Carlee WrightComedy. Hypnosis. 20 volunteers. What could possibly happen?
Find out during HYPROV, a live show that blends hypnosis and improvisational comedy, when it comes to the Elsinore Theatre in downtown Salem on March 14.
Created by master hypnotist Asad Mecci and comedian Colin Mochrie—best known for Whose Line Is It Anyway?—the show begins with a call for volunteers.
“They rush the stage like lemmings running to their death,” Colin joked.
Once on stage, Asad guides the volunteers into a hypnotic state and looks for subtle physiological signals, such as changes in breathing, to determine who is most responsive.
“I whittle it down to the most responsive subjects,” Asad explained. “Then Colin improvises with the people on stage while they’re under hypnosis.”
Those participants become the cast, and that’s where the real fun begins.
“We’ve never met any of these people before,” Asad said. “Nothing is prearranged. What you see is what you get.”
But the show isn’t the kind of hypnosis performance many people imagine.
“When people think about hypnosis shows from the vaudeville days, they think of barking like dogs and clucking like chickens,” Asad said. “This is not that at all.”
Instead, the volunteers become what he calls an instant improv troupe.
“We take really good care of them. We make them shine. We make them look good.”
The idea for HYPROV grew out of Asad’s unusual career path.
He first became fascinated with hypnosis while in university after hearing about a dentist who used it to help treat severe sunburn pain. Years later, while taking improv classes at Toronto’s famous The Second City to sharpen his stage skills, he began to see an unexpected connection between the two disciplines.
Improv instructors often told students to “get out of your head,” Asad recalled. To him, that sounded a lot like hypnosis, which quiets the critical part of the mind and allows people to react instinctively.
“I thought, is it possible to hypnotize somebody who has no experience in improv and turn them into great improvisers?” he said. “And then raise the bar even further and bring in the world’s greatest improviser to improvise with them while they’re hypnotized.”
Although he had already been performing hypnosis solo for years, Asad wanted to add that improv component. He pitched the concept to Colin, who was intrigued.
After decades of performing with seasoned improvisers, HYPROV pushed him back to the basics.
“When I’m working with other improvisers, we all share the same foundation,” Colin said. “With these people, I don’t have that. I really have to focus on them and listen.”
The result is a show that changes every night, depending on who volunteers.
And while hypnosis might sound mysterious, Asad says the volunteers remain fully aware of what’s happening around them.
“They’re listening the entire time,” he said. “The part of the brain that says, ‘You’re not going to be able to do this,’ disappears. So they react immediately.”
By the end of the night, audience members who walked in as spectators may find themselves performing alongside one of comedy’s most recognizable improvisers.
As Colin joked near the end of our conversation: “You know I’m the world’s greatest living improviser.”
At HYPROV, the audience just might prove him right….or steal the spotlight. Either way, it will be a night to remember.
HYPROV: “Yes, It’s Real” Tour
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14
Elsinore Theatre, 170 High St SE
Click here for tickets.
Author: Carlee Wright
Carlee Wright is a community instigator with a grand love for Salem and notably fashionable shoes (Hello, John Fluevog!) who turns waste into wearable art in her "spare" time.
