Blackpool Hypnotist Ken Webster- Interview

Grant talks all things hypnosis with comedian and stage hypnotist Ken Webster

Hypnotist Ken Webster

Hypnotist Ken Webster Website

To suggest hypnotist contact here

ladies and gentlemen i hope you can all hear me okay if you can please uh bang on your keyboard make some noise put something in the comment section uh so i know that you can hear me okay today’s guest is coming to us live from the vegas of the uk uh in fact he’s not coming to us live from the vegas in the uk it’s going to allow from the other vegas of the uk from the other coast um we do have some technical issues but that will not be a problem if we lose him he will come back in i can see him there now but tonight’s guest um one of the longest stage shows in the world i believe it’s 32 years i think that’s a world record definitely a world record for a stage hypnosis show um here we go he’s popping back in again like i said there’s always something technical there we go i can see him now um yeah so it’s a great performer one of uh he builds himself as the most outrageous hypnotist uh the original outrageous hypnotist he is a guy that is very copied by a lot of performers today he’s very outspoken he’s a great guy he’s a true professional he’s been doing this 32 years at the same venue in blackball which takes some absolute doing for those who don’t know many years ago i spent a lot of time in blackpool and and ken websters show was everywhere and so he’s a definite you know a legend with industry i’m going to play this quick and then we’ll go live to Hypnotist ken Webster straight after that

so please there we go mister how are you we’ve got some people saying hello already then we’ve got some guys i think he’s here it might not be let’s just have a quick look if he’s there he’s going live in three two one oh he’s on the other one three two one he is live he is the man the legend himself uh Hypnotist ken Hebster uh how are you technology it’s brilliant isn’t it grand technology just brilliant do you know what the live streaming especially because there’s so many variables there’s my internet connection your internet connection my computer processing your computer processor whatever facebook wants to do and then in the middle of all that there’s a software that i use to do the streaming whatever it wants to do and every single week without a line there’s always something that’s slightly different a couple hopefully we’ll be all right now because i’ve moved into the house hopefully we’ll get better internet connection brilliant brilliant yeah i learned a couple of weeks ago if you play anything on like i played clips from some people’s shows and if you play anything with any music in whatsoever facebook cuts the audio to the feed so i did a full show a couple of weeks ago where it was just literally me doing this

so yeah um it would be remiss me to not mention this colvid um you’re probably one of the hardest hit you’re in blackpool which is the probably the biggest resort in the uk i would have thought something i said maybe not the biggest but certainly the busiest absolutely i mean years ago i used to work in blackpool in a couple of clubs there yeah and every saturday afternoon on the promenade it was it was like a scene from walking dead it was just if you don’t if you’ve never done it for those in america and for those that haven’t been to blackpool it was just waves and waves of people just going past constantly it’s a very busy very busy town yeah and very much the epitome of northern humor is blackpool so it’s it’s a great place so yeah so probably one of the hardest hit tourist areas in the uk uh you have your show that’s been at the horseshoe bar is it 32 years 32 years yeah that’s about the same age that i’ve been on this earth so you know how how has that been how have you how have you changed how is this show now coming out with that because you’re you’re live again now is that true uh yeah yeah we’re live we’ve been live for three weeks now um obviously we’ve got to do the coved restrictions and the the sensible seating and all the rest of it but you know we’ve managed to overcome it i do and i was i mean i normally do three hours i normally do a three-hour hypnosis show straight through but now we’ve got to cut the interval out i’ll i do like an hour darren brown stuff to start off with because to do two hours social distance in hypnosis is really tricky um so basically i’ll do an hour’s daring brown stuff and then an hour hypnosis but again all the the sketches are all kobe friendly we keep them all in a bubble on the stage separate two meters apart normally i’ll maybe have 15 people on stage i’m only allowed six now so and i’m lucky with the whole shoe because it’s on three tiers so social distance isn’t too bad we can still get over 200 people in so you know it’s not too bad you’ve just got to put up with put up and shut up really grant you know you just got to get on with it and and i mean yeah this year has been a challenge there’s no two ways about it i wrote a show because i write a new show um every year yeah and this year i wrote a show uh ready for march opening the easter saturday i had to scrap that then we were going to open up in july i had to scrap that and then i’m going to go ahead to write just an hours with hypnosis so you know it’s uh certainly tested uh it’s been a testing time but we’ve managed to do it we’ve overcome it so we’ve done it i think um you know were you just saying then about how you write a new show every year um you know i think that’s probably one of the most important things if you work in a venue regularly uh okay it might be tourists that you know change all the time but you know i think that changing the show every year keeps it fresh it’s probably you know in my opinion why you’ve been in the same venue for 32 years you know if you were doing the same show for 32 years there’s a good chance i have a unicorn you know crazy from boredom and and everybody else would have done that and i i’ve suffered from this well you know you kind of get comfortable in a show and you keep doing it and that to change it it’s that that that comfort zone where do you get your inspiration for new skits from bottles of wine

