“Hypnosis gives you… a license to do goofy things that you probably would not have done before.”

— Michael Johns, co-host “Hypnosis Unleashed”

Above, a hypnotized male volunteer shows off his dance moves along side a cast member during Marc Savard’s show at the V Theater in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood.

Michael Johns

When standing in front of a room full of strangers you probably wouldn’t act out your audition for a role in an adult film, but at a Las Vegas hypnosis show, behavior like this can make you a star.

Hypnosis shows are the only ones in town that encourage audience members to lose their inhibitions on stage. What better place to do this than in Vegas?

“I think inside everybody there’s this person that wants to be in front of people and just wants to cut loose. I think that’s what hypnosis gives you,” said Michael Johns, a comedian and hypnotist who co-hosts “Hypnosis Unleashed” at the Tropicana with Terry Stokes. “It gives you the opportunity to be a part of the show and get up there and have a little fun. It gives you a license to do goofy things that you probably would not have done before.”

There are several hypnosis shows on the Las Vegas Strip, each of them flavored by the unique personalities of their hosts. With Johns’ show, like most of the hypnosis acts in Vegas, he puts his volunteers in a series of outrageous and often adult-oriented scenarios.

“I always like to say we’re going to step over the line in good taste. That’s what we’re going to do in the show, but you’re not going to have to move out of your hometown or anything like that afterwards,” said Johns.

He started his career as a stand-up comedian and then changed his act after seeing a hypnosis show.

“I was the star of the show, and I’m the kind of guy that didn’t believe he could ever be hypnotized so it was amazing to me,” said Johns.

Anthony Cools

Afterwards, he studied under a hypnotherapist in Florida and incorporated his new skills into his comedy routine.

The basic setup for every hypnosis show is the same. The host and hypnotist greets his or her audience and does a brief explanation of hypnosis and the show. During this “pre-talk,” as it’s called in the industry, the hosts are trying to both educate the audience and make them feel trusting enough to volunteer to be hypnotized.

“It’s live performance, and you have to get people to like you in 10 or 15 minutes, get them to trust you to come up on stage. Then you have to hypnotize them, and then you have to choreograph a show out of that,” said Corbin Craft, who co-hosts “Naughty Boys Hypnosis” with Rolan Whitt at Harmon Theater at Planet Hollywood. Hypnotist Anthony Cools, who performs at Paris Las Vegas, agrees.

“You can’t rehearse a hypnosis show because it’s based on audience participation. It’s done on the fly,” said Cools.

Comedy Stage Hypnosis in Las Vegas

While relying on audience participation is always an unpredictable element, Craft explained that it’s one of the main draws of hypnosis shows. People come to Vegas to go crazy and hypnosis shows give them that option.

“This is an excuse for them to let their hair down, it totally is. It’s like ‘ok I’ll let these guys hypnotize me and then whatever I do I can just blame them,’” said Craft.

One of the unique aspects of “Naughty Boys Hypnosis” is that the show incorporates a lot of elaborate and naughty props, a tool Craft and Whitt learned from the original Dr. Naughty, Dean Stirling, Craft’s late father who also performed as a hypnotist in Vegas.

“He’s the one that taught us how to use props and the value of them and how much further you can go with the comedy with a prop and how real it makes the bit, not just to the people that are on stage because they’re hypnotized, but it brings a sense of realism to the people in the audience as well,” said Craft.

Before hosting the show, Craft and Whitt learned how to do hypnosis by working on Dr. Naughty’s show. Whitt used to perform comedy as the opening act, and Craft did sound and lighting. Craft is a certified clinical hypnotist and Whitt is in the process of getting his certification.

While Cools doesn’t use an assortment of props, his show is equally outrageous. It starts with a 3-D movie and bikini-clad female comedians who start the show with a few jokes before Cools performs. Well known as one of the edgiest hypnosis acts on the Strip, Cools explained that sometimes guests are apprehensive about getting on stage.

“I’m definitely at the forefront of the nastier shows in town, and I think people are warned,” said Cools.

