Adelaide Fringe: Hypnosis (Live!)

What: HYPNOSIS (Live!) with Isaac Lomman
Where: Gluttony
Duration: 70 minutes
Genre: Magic / Hypnosis

(Review by Sarah List)

I first saw Isaac Lomman a few years ago at a fringe event at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel. I would have classed myself as a sceptic – hypnotists on TV shows always looked like they had planted people in the audience – how real could their ‘performance’ be? At this last performance I was plucked from the audience to venture on stage. Sadly, I didn’t make it through the early stages and while it was an enjoyable show, I don’t think I left and more deeply convinced in the reality of hypnosis (or at least this theatrical kind).

Cue 2019 and I throw my volunteering pants on for his new show at The Moa (Gluttony). A massive crowd has packed in on this evening and they are buzzing before the show. Lomman opens up with a couple of simple ‘mind tricks’ and then invites participants from the audience to swarm the stage in an adult frenzied game of musical chairs for a chance and likely public embarrassment under his hypnotic control.  This change in the way that the participants arrived on stage had me wondering if my earlier questions about the reality of stage hypnosis would be answered more clearly this time.

Whittling the group down to the ‘most suggestable’ of the group, Lomman prepares them to perform increasingly complex acts – all with hilarious results. Even given the same instruction it’s fascinating to see how differently the participants interpret them and respond. The results are hilarious and there were plenty of shrieks from the people around us.

Speaking with Isaac Lomman after the show, he says that everyone has different ‘openness’ to hypnosis, and that we can train ourselves to become more focused via subtle hypnosis and that can help us to improve different aspects of our lives. He says that reading and other behaviours that require extended attention can improve our ability to focus and that’s generally what participants who are successfully hypnotised have in common. 

A fascinating and fun event.