Holidays Are All About Family

I know this blog is about my hypnosis shows but I just wrote a blog entry on my photography blog I believe is important for everyone to read. I will copy it here and it is my holiday wish to everyone…

I was cleaning out my basement the other day and came across an old box. Inside was two baby books containing photos of my first birthday in 1954 to my Long Island, NY childhood days into 1960. I spent a couple of days scanning these precious photos that I had entirely forgoten about. These baby books also contain the writings of my mother as if it were me doing the conversation. These short writings were about my life as an very young boy. My mother wrote about my first haircut as if it were me descibing it, my first birthday party, etc. These book were filled with memories as well as my real birthday cards. These were cards sent to my mom and dad on the occasion of my birth. I cannot tell you about the emotions I went through as I looked at these photos and read all the word my mother had written and the crads that were sent. There was even all the documentation of the hospital visit. By the way, the doctor charged my mother $15 to deliver me. Room and board for the 3 day hospital stay was $9. Can’t put a price on the memories.
I was fortunate to have family photos like these. I have photos through my years in high school and beyond.

I now have a wonderful family, my wife, 2 grown sons, both with wonderful girlfriends. We get to spend time with one of my future daughter-in-law’s family during the Chanukah and other Jewish Holidays. They have a large family, from great grand parents to real young cousins. But they don’t take photos at these gathering. What a waste. This is time you don’t get back. When the older family members pass on, there will be no record for the younger members to have.

As I said, I was fortunate to have these irreplaceable photographs. The reason I say this, my mother died of cancer in late 1959. These are my only visible memories of her, although I have many fragmented memories of the times we spent. I have 2 younger brothers, both live in Georgia. I don’t see them or their families much. My dad, now 80 years young and my mother (my dad remarried in the early 1960s) live in Florida, where I grew up after my mother’s passing. When we get together, you better believe there are cameras everywhere.

So here’s my holiday wish to everyone. BE A NUISANCE. Get that camera out and shoot photos. Get individual shots, get group shots, get someone else to take the photo and you get in the picture. Take memories and share them with everyone. To make it easy for everyone to see these , put them on Flickr, or any of the other photo sites. Make a special gallery on your web page. Just do what it takes to make these family gathering memorable. It’s the best gift I can think of.

Even though I am Jewish, my household always celebrated Christmas. (More presents for me as a kid).

Here’s a photo of me in 1955, two and half years old. I was adorable!

Happy and healthy holidays to everyone, and to all a very prosperous and memorable 2010.

Please pass this blog post on to all your friends, family members, twitter buddies, facebook friends and everyone else you know. They will all thank you for this.

Now here’s the photo:

A Great Week of Hypnosis Shows

You would think after 23 years and 6,000+ shows that this would have been just another week of shows. But this was a real special week for me. I had a lot of fun; I mean a lot of fun. I had a show for a Massachusetts high school that I do look forward to every year. Although this year's audience was not as big as in past years, we had a wild and crazy show. Before I even set up, there was a group of the school's cheerleaders in front of the auditorium with their coach. They were just waiting to be picked up by their parents, go home to eat dinner and then come back to the hypnosis show. While they were waiting we got into a converstaion about hypnosis, what the show was like and they asked if the could volunteer. Only one of the girls was REALLY excited and do I mean REALLY excited. Her name was Sophie.

Let me skip to the end of the night... Sophie was the star of the show, actually Sophie WAS the show. Even though all the volunteers were very good and we all had a lot of fun with all of them, it was Sophies facial expressions that made that evening special. I have always said to people as they walk in the auditoriums that you want to sit as close to the front as possible to see the expressions on the volunteers' faces. Tonight they got the idea that just maybe I knew what I was talking about. One typical hypnosis routine like the volunteers forgetting their names had new meaning. It was just the conversations between her and everyone else on stage, her and me and just about everything she did that made this girl one of the best volunteers in a long thanks. So this is for you Sophie: "You were terrific !"

I know there were others in the show but here are a few photos of the star of this show... here's Sophie !

   

To view the entire photo gallery of this show go to: SWFB Hypnosis Show Photos

On Friday and Saturday nights I performed for a group in Bridgewater, Massachusetts called the Mass Drifters. This wonderful organization which is run by Coach Carol are fast pitch softball teams for girls from ages 10 to 23. There are 8 teams that compete against other teams in state, in New England and around the country. And they are great ball players. Anyway, many years ago I was contacted to perform my hypnosis show as fundraiser. It went well and now 8 years later I am still doing these well attended shows and doing multiple shows every year. These shows are fundraisers as the cost of running the organization is tremendous and money is always needed. At these shows, pizzas are sold for dinner and there are many raffles items. Tickets sales for these georgeous raffle baskets are quite high. Everyone buys many tickets. But I like to think they come out for the show.

There were more teams added this year so with more families involved, we had to schedule to do 2 shows. Friday night's show had 220+ in attendance. The hall was packed. It was a typical show with lots of really good volunteers, lots of laughs and lots of stars of the show. But there was one star who really stood out. She was a 9 year old girl that was hypnotized like the rest of the group, but who could have know the antics we saw could come from this sweet little lady. She oohed and ahhed during the romantic movie routine, she danced a storm up and when the batteries died in here show... well you just had to be there. I thought she was going to take my head off. Very funny stuff.

