Ronning Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis [Hardcover]

Geoffrey Ronning (Author), Wendy Ronning (Author), David Botsford (Author), Chris Frolic (Author), Blaze Driscoll (Author), Richard Cole (Author), Terry Davolt (Author), Chris Morrison (Author), Michael Thomas (Author), Clarke Tuitele (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2008

Improve Your Performance, Boost Your Bookings & Income

You hold in your hands a key to your success. One that unlocks your stage hypnosis potential and propels you into being better at what you do. The Ronning Guide To Modern Stage Hypnosis delivers practical insights into both the on-stage and business aspects of your career. In addition, it clearly outlines a formula for success you can adapt to your own individual style. Geoffrey Ronning's personal experiences make it fascinating and his enthusiasm and confidence are absolutely contagious.

Ronning breaks down each phase of the stage hypnosis performance into identifiable components and shows you how to hypnotize and work successfully in any situation. He tells how to rescue a dying performance and gain control over a disinterested or drunk audience.

He provides specific tools to apply and workbook exercises that turn this information into a living experience. Doing the exercises actually builds a firm foundation you can stand on when you are on stage.

In these pages you will discover:

* The top 5 reasons hypnotists fail to achieve success
* 12 Rules for Routines and 3 Types of Routines to Always Avoid
* 10 Do's for Stage Hypnosis Success
* The 3 Never Do Rules for a Hypnosis Show
* The Seven Rules of a Successful Pre-talk
* How to Kick-start a Show
* Power Tools, Strategies and Techniques for Effective Trance
* The Popular EKG Induction

You will also gain similarly practical guidance for getting work and otherwise increasing your income, including:

* A sure-fire approach to getting bookings as many as you want in a matter of weeks
* Practices to maximize return bookings
* Ways to turn every performance into a high-profit center

In addition, you will learn how to deal with the real life challenges of stage hypnosis including:

* What to do when no one volunteers for your show
* What to do when no one gets hypnotized
* How to deal with accidents
* How to successfully overcome challenging show settings
* How deal with drunks and druggies and more...

If you are going to learn about something, learn from someone who walks the talk. Geoffrey Ronning's extremely successful dual career on stage as a performer and off stage as a mentor, coach and teacher to other successful stage hypnotists qualifies him in spades. Whether you re an aspiring beginner or a seasoned professional, you will put down this book believing that you can be a more successful stage hypnotist... and knowing exactly how you can do it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Geoffrey Ronning is has given literally thousands of performances in a variety of venues including schools, universities, comedy clubs, corporate events, casinos, and private parties. He has worked for small combative groups in run down, fourth rate venues, and to rock star sized crowds of over 20,000 in Washington's Gorge Amphitheater.

In addition to his full- time performing career, he is a Certified Hypnotist and Certified Hypnosis Instructor. He has published twelve stage hypnosis educational programs and created over forty hypnosis products. He and his wife and partner, Wendy, co-founded The Stage Hypnosis Center. They have supported countless stage hypnotists into greater success. Geoffrey and Wendy have a home near Phoenix Arizona and give one to two sold out trainings a year.

In addition, Geoffrey has invited a select group of worldwide experts to contribute to this landmark Stage Hypnosis book, each with their own unique, valuable perspective that that adds a rich texture to this body of stage hypnosis knowledge.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 386 pages
• Publisher: Westward Publishing; 1st edition (January 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971292981
• ISBN-13: 978-0971292987
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #767,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE NEW GOLD STANDARD, March 8, 2008

By 

Joe Karbo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ronning Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis (Hardcover)

Geoffrey Ronning has written the book all others will be compared to. The field of Stage Hypnosis has not seen a book quite this good ever before. One part detailed instruction manual, one part exercise work book, and one part collection of secret tips and inside tricks learned from a lifetime of practice as a full-time performing Stage Hypnotist, this book is the modern classic on the art of Comedy Stage Hypnosis.

There are only a handful of good books on Stage Hypnosis. While Ormond McGill's books, such as The Art of Stage Hypnotism and The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism are classics to be admired, they aren't particularly useful for the individual who wants to quickly learn Stage Hypnosis and begin performing shows. Jonathan Chase's Deeper and Deeper is a very good book, but it is nowhere near as thorough or complete as this new work by Ronning.

Well written, comprehensive and filled with immediately actionable tools and exercises, Stage Hypnosis by Geoffrey Ronning would be the # 1 recommended book I would suggest to the individual wanting to learn Stage Hypnosis and get started performing shows quickly.