Marc Savard

Even if you don’t volunteer to be hypnotized, hypnotist Marc Savard said people like watching hypnosis shows because they can relate to those on stage.

“There’s something about the phenomenon of hypnosis that adds an element of raw laughter and spontaneity. You can go to a comedy club and watch some comics and sometimes you identify with the comic and sometimes you don’t … whereas with hypnosis it’s always the people from the audience and you can identify with them because they’re real people,” said Savard, who performs at V Theater in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood.

Along with his adult humor, Savard’s show features showgirls who perform dance numbers and, in some of the scenarios, interact with hypnotized volunteers.

Savard first became fascinated with hypnosis when he attended a show while trying to get into medical school. Afterwards, he started researching it and practiced hypnotizing friends before performing in front of an audience.

When he was 23 he used his skills on himself after being hit by a drunk driver. He suffered a broken back and fractured skull and used his mind to control his pain and make a rapid recovery just six months after the accident. Now he is a certified hypnotherapist and has a school where he teaches stage hypnosis to other up-and-coming hypnotists. Despite his certification, Savard explained that learning to hypnotize people is the easy part of doing stage hypnosis because people are naturally suggestible.

“We think in words. Once you change those words and those ideas, you can cause organic change in the body, and it really comes down to one thing. Where the mind goes, the body and the emotions follow,” said Savard.

Hypnosis is a natural state of consciousness between being awake and sleeping where people are highly suggestible. When you watch a hypnosis show, not only do you get to watch people do something out of the ordinary, but you’re also getting a glimpse of that person when they aren’t feeling restricted by social norms.

“It allows us to be our truest self. It allows our truest personality to come out without consequence,” said Savard.

This is only to a certain extent though, because he explained, that even while hypnotized, people have what’s called a subconscious watchdog that prevents them from doing anything against their morals or beliefs.

Along with getting people to do things for entertainment, being hypnotized can also help people make impacting life changes, explained Dr. Scott Lewis who has a show at Riviera. A former chiropractor, Lewis started doing clinical hypnosis 22 years ago.

“I got interested in hypnosis because I was 41 pounds overweight. I learned how to do hypnosis and lost the weight, and then I started incorporating it into my practice. I’ve been performing for eight years,” said Lewis.

He was featured on “Inside Edition” for a hypno-diet therapy he did with Vegas showgirls who needed to get back in shape after their pregnancies. Aside from his show he continues to do private hypnotherapy sessions. He also performs his show on cruise ships and does seminars on weight loss.

In his show, Lewis both entertains and educates his audience on the power of hypnosis and how it can change people’s lives. His show is more family-friendly than some of the other hypnosis shows on the Strip.

“I like having the clean alternative and just really showing people what else can be done with hypnosis and still have a very funny and entertaining show,” said Lewis.

If you want to be a spectator or you want to be the star, hypnosis shows offer an experience that can’t be compared to any other show in Vegas.

“The show is people. You get to see what people are like when they are not inhibited. You get to see a very charming side of people… It’s just very empowering, and people love seeing people at their best,” said Lewis.

This advertising supplement was written by Caroline Fontein and prepared by the VEGAS.com staff and did not involve the reporting or editing staff of the Los Angeles Times. To reach VEGAS.com, e-mail story@vegas.com. Visit us online at www.lightsvegasaction.com.

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The self-described “bad boys of hypnosis,” Michael Johns and Terry Stokes, celebrate a milestone tonight (Thursday) with their 2,000th show — now the longest continually running hypnosis production in Vegas. And for the first time ever, they will put each other “under!” Since landing here in early 2001, Terry and Michael have bounced around at five different venues — but never skipped a night or a show of their Dirty Hypnosis Unleashed.

They began at the Bourbon Street, moved onto the Tuscany Suites & Casino, then the Empire Ballroom, onto the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, then the Stardust before it was blown up, and finally –- and permanently — at the Harmon Theater alongside Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile. Now that’s a journey!

