Hypnotizing Vegas
Greg Thilmont
If the idea of people on stage in hypnotic trances brings to mind a quiet, sedate scene, then you need to get a new outlook on hypnosis shows. There's nothing quite like attending an "Anthony Cools – The Uncensored Hypnotist" show to break preconceived or outdated notions.

Anthony Cools' show is off-the-hook, out there and totally outrageous. Oh yes, it's absolutely uncensored and downright and gleefully dirty-minded. That's what people are paying for. If you don't like overtly racy comedy, this is not a show for you. Clothing stays on, but internal inhibitions completely disappear in Cools' Paris Las Vegas showroom.

After being induced into a hypnotic state on stage by Cools, roughly 15 participants might become orangutans, very friendly orangutans that want to mingle in the audience. They might swap genders. They might forget numbers and their names. They might make cell phone calls home with extra special messages. They might express their affection for a specific genre of adult movie-making.

We're talking around what actually happens in Anthony Cools' performances, obviously. It's too crazy and explicit for print. But it's absolutely funny.

Cools' shows are loud, rocking events as party people are apt to indulge in. Joe Garcia of San Antonio, Texas, attended a recent Anthony Cools show with friends. It was his first hypnosis show.

"This sounded like an only-in-Vegas kind of show to see," said Garcia.
After the show, Casey Allen of Philadelphia was astonished by Cools and the audience.
"I've never seen anything like that," said Allen. "A hypnotist came to my high school, but it was totally different."
A native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Cools was drawn to the phenomenon of hypnosis as a young teen.
"I was fascinated by (hypnosis) when I was fourteen years old. I started reading about it, but I never thought it would be a career," said Cools.

As a young adult, Cools managed nightclubs and hotels. That penchant for hypnotism never went away, though. He eventually hit the stage.

"I'm a ham and a bit of a goof, it just seemed like a natural evolution to take (hypnotism) to the next level," he said.
"I was able to hire myself at a nightclub I managed in Calgary. I did a free show and had about 550 people show up for this thing and it was off-the-wall," said Cools. "I quit my job of eight years the next day."
Already in the door of the entertainment world, Cools' nascent career developed rapidly.
"I was never ever a starving entertainer which is something you rarely hear these days. My career took off right out of the gate. I never looked back," said Cools.

Cools' shows can go in a multitude of naughty, comedic directions, depending on the night and crowds.
"They're all different; I never know what's going to happen. Really it's written on the fly. I read the audience when I get up on stage and just take it from there," said Cools. "I have about eight-and-a-half, nine hours of material I can pull from. I customize my material for whoever happens to get up on stage."
Cools said that speed is part of his success.

"I think one of my biggest fortés as a hypnotist is being able to read people very, very rapidly," he said.
"There's an orchestra piece at the beginning of the show. I use that as part of my introduction. I'm writing the show during that piece. I'm saying ‘Okay, this person is not reacting really well – I'm going to use them for this piece and this piece. This (other person) will be great for this piece, this piece.' I make a lot of decisions during that time," said Cools.

Cools readily admits that some people are incredulous when it comes to hypnosis, especially with his show and its extreme antics.

"It's funny, but so many people still don't believe in it. I have to laugh. If you think of it from a logical point of view, producing a show like that – getting ten to fifteen people up there every night, getting them to do the things I do," said Cools. "How could you cast something like that, change the cast nightly and afford to pay them in any form or fashion, and control them? It's just never going to happen."

"It's just common sense. It's easier to be real," he said. "It's a very powerful tool, and it is science. It's not hocus pocus. It's like gravity – whether you believe in it or not, it's there."

To many, Cools' raunchy format might seem far from the austere hypnosis acts of the past. That's by Cools' informal, fun-loving design.

"In my very first show in 1994, I knew that I didn't want to be the goateed, tuxedoed, stare into my eyes or look at my pocket watch kind of hypnotist," said Cools. "I want to bring it to the new millennium."
During that fateful show, Cools went before his audience wearing flip flops and drinking a beer. Success was far from guaranteed.

