Tuesday night saw the Guild Theatre fill up – or at least as much as is allowed under current lockdown restrictions – as locals flocked to the opening night of Andre the Hilarious Hypnotist’s final show before his emmigration to England.
Picture: MATTHEW FIELD
The showman certainly lived up to his name and ensured that audience members were in hysterics for the almost two-hour show.
However, in shows like this, its usually the volunteers who end up stealing the spotlight and it was no different here.
To go over all the wacky hijinks Andre and his volunteers got up to would take a while and besides, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for those who will be attending the later shows.
Instead, I’d like to share some of my personal favourite moments from the evening.
After weeding out the initial set of volunteers and being left with four, Andre pulled one of them up and gave him an interesting instruction: Andre told him that he had a different name and that if anyone called the volunteer by their real name, they would become very annoyed.
Needless to say, Andre then proceeded to use their real name, much to the volunteer’s increasing frustration.
But it gets better. Immediately after, Andre convinced that same volunteer that one of his fingers was missing. Needless to say, this caused no small amount of panic in the hapless volunteer, especially when Andre pointed out a random member of the audience as the villainous finger thief.
My second favourite moment of the night involved that same volunteer, and occurred near the end of the first half.
Andre was assigning each remaining volunteer small tasks to do during the interval, such as making sure people washed their hands before coming out of the bathroom. This person’s task was simple: every time he took a sip of a drink, he was to roar like a lion as loud as he can.
As was to be expected, this then led to all his friends offering him drinks throughout the interval and him then roaring his appreciation at the top of his lungs. It was hard to tell who was laughing harder, the audience or the volunteer’s friends.
Andre the Hilarious Hypnotist will be performing at the East London Guild Theatre until October 30. For more information, visit the theatre’s Facebook page or go to their website.
