Vegas Stage Hypnosis

Hypnosis Unleashed THE Vegas Show What Have I Learned in a Year…?

So I have made it one year in Vegas on my ‘own’ and just signed for a second year.  I promised to keep sharing my thoughts.  So here we go!

First there are a lot more people who will pull for you then against you

Listen to those who want to see you succeed.  Sometimes those people come from unlikely areas.  Embrace them, be gracious and learn anything they are willing to teach or to help you with.  As far as the people who pull against you, ignore them.  All worrying about them will do is take away from the time you could be doing something positive.

When I look at all the people who have pitched in, stepped up, and been a part of my growth I am overwhelmed and cannot thank you all enough.  The ones who haven’t supported me haven’t come out or kept their promises; well, I’m still here so maybe the support of negative people isn’t needed.  Focus on those that love and want you to grow, leave the rest where they are.

Second, doing a show daily will make a good performer better and a bad performer worse

Watch your show and your audience regularly.  Don’t get stale.  There is only one person you ever need to compete against and that is yourself.  Make sure you are trying to improve day by day.  Try to do a better show tomorrow then you did yesterday.  Don’t stop growing, and don’t listen to your own hype.  Grow each day or you will shrink.

Doing a daily show also means that everything that can go wrong WILL!  If something is guaranteed to work 99.5% of the time then in the course of 300+ shows it will go wrong about twice.  Be prepared for that.  Anything can go wrong on you once.  When it happens twice then you are the one unprepared and there is no reason for that.

Have more in your life then just your show

If your art form is ALL that you can talk about that leads to a very shallow life.  Find other interests and hobbies to explore.  Everyone’s time in the spotlight ends.  If you don’t want to end up bitter and jaded, be prepared for your life after the stage.

I hear so many people from the past complaining about the way things are now and how everything was better in their day.  The generation before them did the same thing.  Stop the pattern now.  Love and appreciate what you are doing.  Cherish it and do it to the best of your ability.  When your time is done find ways to help generation grow.  Don’t complain and yell because your day is over.  The spotlight may be off of you but there is still a lot you can do in the field that gave to you to make it grow.

Surround yourself with people who are better then you

I am so thankful for everyone I work alongside.  Everyone has their own individual strengths.  Learn them and learn from them. I am the LEAST important person in my show.  Above me is the cleaning staff.  Without a clean theater I couldn’t do the show.  Above them is everyone in my box office who is the first to greet my audience and give them tickets.  Above them are the marketers and ticket brokers who get people interested in buying the tickets in the first place.  If there is no audience there isn’t any show.  Above them are my stage crews who put it together and make it flow.  Without them I couldn’t do my show.  There are at least 15 people involved before the audience even sees me.  Without all of them I couldn’t do my job.  Never take anyone of them for granted.

I am living the dream I have always wanted

There are ups and there are downs.  Doing the show every night takes a toll and I have learned that rest may actually be important.  The downs are there, but too small to focus on.  Any negative is an experience to learn from and make a positive out of.  In just one year I have a show I would have never thought possible, awards I never thought I would win and the support of friends and mentors that I am thankful for daily.

That is the thing I have learned the most.  Treasure those people who help you get there.  No one succeeds on their own.  I’m the one you see on stage, you don’t see the 100’s who have elevated to this place.  Work for your dream.  The harder you work the more support you will get.  The hardest thing to learn is to listen to those with the experience.  When you are starting you want to be right, you may be or you may not be.  Learn from those who have walked the road before you did.  Never copy them, but learn whatever they are kind enough to teach you.Hypnosis Unleashed The Vegas show has lasted 20 years like this.

Thank God, Michael Johns, all my family and friends and YOU.  Yes, YOU!  If you are reading this you have been there for me and I couldn’t have done without you! To learn more about Hypnosis Unleashed THE Vegas Show please go to www.HypnosisUnleashed.com or https://fourqueens.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=4

Vegas’ Favorite Comedy Hypnosis Show Knows That Time Takes Time

Not too long ago I was called on a piece I wrote called Getting a Vegas Show. I said you need years of experience. Can you get a headlining gig here in Vegas without years of experience? Yes, it happens rarely, but sometimes. Will your show stay open? It probably will not. I have seen everything from small one man shows to multi-million dollar productions open and close here in Vegas in less than a month. Most of what closes these shows is a lack of experience.

The first thing years of experience will teach you is consistency, the ability to put on a quality show night after night after night. Whether it is a great crowd, weak crowd, amazing cast, or any other variable experience allows you to shine every night. It is difficult to wash off the feeling of a rough show or to release the high of a great night, but experience lets you do just that. Without that experience it is very hard to maintain a consistently strong performance.

Real honest experience also answers the hard question: Is your show any good

Do audience members want to come back regularly and do they want to send others to see you. It doesn’t matter what things you like in your show. What matters is what does the audience like and respond to. Even hundred million dollar movies have test screenings before they are released to the general audience. You show is no different. Then moving the show to a Vegas style market where you are up against 150+ shows nightly is another level. People have to leave your show feeling like it was worth their vacation time and a better show than anything else out there.

Experience also teaches you the business side. Vegas will have no compassion. Vegas will not give gamblers back their money. They also didn’t give it back to producers either. Years of experience teaches you who to work with, why to work with them and who to walk away from. Every deal isn’t a good deal. Ego will tell you to take things experience won’t. You are going to get burned by somebody at some time. It is better to learn that lesson for a couple hundred bucks instead of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In my situation I spent years touring colleges, corporate shows, comedy clubs and events of every shape and size. I had to learn what each audience expected out of a show so I could exceed that. Then learning what a reputable agent/venue was. I had to learn who to avoid doing business with and not to make the same mistakes twice.

