It's not a post-hypnotic suggestion that keeps bringing Utah audiences back to Benjamin Van Der Meide's show - at least not to their knowledge. And if the local hypnotist is resorting to that kind of chicanery, he's definitely not telling.
"That probably wouldn't be very ethical of me, would it? And to be honest, I hadn't even thought of doing that before now," he said with a laugh.Under the name Vandermeide, he has been performing as a hypnotist for more than 30 years, both in Europe and the United States. And for the past four years, he has been inducing trances in Utah - both at the Avalon Theater and at the nearby Murray Theater, his current stage home - making his comical hypnotism lectures/performances the Beehive State's equivalent of the long-running "Cats" musical.
And like "Cats," Vandermeide continues to sell out his shows, which start every Saturday at 9:15 p.m. In fact, ticket sales for his shows actually begin each Monday to keep up with demand.
"We have a lot of repeat business for Vandermeide," said Tom Henderson, the delighted operator of the Murray Theater. "And the people who come back bring two or three friends with them, who then bring two or three more people."
The hypnotist himself is at no loss for words while explaining his popularity.
"It's the way I do my show," he said, simply. "It's a clean show that you can bring your kids, your grandkids or even your grandparents to. You can feel relaxed because there's nothing offensive about it."
During his two-hour show, Vandermeide actually lets his hypnotized subjects do most of the performing - whether they're performing piano concertos or describing the inside of a haunted castle.
He also tries not to change the content too much, since audiences have come to expect to see one of them clucking and strutting like a chicken or seeing another one "rock out."
By comparison, Vandermeide's new competitor, Don Spencer, is much flashier. (Like Vandermeide, Spencer performs Saturdays, though his show starts at 9:30 p.m. at the Avalon Theater.)
In his two-hour show, Spencer also practices quick induction - wherein subjects enter a trance as soon as the hypnotist gives them a spoken suggestion, such as "sleep!" But he also ends it with one particularly spectacular feat - he stands on the stomach of one of his subjects, usually female, who is suspended only by sawhorses.
As of late, Spencer has also taken to post-show, question-and-answer sessions, as well as audience surveys. He also has his own web page (http://www.sleep.com) for questions and comments.
"My show is very '90s, very upbeat. I also try to make it very exciting, in a rock 'n' roll sort of way," said Spencer, who enters the stage mysteriously, with smoke obscuring the audience's first view of him.
Spencer's crowds have been slowly but surely increasing since he began performing at the Avalon a year ago and the theater is nearing capacities most Saturday nights.
"He brings in a much younger crowd than Vandermeide, but he's starting to get pretty popular with the kids," said Art Proctor, owner/operator of the Avalon Theater, also known as "Salt Lake's first house of hypnotism." Proctor has been featuring hypnotism at the Avalon for more than 30 years, and had Vandermeide for three years before he moved on to a bigger theater.
"It's another way to use the theater, and it's worked pretty good for us so far," said Proctor, who has also welcomed concerts and magicians in his theater.
Diane Bradshaw, director of the Utah School of Hypnosis, said she is slightly surprised that Utahns have taken so well to Vandermeide and Spencer's acts, since hypnotism has a certain stigma in some Utah circles.
"Hypnotism looks very magical, but it's not. Nonetheless, a lot of people look it at it like it's something dark and mystical or like it's faked," said Bradshaw, a licensed hypnotherapist who also performs hypnotism on stage from time to time.
Both Bradshaw and Spencer actually use their hypnotic skills for therapy - including correcting behaviors like smoking and overeating - or teach to others the art of self-hypnosis. They're also working on hypnotism's image, locally.
"Contrary to popular belief, you can't get `stuck' in a hypnotic trance, nor can you force someone to divulge their deep, dark secrets while they're hypnotized. Some people are afraid that if they're hypnotized they'll lose control," Spencer said. "Obviously that's not true."
Despite healthy crowds for Vandermeide and Spencer's shows, Salt Lake still isn't big enough for three hypnotism shows, however. "Hypno-Mania," the Tower Theater's Friday night hypnotism show (which featured Bradshaw, among other local hypnotists), lasted only a few weeks before it was canceled due to lack of interest.
"Two's company, but three was definitely a crowd. Unfortunately we were the odd man out," said Greg Tanner, the Tower's owner/operator."Either that, or it could have been the night we had it on. Maybe hypnotism's supposed to be only on Saturdays."