As a lifelong sceptic of all things mystical, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I headed down the stairs to Tusk Club, the underground speakeasy-style venue at The Walrus, for the Comedy Hypnosis Show. Even though I didn’t leave any more certain than when I came in, I definitely found it an interesting and worthwhile experience.
WARNING: spoilers ahead for Comedy Hypnosis!
The Venue
The Walrus is a well-loved and unique venue, offering four floors of seating, including a variety of maze-like rooms, tucked-away booths and a well-sized bar, where patrons can enjoy an impressive range of cocktails, soft drinks and beers on tap, as well as a good selection of food. Its underground Tusk Club, as well as its more intimate upstairs space will be home to a plethora of events across Brighton Fringe 2025, from Edinburgh Fringe favourite ‘Comedy Shorts,’ to improvised and interactive comedy shows like ‘Hitch Your Wagon’ and ‘Who Wrote This?’ The Tusk Club worked well as a venue for the Comedy Hypnosis show, allowing audience members to hide away in the booths if desired, or sit front-and-centre for a more immersive hypnotic experience.
The Vibe
The evening started off with a couple of small whole-audience exercises, aiming to warm us all up to the idea of hypnotism, and suspend our disbelief. Anyone who’s ever pressed their arm against the wall for a minute, then stepped back and watched it float will be familiar with some of these warm-up tricks, which I won’t reveal here to keep the mystery.
Things ramped up a notch when Daniel attempted to convince us our eyes were glued together, which apparently worked for some audience members, who were guided up to the stage for further hypnosis. Participants on stage were walked through a range of increasingly strange scenarios, from believing it was sweltering hot, to swimming away from a shark. Daniel discreetly shepherded a few back to the audience throughout the evening who were clearly not hypnotised, leaving only the most susceptible (or the most conforming) onstage.
By the end, we were left with five subjects, who seemed to believe and follow everything suggested to them. Even if the show’s pacing felt a little off, with a lack of a climactic end point, a variety of bizzare scenarios abounded, from them participating in an alien-beatboxing championship, to a dance-off to decide the winner of Britain’s Got Talent, and much more.
The Verdict
Fans of hypnotism are sure to enjoy watching, or even participating in one of Daniel’s Comedy Hypnotism shows, and sceptics (like me) may enjoy trying to decipher whether those onstage are pretending, conforming, or truly hypnotised. Either way, more fun is to be had if you do as you’re instructed, suspend your disbelief, and try to go along with the weird and wacky evening of Comedy Hypnosis.
Tickets: https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/comedy-hypnosis-mind-reading-mentalism-show/
