You can watch your friends get hypnotized and enjoy improv comedy in Toronto until April 21st

Want to know what it's like to watch your friends tell jokes under a spell?

You can see Ed Mirvish sitting and watching at the CAA Theater Hyprov with Whose is this? star Colin Mochrie and hypnotist Asad Mekchi.

Hyprov As its name suggests, it's a mix of improv and hypnosis, only the people on stage are 20 random audience members.

The show was founded in 2015 at Second City Toronto and has traveled to major festivals such as London just for laughs and Edinburgh Fringe. in 2019, Hyprov has planned a 50-city tour and has now performed over 100 shows in North America.

The first half hour is devoted to Mecca's hypnotized participants, and the rest of the show is driven by Mokri's storytelling and skit ideas, which include pretending to solve a case of someone losing a toenail or killing each other with donuts.

Mokri also goes around the audience sitting in front of the stage and asks them questions to help them know the direction of the next scene based on the type of characters the participants are aiming to act.

Live musician Jon Hilsen improvises the soundtrack for the entire performance.

Mokri told Now Toronto that he is passionate about bringing the experience of improvisation to everyday people.

“Improvisation is something we don't do in life – listen and listen to people,” he said.

Selected volunteer participants sing, dance, laugh and fake cry with Mokri on stage and at Mecci's command. Most of them didn't come from comedy.

Participant Alyssa Brubacher said she felt like waking up from a good sleep while improvising under hypnosis.

“I think in a way that makes the format successful, you lose your inhibitions. As for why I wanted to participate, after my friends and I heard the show was coming up, we thought it would be fun if one of us participated because most of us grew up watching it. Whose is this?»

Hyprov family show. Some people sit next to children on one side and an elderly couple on the other.

Many members who weren't on stage were “deeply absorbed” watching the show, an audience member told Now Toronto. “It's a wonderful amalgamation of two mediums that bounce off each other on stage.”

Torontonians can participate Hyprov now until April 21, after which Mokri and his crew will head to their next city.