It's been said that you can't learn to ride a bike by reading a book. And that is certainly true. But you can learn a great deal about Stage Hypnosis from this excellent book. I would say it's much more than a book, it is a Training Manual. If you will diligently study and apply what Ronning teaches in this book, you will have enough knowledge to begin performing Stage Hypnosis shows. Then get out there and perform a few shows to earn enough money to take Ronning's live training. The live training will give you confidence you cannot get from a book.

Highly recommended.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Book should be Renamed, May 31, 2009

By 

Michael Rivera (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ronning Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis (Hardcover)

This Book should be renamed `A Brief Introduction to Stage Hypnosis' because that is all it truly is, a Intro Book.
I was rereading the reviews on this book and felt that there needs to be a true balance with his work. I became interested in Hypnosis about a year ago and this is one of the first books that I bought, only because it was up there on the amazon list and had so many positive reviews. When I got it in the mail I was excited, I read through it with a pen and notebook but after a few days it ended up on the shelf where it remains. To be totally honest this book only introduced me to some minor concepts and terms, that as a beginner I didn't know, like `pre talk' and `inductions' but that is it, any serious student who is truly doing their homework and research into the subject matter will quickly see that it falls short on so many other issues.
The NLP stuff is superficial at best and can be found by scratching the surface of any NLP book. I was disappointed further with his book after studying "Hypnotherapy" by Dave Elman and realized that his EKG Induction is nothing but a rewritten work of Dave Elman's masterpiece.
Again any diligent student will see the difference between a book written by a man of Knowledge and Experience like Elman, Dr. Preston, Mcgill, Dr. Kappas and Boyne and one who is only trying to fill a hole in the market place with loose sand rather than firm concrete.
After reading many other Books on the history, theory, and practice of all forms of Hypnosis I likened Ronning to be like an old time wild west Snake Oil Salesman whose skilled pitch is better than his empty product.
I bought real full-length Stage Hypnosis Shows from other Hypnotist off the Internet and E bay. I spent hours breaking the shows down and learning from them and I cannot find one Geoff Ronning show to study. There is none on the internet nor at his website. A Real Teacher, a Real Artist will be proud of his work and his work will stand as his testimony, other people opinions is secondary to the original work.
In the beginning I spent a lot of my hard-earned money on his products. I have his EKG DVDs and his home study course and I examined them and dissected them and quickly moved on to higher learning stuff and found his products to be exactly only `intro stuff', no real meat and potatoes.
I would give his book 2 stars because His marketing advice is much better than his Hypnosis advice. By reading between the lines I could tell that he has more experience in marketing than in Hypnosis. This book is an Ok read but will eventually take up space in your library, it is not for the serious student.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Give me a break, May 27, 2009

By 

Hubert F. Cole "Texas Tranceman" (Dallas Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ronning Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis (Hardcover)

This book is a vanity book. It is a self published compendium of the authors adventures as a stage hypnotist "somewhere in the United States". There are lots of pictures of happy smiling faces, but none of them help me to learn much about stage hypnosis. There are shots of Geoff on a cell phone, Geoff carrying a brief case, his wife sitting somewhere, etc. etc. There are dim and fuzzy shots that look like stock footage from a Billy Graham crusade... only you can't see Billy. There are references to a Mister Hypnosis. But Mr, Hypnosis is a guy named Richard Rumble who really is a stage hypnotist and who is all over youtube actually being one.
The book is very very basic, there is little technical "meat". The language or NLP section reminds one of those free ebooks you get when you give some guy your email address to get free stuff over the internet. The ebook is usually worth what you paid for it of course. There is a brief discussion of something called an EKG induction. Trust me it has nothing to do with the EKG depth of trance measurements guys like Tom Silver are known for. It is apparently a reworking of the concepts of famous Hypnotists (such as Erickson/Elman, etc.} that never did do stage hypnosis themselves. I'll leave you to figure out who the G stood for.
Sixty percent of the book is "by" the author. The other forty percent is by guest authors who recount different but similar adventures as stage hypnotists. It is somewhat entertaining if you don't mind wading through copies of page-count bulking email transcripts and such.
If this is Modern Stage Hypnosis, give me the old time stuff. To those interested in real stage hypnosis, I would recommend a book like "Sleep you Bastard" by Martin St. James. Martin is a true legend and his real adventures as a stage hypnotist make exciting and educational reading for laymen and hypnotist alike. Perhaps the Perennial "Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnosis" by Ormond McGill might be interesting to the more technically minded.. But please, spare me the marketing hype on Ronnings Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis. Is it a surprise that the coauthors are also five-star giving reviewers... Give me a break.