Asad Mecci. (Courtesy Photo)
Asad Mecci is confident those who attend Friday's "Hypnohype" show at the State Theatre in Easton will be talking about the performance for weeks, if not years, afterward.
Boastful as that my sound, there is no denying Mecci knows how to have an audience eating out of the palm of his hand. In addition to mesmerizing audiences across the country, Mecci has been featured on Entertainment Tonight, MTV and HGTV.
"It's a fast-paced, action-packed hypnosis comedy show. They (the audience) will be in tears with laughter," Mecci assured during a April 8 phone interview.
Mecci said attendees get the most out of the experience when they bring their significant other or a family member and that person volunteers to be a participant on stage. The moment when a spectator sees a change in personality in someone they know is the key to winning over a non-believer, Mecci said. "That's when the magic happens," he said.
The most common reaction Mecci said he hears from those who participate in his show is a feeling of relaxation he or she has never experience before. "They'll say, 'It was absolutely wonderful in that my body feels phenomenal'," Mecci said. "Some people have never been exposed to meditation or exposed to hypnosis."
Before catching the hypnosis bug himself, Mecci studied and was a practitioner of meditation. He said the two practices are intertwined and can produce the same physical sensation.
"I saw a hypnotist perform and realized this is very similar to the type of pattern, if you will, while I was doing guided meditation," he said. "I was nervous but when I got on stage (for the first time), it was smooth. I practiced so much I found I was able to find my groove and get in the zone."
Seventeen years later, Mecci still delights and revels in the euphoric power of an audience's laughter. "There's the gut-busting laughter when you hear people's real laughter come out. That's addictive," he said. "To be able to control an audience and have them eating out of the palm of my hand, that's the best possible high."
Mecci said he is constantly learning from his show and doing his best to become a better showman and a stronger performer. In August, Mecci and improvisational comedian Colin Mochrie, of Who's Line Is It Anyway? fame, will hit the road for what he describes as "hypnoprov."
"You're only as good as your last show," he said. "There is a method to the madness, but I think over time you get better at that formula. Every show is magical because you never know what you're gonna get. There is always something that surprises me."
Asad Mecci performs "Hypnohype" 7:30 p.m. Friday at the State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. The show will be held in the theater's Acopian Ballroom. Tickets cost $25. Seating is limited. Information: 610-252-3132, statetheatre.org