INUVIK
If you've ever heard that a hypnotist can't make you do something you don't want to, put it out of your mind.
Stage performer Jaydee Hypnotist performed in Inuvik on the weekend of May 3 to 4. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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"Yeah, don't believe that," stage performer Jaydee Hypnotist said following a performance in Inuvik May 3. "Given enough time, I could get you to do anything, but I don't do that kind of thing."
What Jaydee Hypnotist – yes, that's the only name he divulges – does do is provide one entertaining show complete with some unexpected behaviour.
"I try to keep it clean but you never know what's going to come out," the former standup comedian said with a smile. "We had a case in point tonight."
That example was one of the female volunteers from the audience, Kim Bernier. As her hypnotic trance deepened, she let loose with periodic bursts of profanity that could have made a sailor blush.
"I had no idea that was going to happen," Jaydee said with a hint of a smile.
Afterwards, Bernier had no idea what had happened, although multiple people using smartphones to record video were going to quickly remind her.
"I had no idea I could be hypnotized," she said. "I thought it was good."
Another willing victim was Drew Patterson, who the hypnotist talked into believing he was a hard-nosed police officer enforcing a no-laughing law in the NWT.
Patterson roared around the room bellowing at people, "Are you laughing?"
"It was pretty awesome," he said after being released from the trance. "It's pretty different. You just let loose and you're not yourself anymore."
Jaydee said he's been performing as a stage hypnotist for eight years. The Edmonton resident was doing standup comedy at a club when a hypnotist wandered by and suggest he'd make an excellent hypnotist.
Jaydee mulled it over and decided to pursue the path. A considerable amount of training and certification later, he was ready to take the show on the road.
He relies heavily on his comedy background to keep the show lively.
"You've got to be entertaining," he said.
He answers only to Jaydee Hypnotist because "you've gotta live what you're doing."
"It's the flair and the showmanship that make it unique and interesting," he said.
Jaydee performed May 5 as well during the annual Firefighters' Ball at the Midnight Sun Complex.
Recognizing that he had a slightly different audience than the group at the legion, and cognizant the story of Bernier's lively use of curse words the night before was all over town, he toned the show down slightly to compensate.
"It's all in good fun," he said.
There's nothing terribly mysterious about hypnotism, he said. People often unknowingly put themselves in a trace while daydreaming or "zoning out." It's a regular occurrence that just isn't widely recognized.
"What I do is just direct it considerably more," he said.