Saturday night in another hall down the road, the crowd was a bit smaller but none less vocal. Same senario, terrific volunteers, lots of laughs, a few requested routines from Coach carol (which went over very well) but again one incredible standout. This time it was from a 10 year old boy. Carbon copy of the night before with his uniqueness during the romantic movie as well as the rest of the show. And we also had one very funny volunteer; one of the older athletes and all I can say about her is " Yippie-Yi-Oh-Kai-Yay." Those at the show will know what I'm talking about. Words on a blog cannot translate well.

Both night raised a lot of money for the Drifters and I couldn't be happier. Everyone involved in this organization is wonderful, from Coach Carol, to the team coaches, the parents and of course the athletes. I am also proud they think enough of me to invite me out every year. If I lived a lot closer, I would be in the stand rootin' for the home team. As a side note, because of the ages of the 2 I mentioned, I will not be posting their photos on this blog, but here are a couple of photos from the older volunters from both shows.

  

 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow !

This was a weekend I always look forward to. I do a show way up in New Hampshire, that for the last seven years has been a lot of fun. But before I talk about that show, I had an unfortunate and pretty lousy thing happen.

I was booked for a show on Friday night. This was to be my first time performing for this Boston area high school. We booked the show in September. Two days before the show, I called and left a message just to  let them know what time I would be arriving to set up. I had plans for the night I called withis reminder and when I returned home there was a message from a woman who I assume was on the committee for the show saying they had cancelled the show. She said she left a message a few weeks ago saying they never had secured the school's auditorium for this date and had never advertised the show in the school. I have one of those phone /fax machines that every 25 incoming phone calls prints out a record of all the calls I have received. I also subscibe to the AT&T feature that shows me ALL incoming phone numbers (including private and blocked numbers). I looked at my list and sure enough, there was no call made to me from this woman's number, nor from the woman who booked the show or any number from the Braintree, Massachusetts area. I got stiffed for the show. They cancelled the show the night before and had a battle of the bands instead. This according to the school web site. Now some fault on my end... I had sent out a contract but as happens on many occasions, I do not receive a signed copy back. Sometimes the signed copy is enclosed with the check I receive the night of the show. So not receiving the contract was not something I was worried about. OK, so the show cancelled and yes I am out the money for the show. It happens. But I had a hotel reservation that was passed the cancellation date and time so I am stuck for the price of a room that I don't need.  OK, it happens. It is part of doing business. I guess the part that bugs me is they didn't have the decency to let me know the show was cancelled. What an embarassment it would have been for both of us (really more from me) if I had showed up Friday night without calling to confirm first.

Anyway, thanks for letting me blow off a little steam. This has happened before and I am sure it will happen again. It happens to every entertainer. We rely on others to do the work to set up a proper show and some peopel put in so little effort that is easier just to cancel and make an excuse for doing so. Thank goodness not in Plymouth, New Hampshire.

This is one of the shows I really look forward to year after year. I have preformed at Plymouth Regional High School for the last seven years. This show is sponsored by various groups that promote drug prevention and personal responsibility, etc. It has always been aimed at the freshman in the school, although everyone may attend. And the show is free to all students. This is the only show that I preform that does this. This is great publicity for the school's guidance department program and Mr Ferenc has done a great job with this. More school should see the benefit of a program like this.

Anyway the show was wild and a lot of fun, as usual. Lots of volunteers and lots of great expressions on the volunteers faces during the routines. I geared the routines to bring out the expressions as much as I could. Because the auditorium is so intimate, everyone really got an up close and personal look. I really loved how the  2+2=  arguement carried itself out. You had to be there to understand it, words cannot describe the fun that ensued. But I did agree with the guy on the end... who cares, let's PARTY!

Oh and by the way, if anyone ever has realized, it has snowed every year the night of my performance. Not heavy and hard but enough to put a beautiful coating on everything. That's another reason I love Plymouth, NH. Everything is beautiful. Here are a few photos from the show. I'll see everyone again next year.

  

    

    

Holidaze Hypnosis Shows

Wow, Thanksgiving is over, December is here. Where did the year go? This is usually the slowest month as there were relatively few fundraising shows and over the last few years corporate holiday parties have become non-existant. But not this year. I like to think the recession is letting up. This is turning out to be the busiest December since 2005. Right now I have 5 high school shows, 2 fundraisers for a girls softball team (both shows are for the same group, they have so many teams we can’t fit everyone into one show) and 4 corporate shows. It’s nice to see these companies offering something special for their employees. I don’t mean my show per say, but just a little something to acknowledge a job well done. Many companies have still completely cut out their holiday party. Some are making the party smaller and having their celebration after the new year when prices are cheaper. (Psst… give me a call for an after new year party. I still have dates available).

Enjoy what is left of 2009 and get ready for 2010. I predict this will be a turning point year for many.

Talk to you later.