"I pulled it off. An hour later I walked off saying ‘this is what I'm supposed to be doing,'" he said.
"I'm having a blast. I'm living the dream," said Cools.
 

WHAT’S ON - The Las Vegas Guide
RAW Get Down And Dirty With Anthony Cools
The powers of hypnotist Anthony Cools, now appearing at Excalibur, are so awesome and far-reaching that on occasion he even ensnares volunteers among audience members who didn’t intend to volunteer.
People sitting in the audience watching Cools lull his real volunteers into a hypnotic state are sometimes seduced by the performer’s gentle voice, relaxing patter about soft, fluffy white clouds in a blue sky and New Age background music and find themselves falling under his spell.

During one recent show, a women sitting in the second row succumbed. The lady, a 35-years-old schools teacher named Diane, later said all she could remember was feeling very relaxed, like I was getting a massage, as Cools placed his onstage volunteers under hypnosis-a process that takes about 10 minutes. From the stage, Cools glanced out at the audience and noticed Diane looking glassy-eyed.

Come on up. I have a much better seat for you up here, the hypnotist instructed the woman, who immediately stood up and walked onstage without protest. She went on to become one of Cools best volunteers of the evening. Such are the powers of Mr. Cools, whose show is raw, uncensored and just a little dirty at times.

Getting back to Diane, the teacher unwittingly became one of the stars of the show after show was caught in Cools web. The hypnotist told a What’s On writer that someone in the audience becomes hypnotized at least once a week while watching him work with volunteers in the part of the show known as the induction.

Cools paces his 90-minute show by putting most of his volunteers asleep at any given time while supplying wacky suggestions to the others in groups of one or two. The sleeping volunteers, he explains, are not really asleep but instead in a state of deep relaxation with a keen focus on his voice. Cools can put his volunteers to sleep or wake them up at any time, making them instantly alert and responsive with the snap of his fingers.

Whatever suggestion is given by Cools is unquestioningly accepted, no matter how goofy or ludicrous. Cools caused Diane to forget her own name, play phone sex operator, audition for a porno movie using a chair as her partner and react to an imaginary fart (a very dirty, smelly, stinky fart-possibly wet, the hypnotist described it).

At one point, Cools asked Diane to take a deep breath and then gave a directive that she would fall asleep the minute any air escapes. The language arts teacher held her breath for a moment and then, as she began to exhale, seemed to lose consciousness and slump over in her chair.

In another recent show, a young woman named Juri volunteered to be hypnotized but later refused to accept that she was under hypnosis-although it was obvious to the audience that she was.

I don’t think I’m hypnotized, a defiant Juri told Cools about 20 minutes after he has placed her under his spell.
Of course, you don’t, answered Cools, who touched her forehead with the palm of his hand and said the word sleep causing her to shut her eyes and slump over like a dead woman.

Over the next 45 minutes, Juri would make the audience laugh numerous times. She counted 11 fingers on her two hands, the result of Cools planting a hypnotic suggestions that made her completely forget the number 2 (The number 2 does not exist, he told her). Stripped of her ability to remember the number 2, Juri was also asked to count her own breasts, which she did- 1, 3 - to the delight of the audience.

For the remainder of that show, Cools addressed Juri using a nickname that rhymes with 3 Bits.
Every Cools show is recorded and offered for sale immediately after the final curtain, in DVD or VHS format. Fans can also purchase The Best of Anthony Cools, Vol. 1, which shows, among other greatest bits, a hypnotized man in Mississippi taking off his prosthetic limb and, according to Cools stump-humping a chair.
 

