Hypnosis is a something which divides individuals. On one side of the fence you have the believers, and of those believers are the people who love the idea, and those who are terrified of relinquishing control of the mind. On the other side of the fence are the sceptics who think a hypnosis show is nothing more than a glorified magician picking plants out of the audience and making them bark like a dog on stage. Of the two groups, I’m the former, having witnessed my own mum be hypnotised during a show some years ago. Whatever your stance on the matter however, Isaac Lomman’s ‘Hypnotised’ is an entertaining hour where you can potentially gain leverage on your friends and family for life.

Lomman himself is an Adelaide based hypnotist who runs a clinic in Payneham and offers clinical hypnosis such as weight-loss, anxiety, and stress relief. For the Adelaide Fringe this year however, he’s making mischief with his skills for our entertainment. Lomman has a calming presence on stage, and as he picks out his (willing) victims for the night by hypnotising the crowd en masse, I definitely felt serenity sweep over me. If I wanted to completely relax and ease into the experience, then I honestly think I would have fell into the trance. I didn’t though – out of complete fear of losing control (and since hypnotised individuals usually forget their whole experience, it wouldn’t make for a very useful review). Instead, I watched as ~7 other audience members made their way to the stage to ride imaginary unicorns, pose naked, and hide from the police, among many other antics that Lomman decides on a whim.

Of course, a show like Hypnotised is heavily dependent on the audience, and more specifically, the participants. Not only do you need a healthy supply of voluntary members who are susceptible to the hypnosis, but you need to weed out the participants who are seeking nothing more than 15 minutes of fame. Lomman does this quite well, noticing when someone seemed to be teetering on the brink of consciousness and subconsciousness, and when someone was exaggerating their state to be put on the stage. Unfortunately for Lomman, his skills seemed to be a little too relaxing to serve his purposes during my show. Many of his intended effect didn’t take shape as he had planned, as the participants instead sat – borderline comatose – in their chairs. His smaller tricks managed to work, but the climactic crux of the show which revolves around a domino effect-like interaction between multiple participants fell apart almost instantly. As Lomman explained in the show, sometimes it just ‘doesn’t work out’, but when you’re paying upwards of $30 and an hour of your time, you’d certainly want it to.

All in all, Isaac Lomman’s show is risky. Perhaps with different participants I may have had a better experience. If this is your first hypnosis show, then you might enjoy it more, with smaller antics being enough to satisfy you; having been seasoned in hypnosis shows prior to this one however, I was a little disappointed with how anticlimactic the show actually was.