I developed a mind-reading show called HypnoTricks when I was eighteen years old. Many of the routines had never been practiced before. I was nervous. There was a point in the show where I had planned a hypnosis routine. I had been reading up about hypnosis and thought I could probably do it right if I had enough confidence. I was banking on confidence alone. So, there I was in front of the audience and the hypnosis routine was up next. I was scared. I had an idea to just move on to the next routine and skip the hypnosis all together. I glanced over at the lighting technician and remembered something. There are several important light cues and technical transitions during the hypnosis routine. If I skipped this huge part of the act, then I would completely mess up the lighting guy. So, I plowed forward, imagining I had done this a hundred times before. I began the routine with nothing but confidence. I called up two ladies from the audience to join me on stage and have a seat on the pre-set chairs. I began the induction, calling for their heads to become heavier and for their bodies to slowly hunch over into their laps. And with little effort, it started to work! They began to fall asleep in front of me and the audience! To my amazement the whole routine was working flawlessly. I had never practiced anything like this and it was working successfully on my first try! On the outside, I’m keeping my cool. On the inside, I’m thinking, “Holy shit, it’s actually working!”. Granted, I can credit my minimal research, but I certainly put confidence at the forefront of this success. From that project, I took away the value of confidence. I discovered that sometimes confidence will make things happen just the way you want them to. I faked being a hypnotist and then actually became one (or at least no different from a real one in the audience’s eyes).