Michael told me: “We have been very fortunate to have had such a long and successful run even with all the different showrooms. Now we’re looking forward to another 2,000 shows. Since we’ve been in Vegas, there have been nine other hypnotists over seven years and we’ve outlasted them all! The Harmon Theater is reminiscent of Old Vegas. It’s an intimate theater that lets the audience be a huge part of the show.”

Terry added: “We’re the only dueling hypnotists show in the world and for the first time tonight we will both hypnotize each other. We’ve never done that before so it will be very interesting to see what happens tonight!” Their show mixes mind-blowing hypnotic antics coupled with hilarious comedy — and the extraordinary and surprising behavior of the real-life audience volunteers who perform some of the wildest — and naughtiest — hi-jinx imaginable.

Here’s our conversation, “before they put me to sleep!”:

Michael & Terry: Everyone can be hypnotized but not always during a stage show. People become hypnotized every day of their lives. They don’t realize it, but they do it when they’re watching a TV show or reading a book. Ever been watching a TV show and someone walks into the room and asks you a question and you answer it, five minutes later after the show ended you say, “Did you say something to me?” A lot of folks call that marriage. But if you think about it part of your mind heard a question, analyzed it, thought up an answer, delivered the answer and you didn’t even have a clear memory of doing it. So everyone can be hypnotized, but during a stage show, no you can’t, we usually get about 80 percent of the audience who can be put right out.

Robin Leach: Looking back over 2,000 shows, and I want to come to the funny bits and the heart break bits in a minute, have you used different methods of hypnosis I think of the man with the dangling watch or stare into my eyes routine. How do you hypnotize somebody?

Michael: You talk to them, Robin; it’s a focused concentration. And to get them to focus enough on just what you’re saying, again going back to the analogy of the TV show, when you’re so focused on one thing that you don’t hear that, surrounding things don’t bother you so the dangling watch is the focal point but basically if you’re standing in front of them and you’re doing it properly you’re their focus point, you are the dangling watch. We don’t have to lower our voices or deliver the words in a softer or more monotone way. It’s just regular conversation.

RL: Is it a miracle to achieve 2,000 continuous shows in Vegas?

Terry: I think so, we’ve been very fortunate, we’ve had some great showrooms and we’ve had a great following for a long, long time. So yeah, I think it’s kind of a miracle and we’re lucky to be where we are.

We’ve also been very careful, you know a lot of shows come into town and they say, you have to have a half a million dollars to get your show launched and well, we didn’t know all that so we went ahead and made a profit our first week. We had not been told to spend this much money. We waited and when we had enough money to buy a billboard, we bought a billboard and so we have never been in panic mode. The shows have always been good and the crowds have always been good. But I see so many shows coming in and they ask, don’t you have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to do a show, well that’s one way to do it, but for me it’s not the smart way to do it.

RL: You must have had really funny moments, strange moments and even heartbreaking moments?

Michael: I was a standup comic and went for hypnosis to make the act better. But once I’d been helped I saw it as the only form of entertainment I wanted to perform. I used to do fairs and travel all over the country and I had a bit that was basically the talking teddy bear and it’s cute, everybody liked it. I had the prop up on stage one night and decided to try something a little different with it and Robin, it became my signature bit, and the guy would wake up and there would be this teddy bear next to him and he thinks it’s a cute bear and when he looks over a few minutes later the bear is looking up at him, smiling and then the guy who happens to be an expert on the subject of sex decides to instruct the bear in the proper ways to do it. It’s a sick moment but we also average about eight people a night howling on the floor from laughing so hard.

Terry: We had one regular lady come to see she and then us stopped. She was away for a while having heart surgery. She came back to us nightly just to laugh to make her feel better. Her daughter wrote us a beautiful letter saying that her mother had died after being taken ill at one of our shows -– but she died doing exactly what she wanted to do -– laughing and being happy.”

RL: Is it safe to say that the people who come are totally skeptics or are they in the zone to be hypnotized?

Terry: It totally depends on your crowd, but you do get a lot of skeptics up there that say, “I’m going to get up there and I don’t think this is going to work but I’m going to give it a shot.” And they turn out to be the stars of your show 100 percent of the time.

