Halloween may be over, but for those who aren’t quite ready to lay off the paranormal activity, there’s an interesting act coming to the D.C. Improv this weekend.
His name is Flip Orley, and he’s not just any comedian: he’s also a hypnotist. Orley’s stage consists of a row of 21 chairs for his guests who are invited to take a seat if they wish to take part in the show. People have come to love his show so much that anyone who wants one of those seats on the stage has to run. Then comes the fun part.
“It works on some people and doesn’t on others,” Orley said about the basic ideas and theories of hypnotism. “It’s not what you think of when you hear ‘hypnotism.’ The people on stage don’t become zombies and they remember everything that happens.”
Orley is very careful to make sure that the people he brings on stage are very comfortable and don’t ever regret their decision to join. Orley said at a normal hypnotist show people go up on stage and then walk away going, “I wish I had never done that,” but at one of his own shows, he aims for people to walk away glad they have participated.
Just as there are several schools of thought when it comes to comedy, hypnotism has a few of its own as well. Some people believe hypnotism is when a person is put into a trance and told to bark like a dog or quack like a duck and the whole audience laughs at them. Orley describes that kind of approach as “mean,” and although there are plenty of people who do enjoy that type of comedy, it’s not what he considers to be funny and not the way he runs his show.
When Orley hypnotizes his audience, it’s less like they are in a trance and more like they have loosened up.
“You won’t lose your ‘filter,’” Orley said. “It’s not like you’re going to say or do anything you wouldn’t normally do.”
One of his favorite games to play with his audience is to place his hypnotized guests into a talk show where he is the host and the guests are a hillbilly family whose trailer home has just been destroyed in a tornado.
Orley’s show promises to be unpredictable and entertaining, especially with a D.C. crowd. “The D.C. Improv is the best in the country,” Orley said. “All the comedians I know love it and the crowds are great.”
Orley will be at the D.C. Improv Wednesday, Nov. 4 through Sunday, Nov. 8. For tickets, call (202) 296-7008 or visit www.improv.com.
You can reach this contributing writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
