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The Manchurian Approach – hypnotism for magicians
September 2009, Derby
A review by Jon Holt
A beautiful sunny weekend, a conference centre in Derby, a world-class hypnotist
and 15 willing participants – it could only be ‘the Manchurian approach –
hypnotism for magicians’. I was not a hypnotist before I arrived at the Derby
Conference Centre and had no experience whatsoever in hypnosis. Indeed, it would
be fair to say that I was actually quite ignorant as to what hypnosis actually
is.
The course was run and delivered by Anthony Jacquin (pronounced rather
un-exotically as ‘Jack Quin’), a professional hypnotherapist and entertainer
with many years of experience and thousands of subjects under his belt. Imagine
Ewen McGregor in a Dr Who suit and you will have a good mental Polaroid of
Anthony.
I was first attracted to the course as I had bought and read Anthony’s book
‘Reality is Plastic’ (reviewed in MagicSeen) which I thoroughly enjoyed but
thought ‘there is no way that I could do this for real!’. Therefore, when I saw
the course advertised in the same issue, I took the plunge and booked myself a
place.
There were sixteen people in total which included Anthony himself, Kevin
Sheldrake (his business partner and assistant on the course) and a few previous
course attendees (Amit Badiani, Ben Cardell and Vince Lynch), who had popped in
to help out with some of the practical sessions. Most of the rest of the group
were all hypnosis virgins although a few people had dabbled.
Anthony is a firm believer in the ‘get out there and do it’ approach to training
which was reflected in the format of the first day. The morning was spent going
through some of the theory of hypnosis but focussed on a series of practical
exercises where we rehearsed the exercises, learnt the patter and had a go at
hypnotising our fellow attendees. This was very interesting and I was amazed to
see how simple the actual hypnosis process is – the set pieces, the induction,
the main act and then the exit. The exercises were interspersed with Anthony
hypnotising a few of us in front of the class which was nothing short of
breathtaking! It is one thing seeing hypnosis on a YouTube clip or even on
stage, but for me there is always that nagging doubt concerning set-ups and
stooges. When you see it done in front of your eyes in under a minute, it is
incredible!
I thoroughly enjoyed the morning and would have been quite happy going home at
that point with what I had learnt and still considered the course good value –
but the best was yet to come. We went out and hypnotised the good folk of Derby.
We all headed into town to eat lunch in a food mall and where a few of the guys
started to hypnotise fellow diners. Just walk up to someone, introduce yourself
to them and, to quote Anthony, ‘Bosh’ them in. This is what we were told to do –
and we did it! We went out into the high street in small teams and started to
stop people and basically ask people if they would like to be hypnotised. This
inevitably led to different people having different degrees of success – I, for
example, happened to stop a professional hypnotherapist on my first attempt
which did wonders for my self-confidence. Surprisingly, probably about half of
the people were happy to give it a go. The thing is though, bearing in mind what
I said about my own ignorance of the subject, the simple truth is that most
people have no idea of what it is either. It is possible to go through the set
pieces (set-up exercises) with people, to stop at that point, and the subjects
are, without exception, really impressed. This is despite not actually having
hypnotised them! This was a real confidence boost for me as it gave me the
perfect out and people were still pleased with the result, yet had no idea that
you have cut the whole process short.
The street hypnosis was just the starter-for-ten, as we then moved into a local
bar (with prior arrangement with the manager) and proceeded to perform magic and
hypnotise people. The bar was quiet when we arrived with just a few groups of
drunken Derby fans (they lost that day) to practise on, but as the evening
progressed the bar got busier and louder. Anthony’s theory is that if you can
hypnotise a drunk stranger in a loud, jam-packed bar, then you can hypnotise
anybody anywhere. And guess what, I finally did it! After a few near-misses, I
found a young lady who was out with a group of her friends, we did the set
pieces and the induction, and I stuck her hand to her head. She was absolutely
delighted with the whole process and I was euphoric. It may seem like a small
start but within a few hours of learning the techniques, I became ‘The
Hypnotist’.
Day two was back to the class-room environment with an emphasis on how to use
hypnosis, or give the impression of using hypnosis, for magic. This was
terrific. After the intensity and excitement of the first day, the second day
really put things into perspective and allowed us to appreciate many of the
subtleties of the hypnosis itself and its implied use. Anthony gave a
demonstration of a routine that he had developed and, all in all it was another
outstanding day.
The course itself was delivered at the Derby Conference centre which had
excellent facilities and offered basic, cheap (read: student) accommodation. The
course cost £275 which was, in my opinion, outrageously cheap. Be prepared for a
very long day on day one (9.00 am until 4.00 am for some!) so get there the
night before. We finished at around four on Sunday afternoon after a ten o’clock
start which allowed everyone to get back at a reasonable hour.
The good points of the course – excellent tuition, fantastic experiences
(reverse mind-reading being my favourite), pragmatic experience and great value.
Bad points – I’m really struggling to find any. Perhaps the cost of the course
could have included a copy of the book but, to be fair, most of us had already
bought the book and that is why we were there.
Overall, I can thoroughly recommend this course for mentalists and magicians,
but be prepared to be thrown in at the deep end. Get on this course before
Anthony sees sense and puts the price up and become a Jacquinnian!
© Jon Holt, September 2009
Jon Holt is an engineer by day and a mentalist by night. He is based in Swansea in South Wales.
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