Michael: The people who say they can’t do it, they’re my favorites because a lot of people will come back three and four times to see if you’ve got the same people on stage or if you’re using plants.

RL: So there’s no green house effect on your show with plants?

Michael: People will come back night after night and finally they will say, “Well, hell, if these guys are making enough money that they can hire actors every night, or is it for real, and they end up being the funniest, stars of the show.

Terry: I was a skeptic before I got into this business. I saw a hypnotist on my Spring Break and said he couldn’t be real; so I went onstage and he turned me into a stripper on a pool table. I even made $20, and when I knew it was for real I changed my major to “behavior modification” studies. Now we can use it for entertainment and for teaching. We’ve hypnotized people very successfully and given them good advice to stop smoking, get weight under control and motivate them for success and relieve their stress. So that’s all good.

HYPNOSIS UNLEASHED! is a perfect description for comedian/hypnotists Terry Stokes’ and Michael Johns‘ Vegas show. Your jaw will drop (just like it may have years ago when you very first, naively had a glimpse of one of the Girls Gone Wild-video advertisements.) You will find yourself saying: “No way-he’s gonna actually do it!” The hilarious, adult fun can be seen by both comedian hypnotists as they share their venue and perform individually on separate nights. Their comedic style is very different, which makes it fun to go a second time, not only to get a chance to see both performers, but you’ll also see a whole new gang of participants. Maybe you, yourself, will decide to join the hypnosis hilarity and jump up on stage and become a star in the show.

SLV found out some interesting background history, while interviewing these two hilarious showmen.

SLV: After high school you joined the Army. Was it difficult to suppress your comedic personality during your military years?

Michael: You know, I was always in a lot of trouble. I was never the kind of guy who knew when to keep his mouth shut. I did a lot of push-ups. When I got out, my upper body, I was pretty ripped.

SLV: (laughter) When did you decide that you wanted to be a hypnotist?

Michael: I was actually doing stand-up. When I was in the army, in Georgia, they had a little comedy club in Columbus, and I would go do Open-Mic there. And when I had a little time off I would go do Open-Mic in Atlanta, too. And then one night, I got hypnotized on stage-and I was just going up to help the guy out. I didn’t think it would really work. But he was a nice guy, and I figured I’d just help him out, and at least just fill a chair for him – because nobody was getting up there. And the next thing I know-it’s an hour and a half later-I’m opening my eyes-and I was the star of the show. So after that, I said, “I have to learn how to do this.”

SLV: Did you wonder afterwards, if you did anything embarrassing?

Michael: I don’t get embarrassed easily, but I did a lot of things that I would not ordinarily do. In my show, we step over the line of good taste a lot-but I don’t think anybody has anything they need to be humiliated about. If you have a good sense of humor, you’re gonna really enjoy being a part of the show.

SLV: What method did you use to educate yourself about hypnosis?

Michael: I went to Miami, Florida and I learned from a guy there who’s name is Gerald Kine, and he is probably one of the top Hypnotherapists on the planet-doing this for 40 to 50 years. He’s made some incredible discoveries and breakthroughs. So I took what he taught me and I applied it to the stage. With the comedy background, it was a natural progression.

SLV: Do you have any extra sensitive abilities, or just great showmanship?

Michael: It’s the comedy and show-I love the “performance,”-and I love the challenge. You never know the kind of people you’re gonna get on stage-and you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s always new-it’s always fresh.

SLV: That must make some difficult nights for you.

Michael: Some nights you get an audience that doesn’t realize that it’s an audience participation show, and that they need to get involved. We take what we get on stage. We
make a show out of it. We never use plants or shills. We’ve never done that-and we never will-and quite frankly, that’s cheating.

SLV: The Adult-Rated comedy in your show-in particular-makes it uniquely hilarious. What are some of you comedic influences?

Michael: I love all different kinds of comedians. I don’t care if it’s dirty, if it’s clean… I love Seinfeld, a guy named Brian Regan-he’s absolutely brilliant. I also love guys like Carlin. And another guy, he’s dead now, he’s probably the greatest comedian who ever lived. His name was Bill Hicks. He would come on stage and tell you why you were stupid, how stupid you were, and you’d sit there and laugh at, ‘cause you’d say, “Yeah, this guy is right.” He was so funny. He was probably one of my biggest influences.

