Chicago native hypnotist Chrisjones performed in the Eastern Michigan Student Center, Nov. 9. There was a large turnout of students and faculty.
Chrisjones started getting into hypnosis at age 23 and is currently 30-years-old. He does around 150 shows a year that stretch to about 200 days on the road.
He tried at stand-up comedy, but it wasn’t for him so he turned it into hypnosis. “I’m not really funny, I’m elevator funny, if you’re in an elevator with me then I could make you laugh for like five minutes and that’s all I got,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to have the livelihood to make people happy for a little while, sometimes I downplay it but I get to make people happy for a while.”
One moment in the show he hypnotized 12 people on stage, and convinced them they were zombies and had them dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
He had a natural way of getting everyone involved in the act, and making sure everyone was having a good time. Jones used instrumentals from artist such as Childish Gambino, J. Cole and others under his voice as he hypnotized members of the crowd.
“It’s still a work in progress, no show is perfect, I had a good audience and good volunteers today,” he said. “I have done shows where no one was hypnotized and I walk away feeling like horseshit. This was a group of people, if they don’t trust me or they take is as a challenge, they won’t get hypnotized.”
An audience member asked if he was planning on getting a television show, he said that he was hired by Fox but quickly fired because, “he was too difficult to work with.” When asked what was his next step, he responded, “Maybe corporate shows, its an extra zero on your paycheck but it’s not as much fun, it’s a lot of work. I still enjoy the college experience.”
Jones plans on making another appearance at Eastern next year, so be on the lookout for his next show. You can view other material from Jones at onewordchrisjones.com.