to be honest to be honest though it’s really difficult writing new sketches which annoys me when all the hypnosis sit there in the audience with a pen and paper and write your sketches down that you’ve spent ages perfecting that’s quite annoying if you’re going to nix nobody’s stuff then ask them first yeah somebody said to me ken Webster can we do the gay aerobics yeah of course you can you’ve asked that’s not a problem you just don’t nick is it’s just not respectful really um but a lot of sketches now are coming from my little girl georgie she’s eight years old and she came up with a poo collector which is probably one of the best sketches i’ve done in 40 years of being in the business it’s really really funny um the tyrannosaurus rex during a picnic that weaves on your head and she’s come out with a cockroach killing when you’ve got pins and needles in your legs and you’ve got cramping one leg and then georgie is coming up with some really really good sketches so hopefully this time next year she’ll write the entire show yeah brilliant so we’ve just got a couple of hellos as well we’ve got uh jason simmons uh who’s on the show a couple weeks ago uh he’s just said uh oh well looking forward to the show uh thomas mcgowan says hello uh thomas so jason morgan says good evening both and alana jennings wants to know do all hypnotists have beards

uh yeah because I think hypnotists have been locked down for that long can’t be asked to shave yeah pretty much so yeah oh you’ve gone quiet on me granted I’m quiet on me and I’m currently waiting to go live

oh let’s have a look I should still be live I love it I can hear you again there you go you’re still here I can hear you oh he’s gone he will be back and so if you have any questions as well for Hypnotist ken Webster then please drop them in the comment section there and he will be able to answer it Ken websters is back now three two one there we go and you’re back in the room back in the room um you say your daughter gives you some good inspiration for skits, by the way, there’s some about like those skits I just said them instantly funny um and I think that’s what works with a lot of hypnosis skits when they are but you know it’s instantly funny and the audience is going to react to that whereas I think when people try and copy stuff they put too much thought into what’s going on on stage and lose a bit that makes it funny

Hypnotist Ken Webster
Ken Webster Hypnotist

sorry no then when you instantly said boo collector nothing could be happening on stage you can say the words poo collector and instantly it made me chuckle and i think that’s a very good british northern you know not not crude humor it’s just funny well this is it i mean you know you can write and you if you’re a comedian you can write a gag and you can test that gag out on your family and your friends and if they think it’s funny they’ll tell you but with the hypnosis sketch you’ve got to write it in your head you’ve got to imagine how the person will react to it and that’s a really tricky thing you know it’s like all the outrageous stuff now you know i don’t do the outrageous stuff like he used to do for the simple reason you can’t yeah you know and you get these sympathies oh i am the most outrageous i am i’m a blue treble x-rated comedy there’s no point because you won’t get any work and you’ll get more complaints so yeah my show is really watered down i mean early 90s late 90s you could get away with anything you can’t get away with things now because people will find something to take offense to yeah so now my show really it’s it’s near the knuckle yeah because of the language i come out with but the sketches i do are pretty basic sketches really you can’t do the outrageous stuff grant there is no point in doing the outrageous stuff do you know what it’s it’s kind of some of the points i was going over i mean it’s the world that we live in now people are looking for things to get offended all but they’re looking for things to cause issues with and stage hypnosis is an easy target for that and doing some of that you know outrageous material makes us a big target and we you know we’ve just about got through the last kind of wave of negative pressing and stuff um and covet happened and so it’d be interesting coming out of that as people are desperate for work how they go with their material if they go for that instant shock type stuff or whether they do kind of you know raise the quality going back a bit instant shot stuff outrageous stuff it won’t work it simply doesn’t work you know i mean the days of doing the the big theaters i mean now you know the big theaters they demand too much money to rent the places and not a lot of them doing a percentage split you gambling too much money you know on the big theaters i used to sell out the royalty theatre in yarmouth 250 seats every thursday i used to sell out the opera house in scarborough a thousand cities with the drop of a hat but now theater wise you know i think because people have become a lot more cynical and people can go on the internet and learn how to be hypnotised for 350 quid well you can teach anybody hypnosis in an hour but being an entertainer is something that you cannot learn you’re born with that simple as you’re born entertainer