SLV: Do you have a favorite personality-style for a volunteer?

Michael: I would like to say the really, highenergy, fun people, but sometimes you get people on stage that are really timid and really quiet until you get them hypnotized-and they’re just insane.

SLV: I noticed the female volunteers seemed to really lose their inhibitions. They had like a “come-hither” look on their face. And then the male volunteers went to this innocent, trusting, child-like look.

Michael: Exactly-you never know. And other nights it’s exactly the opposite. (laughter)

SLV: Have you ever used your hypnosis techniques on a girlfriend, for your personal pleasure?

Michael: You know what? I think I can’t incriminate myself and answer that.

SLV: I had to ask…

Michael: No-I’ve never actually done that. Maybe I need to give that a try.

SLV: What do you like to do on your day or night off work?

Michael: I’m a single guy-kind of private. I’m waiting for Paris Hilton to come around. (laughter) I love the Vegas lifestyle. I like the restaurants, movies. I’m a sports car fanatic. I like to hit the interstate and drive as fast as I can… SLV

Click HERE to read Terry’s interview with SLV.

Hypnosis Unleashed!
Harmon Theater inside Krāve
(Valet parking on Harmon Ave. at entrance of Desert Passage and Aladdin)
3663 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Showtimes: 9:00pm • 7 nights a week • Ages 21+
702-836-0836 • PURCHASE TICKETS

It’s the same story for Michael Johns as with most comedians. He was the proverbial class clown who eventually realized he could earn a living making others laugh.

Only Johns took it a step further: He decided to include hypnotism in his act.

It’s an experiment that’s paid off for the 35-year-old comedian, as he’s become a fixture on the comedy-club circuit.

After filling in one weekend for another hypnotist, Terry Stokes, at Bourbon Street, Johns was hired to create his own adult-oriented show, which debuted Sept. 6.

“The Michael Johns Hypnosis Show” runs 11 p.m. Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Showroom at the Bourbon Street.

The Las Vegas Sun recently talked to Johns about how he became a hypnotist, how to hypnotize someone and whether he would ever use that ability for his own gain.

Las Vegas Sun: What did you do before you became a comedian?

Michael Johns: I took a lot of college courses, but never actually graduated from college because my attention span just isn’t that long. I was in the Army and got out of the Army and traveled the country working several jobs. Something was always missing. I tried to be the entrepreneur and I was successful in a couple little ventures that way, but the fact of the matter was this is what I am and this is what I do.

Sun: I guess being a cutup wouldn’t go over well in boot camp.

MJ: I spent a lot of time doing push-ups. I’ll never forget, one time I had to sweet-talk a telephone pole.

Sun: What happened?

MJ: I was in an infantry unit in Fort Benning, Ga., (which) is mostly all men. We were running in a battalion formation and a company of nurses happened to run by. Obviously we’re going to look and I got caught looking. They stopped the formation and I got pulled out. They said, “Johns, you think you’re such a ladies’ man, why don’t you show us how good you are and sweet-talk this telephone pole.”

So basically, I had to do inverted push-ups — the whole time the battalion is watching me — and tell a telephone pole how great it looks and all kinds of things I can’t go into in polite company.

Sun: How did you become a comedian?

MJ: I was DJ-ing weddings and things like that. People were like, “You’re really good at this, you’re not like some cheesy DJ. You ought to do this for a living.” Well obviously I didn’t want to be a DJ for the rest of my life, so I started doing stand-up and I started doing open mike (nights). Just about anywhere they would let me perform I would go do a show, whether it paid or it didn’t pay. I took every opportunity to learn my craft.

Sun: Why did you decide to incorporate hypnotism into your act?

MJ: I was doing a show and I opened for a hypnotist. And I thought it was one of the neatest things I’d ever seen. I was hooked and I thought, “I’ve got to learn how to do this.” It was so different and so interactive. And I think that’s what people like about entertainment, they like to be part of the show. And that’s one of the things that really drew me into being a hypnotist.

