By Cameron Griffin | @kykernel

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The Cats Den was full of laughs Tuesday night when Rusty Z, a hypnotist comedian, came to cast a trance on a selected few in the audience.

The event brought in about 100 people who were anxious to see if hypnosis can really work. The event began with Rusty Z asking the audience members to put their hands out, shut their eyes and face their left palms up.

They were then told to pretend their right hands had balloons attached to them, and that their left hands had a heavy dictionary. Those whose hands were more than 6 inches apart went on stage.

Fourteen people went on stage and the hypnotizing began, though some were not able to be hypnotized and Rusty Z asked them to step down.

Then there were eight left up on stage, with trances that included people thinking they smelled bad and someone singing the Martian national anthem.

Cartavia Conley, a psychology freshman and the one who supposedly spoke Martian said afterward:

“I do not remember speaking in any Martian, and I don’t know why people keep asking me that.”

When Conley was instructed to speak in Martian at the snap of Rusty Z’s fingers, she did so, only to forget the transaction after the second snap of his fingers. Conley added that the only part she remembered was telling people that something was fake. Rusty Z made her say “It’s fake, it’s fake, it’s fake” every time she heard the word “hypnosis” during a part of the performance.

The audience members who went on stage were there for about 50 minutes. Faith Gingrich-Goetz, a theater freshman, said she did not think it was that long. Mariah Riley, a dietetics and pre-pharmacy freshman, was not among those on stage taking part in the hypnotism.

“Everything was real funny, and the people having no recollection of it made it even funnier,” Riley said. “I had my doubts on hypnotism coming in, but talking to one of my friends who does not remember anything that she did made me believe it was for real.”

Rusty Z thought the show went well, even for those who had never been hypnotized before. He liked the turnout and the cooperation of those not being hypnotized.

“All in all it went well; I like the size of the crowd this year,” he said. “Last time I came to UK was around 10 years ago and there were only 10 people here to watch.”

The event ended with Conley and Gingrich-Goetz on stage acting like they were only there for a few minutes and having no recollection of what went on during the performance.