Do you know what you did last Thursday night?

What’s funnier than seeing your classmates and friends act like complete idiots in front of more than 100 people?

That’s right. Nothing.

Last Thursday night, expert hypnotist Jim Wand enticed an audience large enough to crowd the lower level of the Barone Campus Center. There were even students peering over the upper level banister and sittting on the stairs.

Wand invited about 20 volunteers on stage and was able to put most of them under complete hypnosis in under five minutes.

After hypnotizing the volunteers, Wand staged a performance that drew non-stop laughter all the way to the end.

Throughout the show, Wand “took” the volunteers to the beach, the Kentucky Derby and an American Idol concert.

One of the funniest moments came when Wand, using hypnosis, convinced the men that they were pregnant. Eventually, the five men on stage acted out giving birth with help from the “doctors,” or hypnotized women on stage.

The new “mothers” then explained what they would name their kids, how much they weighed and the overall feeling of the experience.

With uncontrollable screams and shouts from the audience, many of the skeptics became true believers in hypnosis at that very moment.

Wand is one of the most well-known hypnotists in America. His act at Fairfield has become a popular and well-received annual performance.

Wand explained the inner workings of hypnosis to the audience before the proceedings took place. He told the story of his first encounter with the art of hypnosis.

“Thanks to hypnosis,” he said, “I lost 65 pounds in six months.”

He continued to describe the many strange facets of hypnotism to the audience.

Wand explained the experience as “euphoric.” He also added that one hour of hypnosis equals eight hours of sleep.

Before choosing volunteers for his act, Wand said, “A hypnotized person is always in complete control. One will not go into hypnosis unless they want to, they will not do anything unless they want to. They will not stay in the hypnotic state when they want to come out of it.”

Meka Wertz ’08 participated in the show and struggled to recall the events of it afterward.

“It was cool, even though I don’t remember much. When I went up, I just kept thinking about all the crazy things people did last year,” she said.

“I knew I was going to do the same, but I didn’t care. It was a fun experience. Plus, now I feel really relaxed,” she added.

Wertz’s friend Chanell Washington ’10, who was hypnotized last year, spoke about the experience of seeing her friend hypnotized on stage.

“It was really funny to see my friend do the same things I did,” said Washington.

Christina Pires ’08, a FUSA member who helped plan the event, was pleased with the show and its overwhelming turnout.

“I thought it went really well. Definitely better than last year,” she said.