Sun: How do you learn to be a hypnotist?

MJ: Some people learn out of a book. I happened to learn from a guy out of Miami, Fla., who’s been doing hypnotherapy for about 45 years. I went to Miami and paid an exorbitant amount of money and he taught me how to do hypnotherapy. It was just a matter of taking that and applying it to a stage.

Sun: Was it difficult to learn?

MJ: It wasn’t really difficult to learn. What’s difficult with doing a hypnosis show is that every night you’ve got people onstage with different personalities and different quirks. You have to learn to — and this is a really bad word to use — “exploit” their characteristics or individuality. I don’t mean exploit in a bad way. I guess “utilize” is a better word. So that’s really what’s hard. It’s hard to make it funny because hypnosis, in and of itself, isn’t really funny.

Sun: Everyone’s seen the cartoons where a villain pulls out a gold watch and chain and hypnotizes someone into doing their bidding. But it’s really not like that at all?

MJ: It’s really not. There are guys who use different techniques, like a flickering light. Other guys make their voice really monotone. There are different ways to do it. Me, I talk just like I’m talking to you now and I play a little music, which is really just background filler that has nothing to do with the show.

The whole key to hypnosis is a matter of trust. If people trust you, if they’re comfortable with you, they’re going to be hypnotized.

Sun: So you lull participants into a trance?

MJ: What happens is when a body gets super-relaxed, you become hyper-suggestible. The first time I got hypnotized, I didn’t remember anything that happened. And some people don’t. Other people remember everything. The way I explain it is it’s like a very vivid daydream. That’s how a lot of people explain it to me and it makes a lot of sense. You know what’s going on, but you just lose your inhibitions. It’s a very relaxing feeling.

Sun: Still, you can’t get someone to do something they don’t want to do?

MJ: Absolutely not.

Sun: For example, you couldn’t get a woman to take off her clothes onstage?

MJ: That’s pretty much the story of my life. (Laughs) You can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do. If it goes against their moral or ethical fiber, they’re not going to do it.

Basically, what I’m doing is getting them to relax a little bit, let down their guard. If I told somebody to go steal something, they’re not going to do that. It’s not mind control.

Sun: You’re vulnerable, to a certain degree.

MJ: But again, it all goes back to the trust issue. People in my show don’t feel vulnerable. I tell them right up front, “I’m an idiot, but I’m an idiot who’s very good at what I do. All you have to do is relax and I’ll do all the work for you. I’m not here to embarrass you or humiliate you, that’s not what the show’s about.” And I think people know that when they come up (onstage), so they don’t feel vulnerable.

Now, there are hypnotists out there that do an X-rated show and get people onstage and absolutely humiliate people and tear them apart. We definitely do some things that stretch the boundaries of good taste, but nobody gets embarrassed and nobody gets humiliated. I never ask those people onstage to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself.

Sun: Can anyone be hypnotized?

MJ: Anybody of average intelligence can be hypnotized if they let themselves go.

Sun: But if someone doesn’t want to be hypnotized, they won’t be hypnotized?

MJ: Exactly. You can sit there and fight it if you want and it won’t work for you. And that’s what I tell people: “If you don’t want to be hypnotized, please don’t come up onstage and waste my time and ruin the show for these other folks.”

Sun: Can you tell when somebody is pretending to be hypnotized?

MJ: Yeah. What happens when people are hypnotized is their pupils dilate a little bit, their eyes might get a little bit bloodshot, their palms might get a little bit sweaty. I mean, there are different signs in their actions so that you can tell when somebody is faking and when they’re not.

Sun: Have your ever tried using hypnosis on a woman, to get a raise at work or even for free groceries?

MJ: I’ve never tried to do anything like that. You couldn’t use it for anything like that. If there’s a way to do it, I would’ve figured it out by now.

Sun: So what you’re saying is, if you were a superhero and hypnotism was your super power, you’d use it for evil?

MJ: I’d like to say I’d use it for good, but you never know.”