yeah very true and i think for me i think that’s what i i always kind of say this for me you know one of the worst things for stage hypnotist is people seeing a bad stage hypnotist they see a show that’s not funny or boring and not entertaining it doesn’t matter who the hypnotist is they’re not going to buy tickets to go and see another hypnotist the tower’s always being [ __ ] and it kills us all so it’s part of the reason behind this podcast is to kind of put out there get people to to meet and speak with professionals at the top of their game to try and raise that bar a little bit going back to the beginning where was the beginning for you 32 years ago before you were in blackpool who was kind of your mentor what was your introduction to the to the world of stage hypnosis what were you before you were ken webster the original outrageous hypnotist uh well i was i saw a hypnosis when i was nine at the operating scarborough guy called robert halpin it was he was just a genius uh so from the age of nine i thought that’s what i want to do uh i was a cinema projectionist for a while a drummer in a band for a while um and then i found i got old enough to start doing the hypnosis i did four years they did hypnotherapy of the psychology of the psychiatry uh went over to spain in 1986 for two weeks holiday after doing loads of training courses and stuff uh i learned a bit in glendale california with a guy called gilboyne and then and and um oh what’s the holman mcgill um so i went to spain for two weeks holiday 1986. i didn’t come on for three years yeah because somebody said what do you do for a living well i’m just messing about doing hypnosis and i just stayed out there for three years basically working seven nights a week yeah learned the craft came back over here uh started doing the opera house in scarborough for a guy called peter j and peter said um 32 years ago look lord payne’s retiring from the pleasure beach i might be able to get you a couple of years there brilliant and that was 32 years ago nice peter jay is the guy i have to thank for my career because you know it was peter that really got me into the big theatres and doing the royalty theatre in yarmouth the opera house theater blackpool i’ve done theater tours for peter so you know peter j is the guy that i’ve got to thank for my career really you know he got me started basically uh and people say oh are you going to do another 32 okay am i bollocks no church yeah there’s no money in faces anymore unfortunately there’s there’s there’s about four i book out but i forward them i make no money on them whatsoever and i use them for kind of promoting a new show or getting video and assets i can use to promote my show and you know i know there’s a couple of people that are attempting tools and you know um you know i think i think hypnosis looks great on stage it’s where it should be rather than in the snooker room of a pub you know it’s best to be on stage but you’ve got to have big balls and big pockets to kind of do a tour so you know yeah that’s gonna be for the decent theaters you know you might do it an odd one in the village hall somewhere and like a ground or so but you know at the end of the day the it’s a lot of money to hire out and it’s a lot of money on your advertising you’re probably yeah yeah it’s uh i’ve been there seeing it done it and i don’t want to do it again yeah so uh yeah you say you you’re kind of live in blackpool now um as the season been extended this year i know the lights the lights normally finished if i remember right it was the last sunday after bonfire night yeah that’s what that’s we were down for an early finish this year the lights were finishing early this year so yeah last night is the 31st of october however pleasure beats have asked me to extend into november and into december which i might do that i might do it am i not i don’t know yet i’m not moving mine though um we’ll see how the rest of the season goes and see what other crazy regulations boris comes out with yeah i must be there’s a link the guys are watching as well there’s a link just put up for the ticket webs which is where people can get tickets uh to see your show as well so there’s a link up there after the show it’s in blackpool and is it saturdays yep saturday eight o’clock uh it used to be 8 30 but due to rules and regulations we have to finish at 10 you know o’clock mean it’s very cold friendly if you stand up you’ve got to put a mask on if you sit down you’re fine but it’s only comes out at 10 o’clock until then

oh it is at the moment but do you know what the thing is as people start to go to see your shows they start to see other things being put on it builds their confidence back up again and that we can get back to some kind of normality which is is what everybody wants really yeah yeah a couple of things as well um you have worked all over the world you’ve done some crazy shows and you’ve been doing it a long time what would you say is and it’s a ridiculous question to ask because I know there’s lots of crazy things but what’s the stand out craziest moment for you on stage either in a funny thing that’s happened on just a just outrageous if you had to say what was your one standout moment over the years

when I was doing the work working men’s club circuit many years ago um it was one of those clubs where that they’ll have to be off at nine o’clock because

