“You’re getting sleepy—very sleepy.”  This seems to be the first thing that people think about when they think of hypnosis.  They might also think of some looney-looking doctor swinging a circular watch back and forth on a gold chain, putting someone into a zombie-like state. 

But there was none of that in Rich Aimes’ comedy hypnosis show Jan. 19 at St. Edward’s University.  In fact, Aimes began by addressing some of these common stereotypes before even starting the show.

Aimes’ show was a fantastic hybrid of hypnosis and stand-up comedy, two things that you might not think go together. His show was funny, informative and left you wanting more.

“I thought that it was important that there was some comedy aspects in there because [Aimes] was kind of talking about the serious side but then he got more people interested once he threw in comedy,” sophomore Rikki Hallowell said.

Aimes had 17 volunteers come up to the stage to be hypnotized.  Out of these 17, two were unable to be hypnotized, which, according to Aimes, happens from time to time. 

The remaining volunteers on stage were lead to believe many things that were entertaining to the crowd.  One moment they believed that they were in a Formula One race, the next they thought the audience was in their underwear, and the next they were lead to believe that they were the ones in their underwear.

Aimes and his wife, Marielle, have been travelling to universities and colleges around the country for 19 years.

“I would say we’ve done at least 800 to 1,000 different schools,” Aimes said.

Now St. Edward’s can be added to the list.  Let us hope that Aimes and his wife will visit again soon, so those who missed out this year can see their wonderfully funny show.