Who: Sailesh the Hypnotist
Where: Boot Pub
When: Saturday, Dec. 13
Tickets: $10
Conventional wisdom says it takes one to know one, so it’s not surprising that hypnotist Sailesh likes to be hypnotized himself.
"I’m a hypnotist junkie," he says. "As long as I trust the person I’ll definitely get hypnotized by them."
It’s a good thing he appreciates both sides of the hypnotism coin since it’s kept him on the road for 11 months of the year for the past eight and a half years. That’s eight and a half years of making people believe they’re on the Jerry Springer show and watching them turn into livid white trash. Eight and a half years of watching what happens when people suddenly believe their chair is the world’s greatest lover. Eight and a half years of uncensored, uninhibited, unbelievable behaviour.
Still, even after all that time he says people never cease to amaze him.
It’s hard to imagine an alternate universe wherein the burley ex-bouncer with the piercing green eyes sits behind a desk crunching numbers, but Sailesh was once an accounting student in Calgary. After being hypnotized himself, he decided the eyes would be better suited to sending willing volunteers into a waking dreamstate than squinting at a calculator.
That he was open-minded enough to make a 180 degree turn from a life in the world of finance to embrace life on the road as a hypnotist-entertainer indicates an inclination toward being a good hypnotism subject. Sailesh confirms the best hypnotism subjects are those with an open, creative mind and the biggest misconception about what he does is that it only works on weak-minded people.
Potential subjects of Sailesh’s wild stage show should know he’s not billed as "uncensored" for a reason. Things can get raunchy at times, however, he insists there’s a line he won’t cross. He won’t encourage women to get naked, for example. Besides, he says, even though he’s able to speak to the subconscious, everyone’s mind has a system of checks that won’t allow it to override moral beliefs.
"For some people they know exactly what they’re doing when they’re hypnotized, they just can’t stop themselves. And other people are just so out of it they’re just like putty in my hands," he says, without a trace of sinister cartoon malevolence.
"The truth is, you can’t surpass someone’s morals even when they’re hypnotized. The mind won’t let you do something you feel is morally wrong."
That being said, getting hypnotized by Sailesh is no Sunday school class, which is one reason he says he enjoys doing shows in Whistler.
"A lot of people are on vacation, so they don’t know anybody and they can just be themselves," he says. "They don’t have any inhibitions, which makes it so much easier. When you have the pressure of ‘what will my friends think, or my co-workers,’ it makes it a little more difficult."
Leave your inhibitions at home and check out Sailesh this Saturday at the Boot Pub. Tickets $10 at the door. Call 604-932-3338 for more information.
