Last night, Dave and I went with Dan and Rudy to see HYPROV at Centre in the Square (we gave them the tickets for Christmas) and it was lots of fun. Live improv (led by the incomparable Colin Mochrie) with a group of audience members put under hypnosis by "world-renowned hypnotist" Asad Mecci, the skits were so smooth and clever that it almost beggars belief that the participants weren't plants.
To begin: as soon as Dan understood what the show we would be going to was about, he assured us that he would not be volunteering for hypnosis. I figured that was the general cosensus among us, but since we were front row (technically the second row, off to the side with no seats in front of us; my favourite seats at that theatre), when Mecci first gestured to the semicircle of chairs on the stage and invited volunteers to come fill them, Dave turned to me and asked if he should go. I said, "Of course!" and off he went to join the willing participants. (On a side note: people were lining up politely to climb the stairs to the stage, but since only twenty volunteers would be needed, I watched in awe as a middle-aged white guy came running down the aisle, belly-flopped up onto the the stage right in front of me, and then commando-crawled/sprinted towards the last empty seat; claiming it like he was playing a life and death game of musical chairs.)
It was interesting to watch Dave up there with the other volunteers, and he closed his eyes when instructed, and he relaxed forward and let his arms and head dangle as instructed, and I thought, "This is so exciting." But when Mecci told the participants that they were driving racecars down the highway, waving to their friends, Dave was not one of the ones steering and smiling at unseen others. Eventually, Dave was among those who were dismissed, and he said later that he couldn't quite make out everything the hypnotist was saying; that perhaps the rear-facing speakers weren't well-placed, and it's true that all of the people in the centre of the semicircle of chairs (like Dave) were eventually dismissed; leaving me, disappointingly, with no inside information on what it feels like to be hypnotised.
Once the five successful volunteers were fully put into their trances, Mochrie asked for suggestions for scenarios from the audience and then led the group through improvising various scenes. And while I appreciate the reasoning behind "the lack of inhibition created by hypnosis will make these participants ideal improvisors", I was surprised at just how quick and clever they all were; which is what made it all so funny (none of them were degraded or did anything embarrassing; they were all just completely, hilariously, committed to their characters.)
Near the end, Mochrie said that at every show audience members accuse the participants of being plants. So he went through them one by one and asked who in the audience had come with each volunteer, asked what they did for a living (everything from student to "cruise agent") and that did make it seem like they were all authentic volunteers; that would make for a whole lot of plants just to pull one over on us. Also: as we were walking up the aisle to leave, we could see one of the participants having a lively conversation about the experience, and that seemed authentic. Further to this, my sister-in-law Christine messaged me later to say that she had seen the show last week and totally thought that the participants had been actors; so much so that she's thinking about seeing the show again next week at a different venue just to see if they're the same people. I hope she does go so I can get the scoop!
Overall: super fun night with great people. 2025, the year of experiences, starting off strong!