um and this concerts chairman was the right [ _ ] um so i thought right clearly nothing i’ve got to be offered at 9 o’clock i’ve played bingo bingo bingo bingo right fine so i had the people up on stage and i whispered into these blogs here off mike i said you’ll find that when the bingo starts as soon as the bingo starts you’ll imagine your balls are talking to each other and the more they talk to each other louder and louder they become you’ve got to shout at your balls to tell them to be quiet one two three you’re wide awake and that was encouraged on the show so right ladies and gentlemen i’m going now it’s to get my bingo thank you very much indeed i’ve never rode you with me i said pack the stuff up get it in the car as quickly as you can so we did that we got the stuff then we stood at the door it’s right right you just went down for a game of bingo and all you were doing shouting shook that [ _ ] up and shouted out and i completely destroyed their game bingo got me money and left that’s the best way i i once years ago did uh it was a there was an interval for bingo we don’t do that anymore um and it was like every time a double number comes out you believe you’ve won stand up shout bingo realize what you’ve done sit back down yada yada which i thought was hilarious i’m sat in the changing room backstage bingo’s come on this has happened it’s being fired off i’m laughing people are laughing they literally came to my halfway through and if you don’t stop it now we’ll pay you you can [ __ ] off and i’m like wow and even it was a great show they’ve never booked me back all this time but you know what sometimes it’s not about me it’s not about them it’s about that concert secretary i was doing a show at the manor in sheffield years ago 30 years ago and uh i said can i have some volunteers nobody there’s german without the volunteers i can’t do a show there’s about 40 people in the audience so i said ladies john you know without the volunteers i can’t do it i can’t do a show it’s a writer so they’ll tell you what when the driver was with me and the stage door there was a door on the side of the stage went straight out to the car park and said to the driver i said pull the car up and stage go why just pull it off

close your eyes keep your eyes closed as tightly as you possibly can so all the audiences stood up we’ve got their hands together they’ve all got their eyes closed now if you open your eyes there’s a gentleman this is not going to work it’s very very important you keep your eyelids closed so keep your eyes closed I’m just gonna go quiet just for a few seconds pissed off out of sight we’re all left in there I’ve got in my camera brilliant I don’t know any anybody in the stadium this is watching this I wouldn’t recommend that

oddly enough I didn’t get paid I don’t know sometimes um you know when you when you’re in the trenches sometimes you do turn up at venues and go ah it’s not worth the money but you know yeah I had a guy at the arrows club in Enfield many years ago could have some volunteers one block got up but he must have been late 70s early 80s I thought oh you’re laughing what am I supposed to do with it so anyway I hit the tide well you’re on the sunny beach getting hot and cold by the very bridge you’ve got the number seven you’ve got your pants and all the rest of it and he was really funny you know I managed to get away with it about halfway through I stood in front of him I said look at me there shoot your eyes and sleep but they opened one eye and he went how am I doing all right

and you know what i think those shows the working men’s clubs in you know in the great northern towns where if you [ _ ] they’ll happily tell you yeah i think that’s what’s missing from a lot of entertainment today i think a lot of people see talent shows a lot of people see youtube yeah put the two together and go i can go from my bedroom to broadway in like food steps and you’ve got you know for me it’s it’s it’s the [ _ ] shows it’s the shows when you’re driving home and you think you know do i really want to do this they’re the ones where you actually it tests your metal as such so yeah so yeah yeah well this is it you know people getting into the business now they don’t have the working men’s clubs are the best training ground anybody could ask for as an entertainer especially as a hypothesis but now they don’t really exist no to get into this business wow it’s really difficult to go out there and play your trade as a hypnotist just starting out really really quickly you know the only place you can do with pubs and you really don’t want to be in pubs no no so you got a thing here from jason morgan as well uh ken Webster was just like to say thank you for the inspiration it was you that got me into stage work i’ve done my first part of training with your old mate lynn bateman oh right old lip batman yeah go out to blast from the past yeah uh there we go uh i’ll start taking those tips in the office uh jason simmons says brilliant and jeff says [ __ ] shows are your learning shows absolutely absolutely the truth yeah if you were to give one bit of advice we just said then about you know people trying to break into this industry or trying to step up the ladder and get the better performance wise or hypnotherapists that are wanting to do impromptu stuff to increase their exposure to get more clients if you give one tip something that you wish somebody told you all those years ago or something that you were told all those years ago if you’d get one tip what would it be don’t do it

