When he was 12 years old in Burton-on-Trent , England , Alan Marriott hypnotised his friend and made him believe that he was stuck to the chair on which he was sitting. It stuck resolutely to his derriere while he waddled around the room like a duck.

The above true story illustrates Alan’s early understanding of the human mind, which has grown and improved as he has matured, studied and learned.

At 15 (pretending to be 18) he had his own TV show in England . He worked in Blackpool , Tunisia and the Canaries where the hotel he performed in won the national award for best entertainment, purely because of Alan’s shows. 

Alan always loved wildlife and wanted to live in Africa . After being in Cape Town for three days on holiday, he phoned his Dad in England and said, ‘Put the house on the market.’ Four months later, Alan and his dad moved out to Cape Town , settling in Welcome Glen and love it here, missing only the availability of the ubiquitous English pub.

Alan has established a hypnotherapy practice in his home and will also perform his ‘Hypnotic Challenge’ around the Peninsula .

He says he can help people with myriad problems through hypnotherapy. He is quick to assure people that hypnotherapy is not dangerous and he is bound by the Code of Conduct of the British Academy of Hypnosis.  He explains that the human mind has almost endless power but we only use a small fraction of it. With his understanding of the mind, he can help people to use more of their own natural abilities to overcome their own personal problems.

Although his Hypnotic Challenge is very real, Alan claims no special abilities or magical powers. He says what he does for entertainment is not real, although for the people being entertained at that time, it appears real.

So what exactly does Alan do? Dales and I went along to find out and I, for one, am a huge sceptic. For starters, Alan had five plastics cards with different shapes on them. He asked us, one at a time, to take one out, hold it between our palms and put the rest in our pockets. He then told us which cards we’d chosen. I thought he was reading our behaviour based on what we’d chosen, so he suggested I don’t look at the card I’d chosen, so that I couldn’t give him any clues. He was right again. I closed my eyes.  Right again. I chose two cards. He said he was confused. Got him, I thought. ‘You’re picking up two cards,’ he said!

That was just for starters. Next, Alan let me pick a card from about 20 on which he’d written the names of various objects. I picked one, looked at it put in back in the pack without him seeing it and then Alan went into an adjoining room with Dales and asked me to draw the object, a xylophone.

I drew the sticks first, hoping to throw Alan, and then the instrument. As a last, desperate effort, I tried to draw some 3D perspective.  Dales watched Alan draw and Alan shouted that he was almost done, then said ‘hang on’,

then said ‘done’. When he came out he had drawn a xylophone, in fact his was more angular and real than mine (which was more like a marimba or African xylophone). Dales confirmed Alan added a 3D touch at the last second after he had said ‘hang on’.

The most spectacular thing Alan does, though, is bend cutlery. He took out brand new, shrink-wrapped items, and asked us to unwrap them. He then held a spoon fl at in his hand and held his fist over the spoon. Before our eyes the spoon began to bend like a Christmas-cracker-paper fish.

He then held two spoons together to show how much the one had bent. Next he took a spoon, held it by the very tip of the handle and stared at it. Hard. The spoon began to bend over like a wax crayon in the sun. After it had bent enough he asked us to check it. It was still a solid, albeit bent, spoon!

Next, Alan took three forks, held them by their handle tips and fanned them out. More hard staring. Again, forks fl opping like wilting daisies. 

Finally, Alan arranged various items on a table, and asked us to choose one, then hold his arm and watch the back of his other hand while he waved it over the items. He picked every item we chose.

As much as I wanted my scepticism confirmed, Alan really put on an impressive show. He will become one of Cape Town ’s hottest entertainers, about that there is no doubt.

By Sean Houghton

www.fullcircleonline.co.za

Marriot, the metal man A
ct stuns 'em as spoons
bend under hypnosis
BRONWYNNE ESBACH

A DARING and hilarious stage production literally sent its Milnerton audience into a daze this weekend.

Mr Alan Marriott, from the United Kingdom , performed his Hypnotic Challenge at the Milnerton Playhouse.

He plans to take the production to a range of theatres, including the Baxter.

Describing the show as a “mesmerising, fabulous journey of laughter”, Marriott started honing his craft at a tender age.

“I was 12 years old, when I started reading about hypnosis. I had dyslexia as a child, and was not fond of reading. However, I was always able to concentrate on articles dealing with hypnosis.”

He was soon hypnotising friends and classmates, which sent his parents into a panic.  “My mother was really freaked out once, when I had hypnotised my friend and he believed he was stuck to a chair.”

Although his production sets out to entertain his audience, Marriott is also a qualified hypnotherapist with a hypnotherapy practice in Glencairn.

“I help people to stop smoking, lose weight, with depression and also to become more-goal driven.”

Those battling with drug and alcohol addictions have also been helped with hypnosis.

He said many people were not aware of this aspect of hypnosis.

“Stage hypnosis and hypnotherapy are two totally different things. The stage element is all about fun, while hypnotherapy focuses on assisting people with their problems.” According to Marriott, many are skeptical about hypnosis.

“Somany people fear hyponosis. They feel I would be in control of their actions, once they are hypnotised.”

He said the opposite was true.

“People who are hypnotised feel relaxed.

Some say they feel as if they are floating.  They are totally aware of what they are doing, and will never do something against their moral convictions.”

He believed hypnosis could also benefit the medical industry.

“InAmerica and the United Kingdom, people who are allergic to local anesthetic, are hypnotised to numb a specific part of the body. Hypnosis can teach you how to control your pain.”

He said hypnosis simply tapped into the mind’s powerful subconscious.

“Your subconscious stores everything you have ever heard or seen, and every person you have ever met. Hypnosis helps people to get in touch with their subconscious.”

Apart from hypnosis, Marriott has also seen the other side of a powerful mind.

During the TygerBurger interview, he bent forks and read minds.

“I am also a magician, but this did not come easy. I was looking at spoons for years and nothing happened. I was quite angry,” he said, with a laugh.

Alan Marriott, a hypnotist, clearly has a way with cutlery. Marriott recently wowed audiences at the Milnerton Playhouse theatre.

Photo: Clayton Barnes  TygerBurger

besbach@tygerburger.co.za

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