If you ever use the phrase: “I know they messed over all these other people but I won’t get treated like that”, yes you will. You learn to see patterns in other business models and it teaches you who you want to work with. There are still agents who can get me for under my market value because of how fair and honestly they treated me on my way up.

I worked with incredible people on my journey

If it hadn’t been for Michael Johns guiding me through the business side I wouldn’t have lasted a year in Vegas. Mentors have the experience and knowledge you need to succeed. Learn from the right people and take their guidance. It will help you along. Be thankful for those people who are honest with you. You will not always get the answers you want, but you will get the answers you need to hear.

Go out there and get the experience. Nothing feels better then when you are operating at the top of your market and you start making inroads to another market. Treasure the experience and the lessons you learn. Those lessons are what will get you to your dream, whatever it may be. Best of all, with the right experience, you will keep your dream once it comes.

All the best in YOUR dreams,

Kevin Lepine www.VegasHypnosisShow.com Vegas’ Favorite Comedy Hypnosis Show www.hypnosisunleashed.com

Comedy Hypnosis Vegas Style Second year of my Las Vegas Hypnosis Show

The Comedy Hypnosis Vegas Style is Hypnosis Unleashed starring Kevin Lepine. As I look at my second year of having my Las Vegas Hypnosis Show, Hypnosis Unleashed the two words that come to mind are fortitude and gratitude.  These words shape everything that I do.  They keep me moving, inspired and successful.

Fortitude is courage in pain or adversity

While doing the show doesn’t cause me pain, there are many different types of adversity I face.  I’m challenged daily to increase attendance, make the audience happy and keep my business running smoothly.  Like change, challenge is a constant.  Every business owner faces challenges.

Some of the best advice I was ever given was: Treat your business like it is business.

Keeping the business running smoothly is probably the most foreign to me.  A simple concept I’ve repeated many times.  It works very simply.  I hate doing payroll, insurance, theater upkeep, bills and the hundreds of other things it takes to keep Hypnosis Unleashed running.  Hating it doesn’t stop it from needing to be done.  So I do it.  I schedule time to get it done or hire people to do it.  If you make the time to work gets much more tolerable.  When I know I have to dedicate 3hrs a week to a project, or I have to be somewhere for 45 min a day for 5 days it becomes easier to accomplish.  A huge task that sounds daunting and hated will weigh you down.  That same task broken up, structured and scheduled suddenly becomes very doable. 

Know your business needs and plan for them.  It makes it much simpler.

Keeping my audience happy is a never ending goal

You can’t do a show like mine that combines comedy and audience interaction without flexibility in your performance.  I have to listen to my audience.  See what they are responding to.  Dennis Miller has said he starts off his show with three different types of jokes, whatever the audiences last most at is how he slants that night’s show.  I have to keep writing new jokes, listening to what my audience likes and growing every day.

We are far removed from the days of one important critic.  Today there are thousands of critics we all listen to thanks to the internet.  Tripadvisor, Yelp and blogs are part of our everyday lives.  Anyone has the power to review you.  That power has no responsibility either.  An online reviewer can post what they want, when they want, under a veil of anonymity.  You are being judged by everyone when you are a performer.  It’s part of the job.  When you have a great show the word spreads. 

You will never please everyone

One of my favorite’s complaints was that all I did in my show was tell jokes, hypnotize people and make them do things.  You can’t please everyone.  If you want a career you better be pleasing 95%+.

Then there is the challenge that comes from gathering support.  You are never in business alone.  We always need other people and support.  In my case I need the casino, ticket brokers, reporters, bloggers, other performers and many others to be successful.  Without Hooters support I wouldn’t have a venue.  If I lose the ticket brokers I don’t have an audience.  No bloggers or reporters makes it so much harder to reach people.  A good review, which is marketing, is stronger than any ad will ever be.  Your peers support will bring their crowd to you as your support brings your crowd to them.

You will be surprised at the amount of people who will support you if you are honest and giving

But you will also be shocked at the support you won’t get from people.  You will count on support from others and you won’t get it.  You’ll get promises from people and they will be broken. Give support and it won’t be returned.  Dealing with this is both the hardest thing to handle and the easiest.  The solution, simply, is gratitude.

One cannot experience anxiety and gratitude at the same time

This is true.  If you really look at the things you have to be grateful for, the negative fades away.  Every minute you spend focusing on the negative you are ruining a moment for growth.  If you are practicing gratitude you can look at all the people who are there for you.  Spending time with the people who want to help you is far more effective then cursing the ones who do not.

As I look at my career, more than anything else, I am thankful. 

So many people have supported my dream and continue to help me rise

The love and support from the people who were there in the beginning is still there.  Everyone in Detroit and New Orleans are still helping me to grow.  The friends that I have made here in town who help me to keep moving forward are priceless.  I have so many people to thank for the situations I am in.  An interesting fact as I look back over my entire career, anytime I did anything with anger, spite or malice nothing succeeded.  Anything I have ever done that was heart felt, honest, straight forward and with gratitude has grown by leaps and bounds.

Every adversity I face I look at as a chance to grow

I am thankful for the opportunity to grow above it.  Mostly, I am thankful for all the people who lift me up when I fall short.  The people I surround myself with are easily the best part of me.  By remember them and being grateful I continue to find success and live my dreams.

So in the words of Bartles and Jaymes:  Thank you for your support.

Kevin Lepine

Comedy Hypnosis Vegas Style is Hypnosis Unleashed starring Kevin Lepine. 

For More Info visit www.HypnosisUnleashed.com or get your tickets at https://fourqueens.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=4