yeah it’s like the stage it knows it’s now it’s a tricky tricky business like i said because the audiences are a lot more cynical now audiences can’t concentrate for longer than an hour because you’ve got netflix amazon prime you’ve got you’ve got you know i was lucky i was so so lucky that i got into the business when i did because you know i got the the really good years when mckenna was on tv yeah got the good years in the theaters and if you what you know i mean i’m semi-retired now anyway i do blackpool and young corporate stuff that’s all i want to do i don’t want to do any more but i’m quite happy doing that but getting into the business now it’s so so tricky because like i said before you know you can do the working men’s and you can learn your trade you can learn there’s nowhere to actually learn the trade and help you know enjoying hypnosis in pubs that’s not going to be around for much longer i don’t think so i think that the government and local council councils will put a stop to that but again pubs aren’t what they used to be you know pope’s now if you don’t do food in the pub there’s no point you know the pub pub step pubs are dying the clubs are dying there’s very few venues left for hypnotists yeah very few and it’s such a shame because it is a laugh it’s a great form of entertainment absolutely you know uh i mean if you were getting into this business be yourself don’t copy other people don’t copy the pistol worst thing you can possibly do because people look at that and oh he’s just copied off song so he’s copied off so and so you know and it’s ethical as well but you know all you have to do is sit down and think about people’s emotions that’s how i start writing sketches and i think about emotions happiness sadness embarrassment switching people’s personalities that’s you know you you think about the basic emotions and work around that you know it’s like the poo collector where somebody you know how’d you get bits of them rubber pills and drop them on the floors uh make sure somebody picks picks the pull up but every pillar poo the pick up they get more and more annoyed and they get more and more angry because i keep sitting on the stage all the time or or you know somebody who’s up on stage i’ll drop a piece out that’s right and the person who’s doing the poo collected towards the end of the evening is proper fuming really really and that is you’re building somebody up you know you’re building something into a real crescendo of proper angriness yeah and that’s what it’s all about running gags with hypnosis yeah well you keep a gag running all the way through the show yeah you touched on a point that no one’s touched on up until now and you’re absolutely right i think that having that running gag having it build up because each time it gets funnier and the callbacks even funnier and i think i think a lot of a lot of people with inexperience on stage or that are new to it they’ll fire a routine get the line that they’ve seen and then move on from it yeah you know they’re not waiting for the funny if either it’s either hit it’s had a response or not and then they move on too quick you know and it doesn’t have a chance to build up so yeah absolutely the scaling being a good hypnotist um is subject management and that is an audience management you manage the audience you listen to what the audience are laughing at then you do it again later on when they’ve forgotten what they’ve laughed at you know a lot of it a lot of being an entertainer is psychology he’s using psychology on people because let’s face it i mean all the state hypnosis is 3d karaoke that’s it that’s what it is it’s 3-d okay and you’ve got to get the best out of that person and the only way you can get the best out of that person is understanding psychology you’ll go upstairs and say only count three let me guys run away and you’ll do this one two three by the way oh yeah really funny sleep on the character you’ll do this and cut it and that’s not how it that’s not how you become called hypnotist you become a good hypothesis by reading the people on stage and getting them to do to do what i’m asking it to do to the best ability uh and making them funny showing them how to be full yes yeah i i always kind of say it’s the bits between the skits that make a show it’s the look at the audience it’s the when when it looks like something’s happened that’s never happened before even though it happens every night it’s that look at the audience that makes them go awesome something unique is happening and it’s it’s that it’s that way i think the magic is the whole it’s why it’s why 10 hypnotists can all do the same routine and two can get an absolutely belting response and it’s world class and the other eight can do it and it’s just it’s just bland it just doesn’t hit the audience right exactly that’s where being an entertainer is something that comes naturally it’s like the old bandana magic trick you know the one where you’ve got a cd played in the background and you’ve got a bandana and it gets mixed up with the word banana um i mean these very few people could make that funny graham grumbleweed could do that so well jeremy beadle was horrendous doing that tommy cooper could do that so there’s certain people like you say i can do sketches and get away with it and make it funny through their own personality but again i can teach somebody to hypnotize somebody in an hour but i can’t teach you to be an entertainer and then i’d live here because again hypnosis he’s just been a stage hypnotist he’s just a bit safer than being a lion tamer no idea how many people are going to get up you’ve no idea how if they’re going to be funny you’ve no idea how many you’re going to go under if anybody goes under um you know and that when you when you do a three i’ve done a three-hour show with one person but i’ve made it funny it’s gonna say it’s a skill if there’s there’s a few hypnotists i know that that can really master that one-person show it’s exhausting for that one person but if you can if you can get an entertaining show for the audience where they think they’ve laughed their socks off that’s that’s the job done you know you have 15 people on stage and people are just politely laughing but you can have one on there and the audience is going wild the audience has had a great night so that’s a success absolutely i mean you know i mean professional hypnotist wise in this country now andrew knew you know andrew very pro hypnotist you know he’s still working his andrew powers if you know i mean you know andrew obviously um would love to have andrew on this show uh i don’t know if he would um but i would love to have andrew one uh he’s watching this now i think he said he was gonna watch it anyway do you know what he is um i know he’s very vocal online um and quite likely so he’s very pretty he’s a very very very intelligent man a very intelligent man yeah i i i hands down for me just he owns his stage he’s a phenomenal performer of hypnosis on stage you know i’ve seen him a couple of times not stolen any material off him

