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Content
Nathan Taylor
Jessica Layt
Production
Irene Adams
Kate Stanford
Printed at Spot Press Pty LtdFYi Issue 109
I prefer to think that
it’s evil with a
cheekiness behind it
HE’S GOT
THE POWER
IN HIS
HANDS
JESSICA LAYT chats with one of the world’s leading hypnotists, Peter
Powers, about his long and interesting career as well as his upcoming show
at Blacktown Workers Club...
pain.”
This interest in other hypnotic forms
led Powers to an intriguing discovery in
the Netherlands, where he was performing
therapeutic hypnotism on an 11-year-old boy
that didn’t speak a word of English.
“This was for a TV show, and as it was a
therapeutic situation they had a monitor [and]
all these little electronic sensors all over his
scalp, so they could see what was happening
to his brainwave activity,” he said.
Powers explained that he managed to
hypnotise the boy by speaking a little Dutch,
but thought he would need to use a translator
after the initial process.
“But, in fact, the reverse was true. What
I found from filming him for about 40 minutes
was that every time I started to speak, his
brainwave activity would go down regardless
of what I’ve said. Whereas when my translator
spoke, he started to come out of [hypnosis].”
Powers discovered that there was
something strange in the hypnotic process that
seemed to break down the language barrier.
“I really don’t know what that is and I’ve
not read anything about it either, but I found it
just from doing it,” he said.
So audiences beware, it seems no-one
can escape the hypnotist’s Powers!
“
It’s comedy. It’s absolute comedy,”
hypnotist Peter Powers said of his latest
show.
“I actually try to make the show as funny
as I can from start to finish.”
Peter Powers has been a stage hypnotist
since the 1980’s and has made regular visits
to Australian shores with his unpredictable
shows.
Fresh from a run in the UK, Powers is back
in Australia and will be performing a show at
Blacktown Workers Club later this month.
“I never really know how somebody’s
going to react,” he said.
“Even if I’ve done the routine 20 times,
I can see 20 different reactions. I keep the
routines as sort of a skeleton for the show. I
love people just to go where they want with it.”
Familiar to most Australian fans because of
his appearances on ‘The Footy Show’, Powers
tries to make his TV routines and live shows
as different as possible so his live audiences
never know what to expect.
“I’ve always been very careful not to do
stage material on the TV,” he said.
“It’s like a comedian really – a comedian
would never go on TV and do their best
material, or do the funniest joke they can tell.”
Powers first discovered his talent
for hypnotism when, at the age of 12, he
pretended to hypnotise his younger brother
by slowly swinging their father’s pocket watch
and repeating calming phrases. To his great
surprise, he saw his brother’s eyes begin to
close and watched his face relax.
“I just thought he was pretending, as
indeed I was, but there was just something
about the look on his face,” Powers recalled.
“I clapped my hands together and he
Don’t miss Peter Powers’ hilarious
and spontaneous show on Saturday,
November 24, at Blacktown Workers
Club. Tickets are $32.
To book or for more information call
9830 0600 or visit www.workersclub.
com.au.
nearly jumped out of his skin! He was a bit
disoriented.”
The next day Powers went to the library
and borrowed a book on hypnotism, jump-
starting his life-long obsession. It is this
obsession that has seen the Englishman
dubbed ‘the world’s most evil hypnotist’ – a
moniker he is quite pleased with.
“I prefer to think that it’s evil with a
cheekiness behind it,” he explained.
“I’d say some of the most extreme sorts of
things [I’ve ever done] was burying somebody
alive and pushing somebody out of a plane,
which of course was rather evil.”
Another of Powers’ favourite tricks involves
hypnotising a person in an inflatable dingy with
a couple of paddles on stage to believe they
are lost at sea.
“I’ll play the sound of the rescue plane...
or the sound of the ‘Jaws’ theme so they think
[that] there’s a shark in the water and that kind
of thing,” Powers laughed.
“Just watching the reactions when they’re
in that boat – I’ve seen some people take their
shoelaces out of their trainers and put it on
the end of the paddle and try to fish! Or make
some kind of a hat out of their T-shirt – they
take it off and make some kind of a hat to put
over their head to protect themselves from the
sun, and then they’ll get the shoelaces and
start trying to catch a fish!”
As well as entertaining crowds, Powers
also has a passion for hypnotism’s therapeutic
capabilities.
“I’m obviously interested in the comedy
side – it’s what I do, it’s my career,” he said.
“But I’m very, very interested in how
the mind works. So I’ve used hypnosis and
hypnotic techniques for phobias and removing
03Cover Story