LAS VEGAS WEEKLY
Readers Choice Awards
Best Local Villain
Anthony Cools
Hypnotist Anthony Cools thinks being names this year’s Best Local Villain is a matter of jealousy, pure and simple. In a community where so many of us have to kiss the asses of tourists, Cools says, I make tourists hump furniture and get paid for it. Then they thank me. The Canadian Cools markets his adult-only show as good, clean, dirty fun, and has his own devoted fans to prove his popularity. Called hypno-hos, they’re addicted to the orgasms Cools delivers via handshake at the end of each performance and reappear at show after show, hoping to sneak past his keen eye and get another. Wait a minute shouldn’t that make him Best Local Hero?
 

LAS VEGAS SUN
Two warnings should be placed at the entry to the 250-seat theater where hypnotist Anthony Cools performs nightly.
First, leave your inhibitions at the door or you will surely be offended by something that is said or done during the performance. You could even be offended by this review.

Second, don't fall asleep, because you may miss something hilarious, or you might wake up to find out you are part of the act.

"The Anthony Cools Experience" at Paris Las Vegas is an adult show centered on sex and sexual innuendo, fart jokes and other social taboos.

From the moment he puts his dozen or so volunteers into a dreamlike state until the show's end, when he awakens them with the instructions to go home and have the best sex they have ever had, Cools keeps his audience in stitches.

While he might be a top-notch hypnotist, Cools is first and foremost a fast-thinking comedian who milks humor out of every situation that arises onstage.
He works the hypnotized volunteers like an orchestra conductor, creating a sort of harmony out of diversified bits he creates for the individuals.

One person may find his bottom on fire whenever he hears the Johnny Cash tune, "Ring of Fire" -- to put out the flame he scoots across stage.

A woman suddenly finds her private parts talking to her -- and to the audience -- whenever her name is mentioned.
Cools orders a subject to perform an embarrassing act on cue, and then moves on to another subject who is told to perform another embarrassing act -- and then he returns to each subject throughout the evening, like a performance artist who can keep several plates spinning at the same time.

A volunteer is told whenever he hears a cue he will use his cell phone to call a friend and offer to perform oral sex for a nickel.

"Do not call a family member," Cools warns.
Throughout the night the subject propositioned friends over the phone -- and at the end of the evening, after being brought out of his hypnotic state, quickly began re-calling everyone and apologizing.
Another volunteer is told the numeral 2 does not exist and then is asked to count her fingers, ending up with six on each hand.

While the slowest part of any hypnosis show is putting the volunteers into the state in which they are willing to do the hypnotist's bidding, Cools has a talent for moving through the process quickly and effortlessly.
He brings the cast of volunteers onstage and begins weeding them out, until he has the most susceptible subjects. If a female volunteer has an extremely short skirt, he gives her a blanket and tells her to cover up.
"The show is uncensored, but not X-rated," he says. "Keep this on your lap."
Once the process is complete and the final subjects have been chosen, Cools warms up the act by convincing them they are in an orchestra playing an instrument to "The William Tell Overture."
And then he tells them that, when he touches his own forehead, they will be convinced that the person sitting next to them has passed gas.

One subject becomes Garth Brooks, roaming through the audience, lip-syncing to fans.
Another has lost his dog and must wander around the room calling its name -- an unprintable phrase that has everyone laughing.
"The dog is lost in this room," Cools tells him. "Don't go out into the casino."
The volunteers are convinced they are naked at an audition for a pornographic movie and that they must have sex with a chair.

"This is not a chair," Cools says. "It will be the best-looking person you have ever seen in your life."
Girls with bras are told to go offstage and return wearing them outside of their clothing.
"If you're not wearing a bra tonight, you will find yourself stuck to your chair," he says.
The men are told they are gay and that their penises are growing out of their forehead.
"I have to think of this (expletive deleted)," Cools deadpans to the audience.
While not everyone may like the way Cools thinks, if you are in the right frame of mind you will enjoy the evening with the hypnotist.

Just don't fall asleep or you may wake up with your privates talking to the audience.
By Jerry Fink