I think the last time Andrew had an interaction with me online he said was it if that vagina on your chin makes you think you’re new unique and you can [ __ ] off so that’s right he is very vocal and the thing is I agree with absolutely everything he says you know there was one knob head went to uh city varieties Leeds work I remember his name now but he went in with a t-shirt I’m saying trust me I’m a hypnotist seriously yeah you know and Andrew doesn’t like other hypnosis he’s going to see his shows which is understandable which is fair enough you know because this there’s so many people out there will just rip right be off but you know I suppose that’s just that’s part of the game there’s a lot of people at whatever level that there are in the game that thinks that they want kind of feign by association I know you’ve suffered from it from um other hypnotists hypnotizing people in the foyer of your show

you know not wanting to open that kind of worms that was like internet in there which is frustrating and not needed to have been done and unprofessional and disrespectful but if that you know if that’s the type of person they are then exactly and there’s a lot of hypnotists that i know i know there’s a there’s a group of hypnosis that every year coming and come down to blackpool to come and see your show you know and it’s it’s one of them i can’t remember his name now there was one of them had a video camera in a menu filming my show and i let him film it right until the end and then i got the doorman to remove the memory card from his camera and placed it in my pouch of guinness wow and then showed you both you know you don’t do that you don’t do that grant you know if you can’t think of your own sketches you shouldn’t be in the business exactly and it’s it’s exactly what you said you know if they if they contacted you and said i’ve seen this i really like it i want to make it my own you know it that’s the pro if if you’re wanting to be in the industry long term that’s the professional thing to do exactly exactly and then you know if people do do that and they want help and they want advice i’ll give them help and i’ll give them advice yeah not a problem at all but yeah if you just ran they’ll say oh well i like the drink driving sketch i like the gay aerobics i like the lap dance sketcher like this which i know i wrote all myself do you mind if i use that ken Webster of course i don’t just give it a few tweaks and make it your own but you’ve had the decency to ask me you know and then you’re always on board to help them and the thing is it’s a very very close community hypnosis community so andrew will say to me what do you think about so-and-so and i’ll say stay away no bed what do you think about so-and-so lovely fella not a problem at all and you know it’s it’s a very close-knit community amongst the long-standing state hypnotists in this country i will help anybody out but you know give people respect and yeah and i think that’s it i think for our industry to survive it has got to be about quality has got to be about production uh i like the horseshoe theatre bar you i see you’ve got all your branding across the back of that stage it’s an iconic looking stage and i think that’s that’s the type of thing that stage hypnosis needs is that production is better quality and good people promoting in a positive way out there because there’s lots of people that have no idea what hypnosis is now let alone no they haven’t they didn’t know you know i mean when i was doing the theaters i would have a big theater set you know it would be like a truck full of sets it would take four hours to set all the stage set up instead of just having 12 chairs on the stage so you just had a conversation a comment here as well saying very real conversation here love it that there’s no [ __ ] that’s because we’re northerners

so yeah Jason nominee morgan is unique not many Hypnose shoals see you a lunatic one towards you with a

chainsaw brilliant um yeah um one of the things again for uh our american cousins that might be watching the show people don’t know uh i believe you are the is it the president of the federation of ethical state hypnotists i was the chairman of the federation of representatives for about 10 years um and i’ve given that over now to a guy called alan bates so allen’s now the chairman i’m still on the board of the federation medical stage here with this but you know 10 years give somebody else a chance yeah i’ll give somebody else a chance at it how how is how is fresh doing at the moment i know that you know back in the in the in the day when everything was going terrible for staging just fresh were very much at the forefront fighting for its members is is that is that still the case at the moment absolutely absolutely i mean fetch was started by peter kassim uh i mean peter castle and i did not see eye to eye in any way shape or form he hated me uh because i started to become all right you know quite successfully he didn’t like it towards the end just before peter died uh we got him really really well because he realized that i was here to stay and i was doing a good job and i was bringing people in and i’ve gone really well with peter towards the end before his death bless him but i mean he was one of the most successful hypnotists this company has ever had but you know these very few people have made really good money really good money um and peter was one of them andrew newton is another one peter powers is another one uh myself i’ve done all right um but there’s very few have made you know really good money a really good career out of it yeah this was the same as anything you’ve got to you’ve got to have the passion for it you’ve got to have the love for it you’ve got to want to see it grow and evolve because like you said shows 10 15 20 25 years ago the material has moved on so much from that oh god some of the stuff i used to do like 20 30 years ago you wouldn’t get away with that now and that’s why i don’t build myself really anymore the world’s most outrageous hypnotist i used to do because it used to bring people in yeah now it doesn’t bring people because people are just offended by the slightest thing so now you know you’ve got to move with the times you’ve got to move with the times and if you don’t move the move the time you know i had a conversation in the dressing room a couple years ago by a very well known spanish hypnosis um which i’ve actually become quite friendly with now him and i were arch enemies uh at one point um but we’ve become quite friendly and he was one that was i am the most outrageous disgusting filthy hypnotist i can do this and i’ll do that and i have this conversation with him and said look it’s dead that side of state hypnosis and we’ve gotten quite well now we’re going quite well um is he a northerner by any chance he certainly is oh i know exactly what you mean then well he’s a clever lad he’s a clever really clever lad everybody knows who we path are know i cashed in on it when you know when chubby was really really popular that’s when i was really popular doing that register and you could get away with all sorts of [ __ ] then yeah but you can’t do it now so being outrageous and over the top and treble x rated and this is disgusting you get more complaints than anything else yeah yeah but um i always ask people for two books that they would recommend either something to do with performance or something that’s either inspired you or is an essential reading that you think you know has either helped you on a personal level or professional level on a stage level uh bought two two books um hypnotherapy by dave ellman of course uh bangor and granny bandler and grinder uh nlp frogs in the princes books uh all mcgills professional stage hypnotist

