Lines were out the door at Memorial Auditorium as over 150 students attended last week’s event, Hypnotist: Brian Imbus.
Imbus is a hypnotist and mentalist who has traveled the world performing.
“I’m very excited,” said freshmen business management major Melissa McMillen. “I’ve seen hypnotized people at all other colleges, and now I get to see them here.”
The fact that Imbus’ show coincided with the first day of classes did not stop large crowds from coming out to both shows.
“I expect to be dazzled,” said freshmen psychology major Kaylee Connors, before the event.
Prior to his first show, eight people admitted that they had been hypnotized before. Audience members also learned that you can not be hypnotized unless you choose to be and you can not be stuck in it either. During the show, 24 people were selected by Imbus to appear on stage.
“One hour of hypnosis is equivalent to eight hours of sleep,” Imbus said.
He tried getting contestants to believe they were on a beach. It was only minutes before more than half of them fell out of their chairs and were hypnotized. Once those seats became vacant again, other people from the audience came on stage to fulfill those spots, leaving the previous participants to walk back to their seats.
“I use these tricks on my daughter’s boyfriends,” Imbus said.
Through his talents, Imbus was able to get the people on stage to do everything from falling out of their seats to running on and off stage.
Among the students hypnotized was junior theater major James Hartmann.
“I had no memory when I was hypnotized,” Hartmann said. “It felt weird and invasive but had a happy ending to it, and people also had to tell me what happened.”
While on stage, Hartmann was among the numerous students impacted by Imbus’ ability. He kept taking off and putting on his shirt.
Robert Imbus tries hypnotizing students during last week’s hypnotist event.
Jeremy Wall | The Montclarion
At one point during the show, audience members were convinced that participants were going to win a million dollars during one of the segments. Unfortunately, nobody walked away with that.
After one of the exercises, contestants were asked what their names were. At the moment, many could not recall. Following that, Imbus got participants to believe they were various different types of people and objects, including washers, chefs, vacuum cleaners, professional jugglers, jaywalkers, fishermen and others.
The final show of the evening closed out with a segment called Posphypnotic Suggestions. This left contestants to believe Justin Timberlake was on stage. Imbus also tried talking to get the audience focused on different topics but was interrupted by mesmerized students.
“It was very entertaining,” said senior biology major Dominick Monticcio, who attended both shows. “Some I remember, and some was new.”
