Gregg Gethard continues his journal of performing as “The Greggulator” (profile). This week, hypnosis.

My biggest challenge in stand-up has, much like everyone else, been in developing new material. This isn’t a feeling that I’m used to having. Professionally, I’m a freelance writer/journalist. After about ten years of constantly have to beat deadlines, it has become second nature for me to bang out a few hundred words in only a few hours. And, in my dabbling in comedy, I’ve mostly been able to transfer my skill. In the sketch group I was in for a while, I wrote a lot (probably too many) of sketches consistently. I’ve written a ton of somewhat humorous personal essays and other bits that I’ve used for Bedtime Stories without too many problems.

But stand-up has been a lot harder for me. There are two reasons for this. First, stand-up is a whole different art and form of communication that pretty much anything else. Secondly, I perform as a character, and a pretty odd one at that, so finding that voice doesn’t come naturally. I do think of a lot of that would be good if I performed stand-up as myself, which is something I’m thinking about starting to do. But I’m a lot more interested in The Greggulator persona; I spend enough of my day worrying about whether or not I’m a good person, so portraying someone who is a delusional faux-celebrity is really cathartic, in a way.

The last new bit I’ve tried out involves hypnosis. In college, these touring “hilarious” hypnotists would come through regularly. I was in attendance for a few of these performances and was absolutely mesmerized. The hypnotists in question always told the absolute worst jokes. Almost everyone they tried to hypnotize didn’t work, just leaving minutes upon minutes of an already struggling performer drowning even more. I always made sure that if I was selected to go on stage that I bought into the act; after all, what’s the fun in not going along with a bit? And anything they made me do while under their control was completely ridiculous; I once had to tell a female co-student that she smelled like a yak.

But the most confounding thing about touring comedy hypnotists is that they were actually paid to do this. And, no doubt, they were paid a lot, considering how much money colleges are willing to throw at absolute nonsense. The whole thing was just great.

So, I came up with a hypnosis routine. I’ve been telling a bit about overcoming a grueling addiction to Sucrets cough drops for a little while. This bit has usually floundered, so I decided to incorporate it into my hypnosis. What I do is say that hypnosis cured my addiction, and I want to prove the power of hypnosis to an audience member. So I bring someone on stage and as I’m hypnotizing them, I say, “When I stomp my foot and close my eyes… I will be under your complete control until you get this audience to yell ‘SlamDancing.’” (“SlamDancin’” is my popular/asinine catchphrase.)

I’ve done this bit three times. All three times, the premise of it has gotten a good laugh from the audience. In my mind, when I thought of this, what happens is that whoever has been selected to do this bit actually makes me do some crazy stuff on stage. I love the thought of doing something that gives an audience member control over my act, since it runs so contrary to the entire point of stand-up. I also, through my brother, have seen a lot of improv shows. My favorite improv stuff always has this whole feel like things could completely unravel at any given second. I’d love to incorporate that kind of feel into my act, and I think it’d be really challenging and fun to see how I can try to reel everything back in.

However, the execution hasn’t even come close to working the way I want it to yet. All three times I’ve done it, it has ended with the audience member immediately getting the audience to say “SlamDancin’” after I knelt before him. The very first time I tried it was at an open mic in Boston, where no other performer, save the host, had any idea who I was. The volunteer was another performer and said something incredibly dickish: “In the interest of moving this really long set along, SlamDancin’.” I said something a bit snarky in return: “That’s not what I had in mind, so sit down.” While I like confrontation in comedy, I try to abstain from actual confrontations. I quickly moved on and finished a little bit later.

(True to what you’d expect, the asshole who was the volunteer went up after me and was quite possibly the worst stand-up comic I’ve ever seen in my life.)

The other two volunteers have been comic friends of mine. However, they weren’t in on the bit beforehand. So, when I hypnotized on myself, and knelt before them, they stood there awkwardly for a few minutes. I’m guessing due to the unexpected uncomfortable-ness of the situation, they wanted it to move along really quickly.

So, I have a logistics issue with this bit. I want to actually have to do something ridiculous. But I don’t want to set it up with a plant. I think it will work best if it’s completely organic. So, if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can make this go the way I want it to, please let me know.

In a related note, over the weekend I’ve come up with an idea for a new bit. I had a flash of this in my mind and came up with it after talking about it with a few of my friends, most of who are of the “real life” variety as opposed to folks I know through comedy. I always like talking comedy with people I grew with or went to college with. This is largely because my “real life” friends are hilarious. And, also, they have the perspective of someone who’d sit in the audience as opposed to someone who stands on the stage. And the opinions of people who sit in the audience are usually a lot more important than the opinions of people who stand on the stage.

Also, without going into details in case you end up seeing me debut this sometime this week, this bit could seriously end up with me getting punched in the throat by an audience member.

Maybe I do like confrontations after all.

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