Laker students, welcome back Hypnotist and Magician Josh McVicar! McVicar actually never thought he would be a hypnotist; growing up he wanted to be a veterinarian. However, during High School, they had to fundraise. The leaders of this fundraiser asked McVicar if he knew magic and he said he would learn. Now he travels to a bunch of different places and has been to every US state except for two. 

As viewers first entered, McVicar had some cool music playing. When the show started he introduced himself and said, “My show is about confusion if you will. I like to do the weird stuff.” He then proceeded to do a couple of magic tricks and got the audience involved. For instance, he played Pictionary and had the audience guess what the picture was. After they guessed, he flipped the page he was drawing on and made the object appear.

After a few more tricks and mind games he asked if people were ready to be hypnotized. Hypnosis is a sleep-like state that occurs when a person is drifting between their conscious and subconscious. 

McVicar says, “You can hypnotize yourself. It happens without you noticing. When you drive in a car and don’t remember, that is you switching from your conscious to your subconscious and basically going into what people call ‘autopilot’.”

However, if a person is thinking about being hypnotized while being hypnotized, it will not work. One of McVicar’s sayings throughout his whole show was, “Keep an open mind and want to be hypnotized. Don’t say yes, don’t say no.” 

After McVicar made sure the audience was ready, he took volunteers on stage and put them into a hypnotic state. He did this by playing music and helping them fully relax. While he did this, he explained how hypnosis can actually help teens. Being hypnotized allows students to deeply relax, and this deep relaxation will allow students to sleep well at night. It will also allow students to be ready and attentive in school because they are well rested. Students may be stressed about school, and McVicar believes hypnosis can help. 

This was McVicar’s eighth or ninth show at Lake Land College (LLC). Most notably, he performed here in 2005 and shot his promo video that he still uses to this day. 

McVicar showed his love for LLC and told the audience, “Lake Land is my favorite show throughout the year.”

If you would like to check out McVicar’s work, you can visit his website at https://mcvicarentertainment.com/.