Winner of three Australian national comedy awards, Matt Hale is turning stage hypnosis on its head. There’s no “look into my eyes – you are feeling sleepy, very, very sleepy”. It’s all about high-octane bounce and laughter. And while this year’s Edinburgh Fringe will be the first time he’s presented his TOP FUN! 80s Hypnosis Spectacular outside Australia, it will be a homecoming for Matt himself.
It’s all about high-octane bounce and laughter
Matt regularly travels the world with his shows. He’s appeared in media worldwide and, in addition to his live shows, pops up regularly on Australian TV. He’s a bestselling author and keynote speaker with his book and presentation Mindhacking Happiness. He’s released his own range of Mindhacks audio programmes and conducts group seminars on a range of subjects including memory, stress-busting, motivation, weight management, and smoking cessation. Oh, and he’s also currently officially 1000/1 to play the next James Bond! (no, really Check out his TEDx talk! https://bit.ly/43e3fr9).
I chatted with him about his highly unusual career path from UK radio presenter, through club DJ, to surf instructor and highly-rated entertainer.
You seem to have shaken up the traditional hypnosis show genre – what do you do that’s different?
I’ve tried to make it high energy, stupidly fun, and strip away any mystery about it. For me, it’s not just a show, it’s a party vibe whether you’re on stage or in the audience. And more importantly, from my very first show, my intention was always to make sure that people taking part had such a ridiculously good time on stage, without putting them in any embarrassing situations, that it made the audience envious. I’ve always wanted people in the audience at the end to think, “Wow, that was hilarious, I wish I’d got up there,” rather than, “Wow, that was hilarious but I’m glad it wasn’t me up there!” We’re all more attuned to other activities that use the mind in a similar way, whether yoga, meditation, mindfulness, or visualisation. So, by removing the old-school mystery and cliches, people get a real understanding of what’s happening, how and why. No mysterious stares, no weird claims of “a power I was born with”, no swinging watches …and every show still comes with my 100% Chicken Free Guarantee!
Do people worry that you can make them do things against their will?
People have lots of weird thoughts on what hypnosis is or isn’t, probably from strange things they’ve seen on TV or in movies, but I set that straight at the beginning of the show with examples of them using that same state of mind accidentally in day-to-day life. As for doing things against their will – if that was possible, hypnotists wouldn’t need to stand on stage each night for an income. They’d simply be clicking their fingers next to people at the ATM and getting them to hand over their cash!
You’re a bit of a boomerang boy – raised in the UK, off to Oz and now back with this show. What’s the career path been?
I DJ’d in clubs from the age of 18 to mid-20s, everywhere from the UK to Ibiza, then ended up in breakfast radio as part of an FM station “Morning Crew.” Moved to Oz late in my late 20s and initially couldn’t get an on-air radio gig because of my strong UK accent, but got taken on as a comedy writer and producer. That eventually led to more traditional on-air stuff too, and in more recent years, TV presenting. In 2007, after winning various comedy awards for my radio work, I quit to take a year off travelling the world (and accidentally did it in the world’s worst Elvis suit – long story, a joke that got out of hand, but check it out:
https://bit.ly/3O3xrBc).
During that year I realised I had the chance to try something different when I got back. For years I’d had a fascination with hypnosis and how the mind worked, so rather than jump back into the media, I took a part-time job as a surf instructor while I put a hypnosis show together and started performing it. That quickly snowballed to travelling the world with it … and here we are now!
You seem able to apply yourself to lots of things, so why hypnosis?
Since I was young, I always loved seeing people doing incredible things with their minds. I initially thought you must have to be born with some kind of weird brain, but when I heard one of the world’s best memory champions say, “And you can learn how to do that in my book,” after he’d just memorised the order of a deck of cards in a couple of minutes, I went out and grabbed the book. Once I knew that these kind of things are down to technique, then it led me to wonder what else you could do. That hooked me into hypnosis, and, of course, with an entertainment background, it was the shows that I was drawn to figuring out. However, I’d had this fortunate run of enjoyable other careers, which stopped me from giving time to actually giving hypnosis a go professionally. But late in life, as mentioned above, I decided that itch had to be scratched to see what might happen, and I blew up a perfectly good media career to start from nothing again. Best decision ever!
Is the hypnosis purely showbiz or do you make use of it in other ways?
Personally, I use self-hypnosis in everyday life. I find it super helpful for relaxation, focus, motivation, goals, peak performance, learning things or simply for changing the way I feel. I also used to run hypnotherapy sessions with private clients when I could - dealing with a lot of common issues – weight, smoking, anxiety, phobias etc. However, with a busy show schedule it’s not something I really find time for now, and more regularly conduct group sessions for corporate clients.
Let's hope you have a mind-blowing time at the Fringe. Thanks for joining me.
