Not all comedians are equal.

Need a surefire funny show? Not comedy hypnotism!

After my job speaking for Health Reach, (a rural health care provider in Maine) I saw Frank Santos Jr., a “comedian hypnotist.”

I’m guessing that I didn’t see his best show. I’m hoping I didn’t.

Ok, I admit that he had a cold. And I admit that his opening comedian didn’t do him any favors. (The opening act just didn’t get the audience going. Period. Didn’t do his job to “warm up” the audience.)

But still, it seems that hypnotism is a hit or miss program. Even if I saw a “miss,” I am not certain how it would fit into a corporate or association event.

Even when he did get laughs, they were from edgy stuff: making his hypnotized subjects that they had to pee, or making his subjects dance pretending they were “erotic dancers.”

So if you remove the edgy material, he had very little left. He said on stage that he can work clean: frankly, I can’t see it.

And last night was as close to a bust as I bet he gets. Most of his subjects proved to us that they were not hypnotized. And even they ones that were (apparently) “down under” just weren’t very animated. Not that funny.

I imagine that most of the audience left thinking, “That was ok.” I can’t imagine ANY of them thinking it was the best show they’ve ever seen.

Next time YOU are involved with selecting a corporate comedian, or a clean corporate entertainer, are YOU willing to take the chance that:

Hypnotists can work clean? And that if they do, it will still be funny?
That they can be very funny, guaranteeded for YOUR audience?
And that nobody will go home thinking that it was just “Ok?”
That your comedian hypnotists will not embarass anybody.

For my money, if you want sure fire corporate entertainment, avoid comedy hypnotists.

Of course, I think you ought to go with me! :) Check out my work as a clean corporate comedian.