it’s the book that everybody says and you know what it’s only certain people of a certain level that have kind of gone that’s the book but when you read it now it’s [ __ ] and you can you’ve got to go back to it and go no no no never work another one is the art of stage hypnosis by professor Leonard’s right ridiculous it’s got pictures of people with sparks coming out their eyes

that’s my next poster is that

one of the things you’ve always done as well just talking about posters and again it’s within the stage hypnosis community and to be fair i’m actually really enjoying this conversation within the stage hypnosis community there’s always been a lot of serial killers and migraines when it comes to posters that hypnosis put out there um your posters have always been um really kind of eye-catching and iconic like i say years ago i was in blackpool for a few years and you go down the promenade and you’d see your big posters i remember the the heaven and hell type poster you did a few years back you know yeah back in the days of heaven and hell do you think that how important do you think that poster is in getting people through the door in a social media age uh yeah i mean social media yeah you know is good for advertising but not everybody is on social media you know so people do want posters when i used to do loads of press interviews and stuff it’s like can we have a photograph again can you go like this no i can’t go like this can you hold a watch no i can’t do it

yeah it’s all bollocks yeah to me that’s just my own personal I don’t know I mean I see that [ __ ] you’ve got behind yeah

that would be better if there’s like a brain you know a picture of a brain in your eyes rather than things

my posters have always just been uh i’ve always been every year is a different poster i’ve got i’ve got that many posters now but every year is a different poster you know i would never stick to the same poster i always change it every year it lets it’s i think it was matt hale australia was kind of saying by doing a different poster you’re letting the audience know that it’s a new show yeah you’re letting them know what to expect so yeah it’s great for that so i’ve just got a long question from darren cook so it won’t all appear on the screen so i really helped you says hi ken Webster i’ve been a kids entertainer for 20 years i’ve been doing hypnosis shows for the last two or three years a big part of how i improvised and kid parties use in my kids shows have you been such an inspiration for me in learning hypnosis i was also trained by kevin who passed on so much of your knowledge i now live and breathe hypnosis and every bit of advice experienced from legends like yourself i’ll be forever grateful thank you darren cook cookie artist you’re welcome mate no problem yeah you know it’s glad that you are an inspiration you know nice that people like your work it’s nice that people you know keep coming to see me and you know it’s nice to know that i’ve sort of helping people in in a roundabout way really yeah yeah so it’s been it’s been absolutely it’s been i always find it quite funny as well um maybe maybe two seasons after you’ve finished with a poster it kind of makes its way or a a nod to one of your posters always makes it way onto the circuit with other hypnotists that kind of go he’s not using that poster anymore we can now use it yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well it’s it’s it’s a sign of if people like what you do they are gonna it’s it’s on what level do they copy you out do they do it where it’s just people you know i’ve always been known for sort of loud suits and different suits yeah even though it was just copied away a dress on stage yes really seriously yeah my catchphrase was always [ __ ] up nice one people even nicking now it’s like you know it’s like well you know you don’t know what to say really you just think you you really are sad sad individuals when you have to steal away somebody dresses steal somebody’s catchphrase and the mannerisms on stage it’s like that’s just pathetic but none of these people have ever gotten anywhere so you know that was the thing with with with andrew and paul mckenna you know i mean i knew i know them both uh that was tricky because paul you know uh yeah sort of mirrored himself a little bit and andrew shall we say i’m not getting into any legalities that was not for you that was really well put yeah you know you know and i know there was a big legal wrangle big big legal wrangles and stuff you know but i’m not saying that he copied him word for word but so mirrored bits of his show shall we say you know which is a shame yeah you know copying what you do what you say and how you dress oh i’ve got pictures of me on the walls out there i’ve been i want

