Editor’s note: Rene Olsen is the father of Dalhousie Gazette news editor Jenna Olsen, who did not contribute to the reporting in this piece.
On Sept. 20, comedy hypnosis performer Rene Olsen visited a packed University of King’s College Wardroom for a night of unusual fun.
The hypnotist, who advertises himself as “Hypnolsen,” was welcomed by a merry, enthusiastic crowd, eager to see what tricks Olsen had up his sleeve.
However, he cautioned from the beginning that what he would be doing was not a trick; despite the nature of the activity, those who volunteered to be hypnotized would be in full control the whole time.
“The biggest myth is that I have some power, the hypnotist has some power,” said Olsen. “We don’t.”
At the beginning of the show, proudly stating his intention to embarrass his daughter, King’s student Jenna Olsen, the older Olsen happily pulled off his sweater to reveal a shirt that read, “I banged Jenna’s mom,” which elicited a roar of laughter from the crowd.
With that, the tone was set for the evening, and the fun began.
There were about 20 chairs set up on the stage behind Olsen. When the hypnotist directed those who wanted to volunteer to come find a seat, a stampede of students rushed the stage to try and secure a spot.
Once the volunteers were sorted out, Olsen started by relaxing the participants’ conscious minds and performing the hypnotic induction.
It was a slow start, but anticipation filled the air, the audience hanging on to every one of Olsen’s words.
The hypnosis, as Olsen explained it, essentially worked by Olsen firing commands into participants’ “unconscious minds” while they were asleep at his command, slumped over onto the person next to them. Then, when they woke up, that command influenced their actions.
In the approximately two hour show, there was a lot going on. Participants fanned themselves as they sat on a hot beach, flew through outer space and sang loudly to the crowd, under the impression that they were famous performers. Someone was compelled into being insanely attracted to Olsen, another into being revolted by him.
The parts that stuck out the most were when participants were doing things that seemed to go beyond pretending. Maddie Fulford, a third-year King’s student and one of the participants, was hypnotized to believe her name was no longer Maddie but “EIEIO,” and insisted this was her name throughout one part of the show.
“I knew what it was, but I felt like I could say it,” Fulford confessed after the show. “I was like, whatever you tell me to say, I’ll say.”
Sam Poetzsch, another participant and a third-year King’s student, had similar feelings.
“It was like I was fully aware, but it was almost too much energy to not do what you were saying,” he said.
Another notable part of the show was when someone was hypnotized to forget the number six. When she was instructed to count her fingers, she kept counting eleven and proclaimed that she was “so confused.”
More notable still was when the volunteers were hypnotized into believing they were an animal of their choosing, and were told to make love to another animal of that species. While this suggestion seemed too far for some participants, who sat resolutely in their chairs and didn’t partake, some went all in on the performance.
“I think 90 per cent of the people that volunteer are up here because they want to experience [hypnosis], and I think there’s a little part of them that just wants to have that moment where they’re a bit of the star of the show,” said Olsen, emphasizing again that participants aren’t tricked into doing anything, rather they feel compelled and are also feeding off the audience.
Some participants, however, seemed to experience the hypnosis on a deeper level.
Brighton Gaddes, a fourth-year King’s student, said after the show that she didn’t remember much of it.
“I remember being on the beach. That’s it,” she said. “I think I burnt my face, to be honest. I know I didn’t. But it felt like it.”
A testament, perhaps, to one of the big myths that Olsen wants to bust: hypnosis isn’t real. He said that hypnosis has many uses like numbing pain in place of anesthetic.
Olsen said in an email to the Gazette that several days after the show the Wardroom reached out to his daughter and told her that some of the show’s content violated their policies. He said the Wardroom didn’t ask about any of the show’s content or tell him about any policies before the show.
In an email to the Gazette, Ell Zagar, the King’s Student Union (KSU) hospitality coordinator, said King’s received complaints about the performance but couldn’t provide more clarity on the complaints received, as it would violate their confidentiality policy. Zagar said the Wardroom takes any complaint seriously because of their strict code of conduct.
Zagar also noted that their policies are available on the KSU website.
Sophie Glover, a fourth-year Dalhousie University student who was an audience member at the show, said she was surprised when Olsen asked students to act out making love on stage, considering a promise he’d made at the beginning of the performance — that he wouldn’t embarrass any participants.
Henry Leitch, another audience member and a second-year Dalhousie student, said in an email to the Gazette that he was surprised at the overtly sexual parts of the show.
“Ultimately I think that show was appropriate for a university bar, though it was definitely toeing the line at certain points,” said Leitch. “… it was clear throughout the show that the hypnosis ‘wore off’ if participants became genuinely uncomfortable.”
In his email, Olsen said, “Hypnosis is a scientific process and the hypnotized person is totally in control of themselves at all times. Hypnosis works by relaxing the conscious mind and working with the subconscious mind to make volunteers more open to suggestions, but it is not mind control and participants cannot be forced to do or say anything.”
As for Olsen’s scandalous shirt, it went to Poetzsch. He asked to buy it off Olsen but got it for free.
“I can’t wear it at home,” said Olsen with a chuckle.
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