Isaac Lomman - Hypnotised

Isaac Lomman is not your ordinary Adelaide local. How would you like to live next door to someone who with a click of his fingers can put you to sleep and make you do the most ridiculous things?

The packed house on the night I attended was testament to his popularity and skill. Lomman, as well as being an actual hypnotherapist, is a talented comic and his slick show Hypnotised is a little gem in the Fringe.

He has mesmerising stage presence and has the audience literally rolling with laughter at the antics he derives from his on-stage volunteers. Typically a sceptic of this sort of ‘trickery’, I was soon convinced he certainly had some sort of control over people, when my usually very controlled companion fell under his spell and confessed after that she actually DID get sleepy and in a dream-like state.

He gathers ‘volunteers’ from the audience and without giving too much away, has them falling into deep sleep all over each other and generally responding to his suggestions. One absolute highlight was when one poor woman had to flee the tent every time she heard a siren - her panic and distress at trying to weave her way through the crowd to the tent flap was hilarious. Another was him convincing two people they were eating a delicious apple when in fact they were chomping down on a raw onion, suggesting a young gentleman couldn’t say his own name, that a young woman was naked and that all of the volunteers were riding unicorns to Darryl Braithwaite’s song ‘Horses”!. These were just a few of the unbelievable situations with which we were entertained.

It was unfortunate that on the night I attended, one larrikin was upstaging Lomman by his silliness, but to his credit the performer integrated him well into the show and showed great patience.

This is a very clever show and whether you believe hypnosis is real or not, it is a fun, surprising, well produced hour at the Fringe.

Shelley Hampton

To read more Adelaide Fringe 2020 reviews click here