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| - Any show that begins "Expectant mothers, people with serious injuries and whiney little bitches should not volunteer. All others are welcome to come on stage until all chairs are full" can't be all bad, and Mesmerized, with Marc Savard and his assistant Jacky Pagone, wasn't.
What: A hypnotism show. 30 volunteers are brought on stage and put into a trance. The ten or so most susceptible to hypnotic suggestion are kept on stage and in the trance, the rest are woken up and returned to the audience. The lucky ten are given a series of suggestions and a surprisingly great deal of hilarity ensues. A very, very mild example: the volunteers are told the room has gone to 140 degrees and before long begin to fan themselves and then disrobe in a desperate attempt to keep cool.
Cost: Pretty much whatever you feel like paying. List price is $54.99 for general admission and $65.99 for VIP seating, but free and discount tickets are very widely available. We got handed a pair (of free tickets) when we asked directions at a time share sales booth inside Planet Hollywood. Of course, this is Las Vegas so free isn't really free - you'll still need to pay a $5 fee at the box office. Free tickets are general admission but if you'd prefer not to stand in line to get in, they can be upgraded to VIP for $15 each. A cocktail waitress circulates but there is no minimum drink order.
Is it real? The people, yes. The trances, sometimes. Penn & Teller in Bullshit!, their TV show, call stage hypnosis 'a license to play-act' http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/episodes.do?episodeid=121297&ep=213 and my own experience mostly supports this.* I volunteered and stayed on stage for the 90 minute duration of the show. I was having fun, wanted the audience to have fun, and didn't want to be flunked off stage, so I often called on a mixture of Actor's Improv Workshop skills and yogic breathing to fake or at least exaggerate my trance. But I honestly don't know if "often" means 50% or 90% of the time. I do recall suddenly becoming consciously aware of things around me a few times, which tells me there were periods when I was genuinely under (or suffering from sleep deprivation and alcohol). I remember experiencing some but not all of the suggested sensations, though none very strongly. The other volunteers, with the exception of one person who just might possibly have been a plant, were at least as real as I.
Should I go? Assuming you are at least comfortable with risque humor and either curious about hypnosis or enjoy watching people act uninhibitedly, then yes, absolutely. Hypnosis shows are 'in' in Vegas right now, but based on the reviews I've read and my own impressions, no one has technical chops better than Marc Savard.
Ratings:
- Value For Money: *****
- Convenience: ***** The show runs everyday but Friday, which means it's available Sunday and Monday when many theaters are dark, and a 10:00PM start makes it easy to see after dinner
- Audience Experience: I bet most people would rate the show good to very good. ***1/2
- Volunteer Experience: Mesermized offers a ton of people the chance to get on stage, and the volunteers have an experience they'll remember for a while ****
Some random notes
- I suspect Mesmerized operates with a slightly different business model then most Las Vegas shows. Rather then a cast of hundreds and a sophisticated set, virtually the entire show is Marc, his poised, beautiful and insanely in-shape assistant Jacky, and a few rows of folding chairs. What Mesmerize does have is lots of merchandise they sell at the end of the show. That probably incentives them to fill the house, rather than make the most possible on each seat.
- Marc Savard's website and blog can be found here http://www.marcsavard.net/ and the official show website here http://www.varietytheater.com/mesmerized.htm
* Looked up the Penn & Teller Bullshit! show on hypnosis after seeing it referred to in an excellent article by Mike Weatherford in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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