quite possibly quite possible Krystyna Lennon uh says she’s seen three hypnotists perform and one of them has come back in the 90s so there you go and I know your uncle extremely well yeah was one of my very very very close friends in his business Hugh Lennon and Hugh was a fantastic hypnotist and a really good friend I just gave you my regards Krystyna well ken Webster it’s been an absolute pleasure I’m going to put the link back up again as well if people can get tickets to go and see your show you know I would love to you know it’s one of the things I’ve always said I’ve never seen your show because I always know that you hate people that come and see you showing the steel material so I’ve always said throughout my career I’ve never seen ken websters show but I don’t know if you come back

for my people let me back in now

yeah it’d be good to it would be good to catch up with you in person and uh yeah are you still doing Mackies yes uh when it well when it opens back up again yeah I did Mackies for oh I don’t know 15 15 years something like that it’s it’s great it’s a great venue um it’s only a very small stage the team there are wonderful especially if they’re watching I love you guys um but yeah but it’s I mean I love the holiday parks it’s nice you’re treading carefully be careful about what you say about the audiences

I want to see you get yourself out of this no I mean mac is especially it’s a great audience but it’s the nice clean shows it’s a family-friendly show and like you said it’s when you work a family-friendly show um you can work anywhere if you know what I mean so and because kids are unforgiving if kids have got the attention span of that if you’ve not got them they’re off and they’re playing games and they’re doing whatever else and uh

I feel your pain really yeah I have some good nights and backers and I love staff roster bits you know fantastic fella is but the, uh some of the audiences what do you do for Libby notes where are you from Brownsville I’m a drug dealer

what do you do for a Living? it’s it the market audience do tend to be from very much very Yorkshire these very barns are very leads yeah and their places that I don’t get bookings in Barnsley or Leeds I’m very rarely at home Marcus is probably one of the closest ones to me everything else is bristol Scotland miles away so it’s nice to be local and see the local people yeah yeah

there’s a posh park I do down south and they spent four million pounds doing it up and the first season they got uh a group of travellers in um and it made the national newspapers and it is destroyed the park and you look at it it was a beautiful place it made centre parks look like you know terrible this place was just stunning and it just it got destroyed so yeah but yeah I mean I do I love holiday banks if you if you’re starting in this business one of the best venues to start with, is hunting yeah you’re off work

yeah oh yeah that is odd that is hard, yeah some of the bigger parts can be hard work especially when you get the people in there that have got a voucher from the sun and they’ve got like a week’s holiday for a quid yeah kind of red stripe

brilliant um it’s been this has been it’s been great to catch up with you as I say hopefully you know if Andrew would love to come on and you know yeah love to have him as a guest you know he is he is a powerful force and he is a great stage hypnotist uh he’s great hypnosis brilliant he the thing about Andrew is you know he’s been in the business a lot of years yeah he knows the robes yeah he’s a very very clever man yeah um and I have never nicked anything off Andrew because he’s [ __ ] all worth Nikki

that’s his friendly banter exactly well thank you very much for this again i’ll put a link up to the tickets this will go up on youtube as well and i’ll put a link to the tickets up there as well uh but obviously at the end of the season i think that link will expire so i’ll take it down then but go look for the rest of the season uh hopefully i’ll get down one night and come and see you as well uh i’ll not bring camera or a notepad um you know i’ll just come and enjoy the show and thank you there’s any american people out there or anybody who wants it if you go to stream15.com which is stream as in a stream 15 the number 15 stream 15.com all my dvds are on there for you to download and watch at home on your tv your tablets or any device well stream15.com i’ll make sure that that is in the description on youtube as well um so that’s brilliant brilliant thank you very much for coming on uh i hope you guys have enjoyed it uh we’ve got another great image this next week as well and uh yeah thank you uh david knight all right yeah yeah yeah so david knight came to a sonic lodge i was at years ago um and it’s quite funny he hypnotized my wife and told her that she was better than this is a freemasons charity dinner and he emphasized my wife and told her she was the world’s greatest lap dancer uh you couldn’t yeah that was interesting brilliant all right thank you very much check care about it yeah bye