was everything! I’m on a personal and professional journey and this was one of the highlights of my life. I am truly grateful for this opportunity and more that are unfolding. I am living my dream and feel truly blessed. My big memory though has to be the puzzled face of Al Roker as he howled at the moon and had no idea why.
Thank you for all my old and new friends; thanks to my fans for your continued support,
In case you missed the live Hypnosis Session, check out the Today Show video below:
