Must be able to follow simple instructions!

This is a phrase I often hear regarding selection of volunteers for a show.

Up until recently, my response would probably have been “I’ve never met anyone without that ability.”

This post will show that I’ve obviously just been lucky and I learned an important lesson…
Now they weren’t volunteers for Hypnosis, they were for a simple mentalism effect, but in one recent show I managed to pick two volunteers without the ability to follow simple instructions, or at least an inability to interpret my instructions.

I’m going to change the details slightly to protect the identity of the volunteers but here’s what happened:

First Volunteer

Me: “Close your eyes and point to someone in the audience.”
Volunteer: Closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them to point.
Me: “No! Keep your eyes CLOSED and point.”
Volunteer: Kept her eyes closed for ages, but didn’t point.
Me: “Are you going to point?”
Volunteer: Opened her eyes and pointed!

Second Volunteer

Me: “Think of a number between 20 and 50 where both digits are different and both digits are odd.”
Volunteer: Paused for a few seconds then nodded and said “OK.”
Me: I began to state what I believed to be true about the chosen number but I was interrupted by the volunteer.
Volunteer: “Wait! I haven’t even thought of one yet!”

Now, if I had been working a comedy club, not doing Hypnosis and not the headline act, I admit I probably would have resorted to making examples of these volunteers using the whole raft of stock put-down lines.
(You do this in order to keep the audience on your side and get off stage with your dignity and ego intact.)

But as this was early in my Hypnosis show and I had already made it clear that anyone on stage would be treated with respect and not embarrassed in any way (I say that so that when I eventually call for volunteers to be Hypnotised, I have lots of willing participants) I had to keep my cool, exercise patience and be as polite as I could, under the circumstances.

Lucky for me, this was my show.

It was my name and my name only on the poster, so the audience was there to see me and so people were generally on my side.
I could see by expressions on faces in the audience that I didn’t need to put-down or embarrass these two girls, they did a good enough job of that themselves!

So the lesson I learned is that instructions must always be clear.
Simple and straighforward enough so as not to be misinterpreted – and this becomes even more important and apparent in Hypnosis.

By the way. Were you thinking of the number 37?