By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — HYPROV: Improv Under Hypnosis is coming to the Fox in Hutchinson Friday night.
The evening begins with hypnotist Asad Mecci welcoming 20 volunteers on stage to be hypnotized. The most receptive to hypnosis then join Colin Mochrie, improv comedian from TV's Whose Line Is It Anyway to improvise the rest of the show, while hypnotized.
"It's a totally different experience," Mochrie said. "When I worked with the guys from Whose Line, even though we're making it up, I can usually tell what joke they are going to head for, what kind of ending they are going to head for in the scene. I don't have that with these people. They just immediately react to whatever is happening in the moment. They are all about the present, not about the future."
Friday's performance is the tour's only Kansas date and Mecci is excited about bringing the one of a kind style to the Sunflower State.
"How many more plays are you going to see? How many more musicals are you going to see?," Mecci said. "You will never, ever, and I guarantee this, see a show like Hyprov in your life, because it is completely unique. It is made up every single night. Our cast members are people from the audience, random volunteers from the audience who come up on stage, get hypnotized and then improvise with Colin Mochrie from Whose Line. It is like nothing you've ever seen before."
Being hypnotized is not the same for all who go under, but Mochrie and Mecci have ways of involving the subjects.
"We've tried to come up with games, that even the ones who may be under different types of hypnosis, sometimes they get very sluggish and their reactions are very slow," Mochrie said. "We've found ways that we can use everyone that ended up as part of the improv troupe, so everybody gets the chance to do something."