Tom DeLuca performed his hypnotist show Thursday night in the University Union Ballroom.

The room was nearly full with people wanting to see the show, which started at 7:30 p.m. After being announced, DeLuca came on stage to wide applause.

To start the show, DeLuca asked for audience members to raise their hands if they wanted to volunteer. He picked from all corners of the room, ending up with around 20 volunteers.

DeLuca then began his routine, asking the volunteers to close their eyes as he spoke to them, hypnotizing them all at once. Social science freshman Golden Nguyen described the sensation of being hypnotized as a soothing one.

“I remember being very relaxed,” Nguyen said. “But I can’t remember anything from the show, which is confusing.”

Once the volunteers were under the effects of hypnosis, DeLuca began giving them directions to follow once he said certain words. Once the instructions were given and the volunteers were asleep, he would count to five and snap his fingers to wake them up.

Depending on the words DeLuca said, the volunteers began acting in wildly different ways. These suggestions would be given to the whole group at once, such as causing everyone to laugh in unison.

Periodically during the show, a few volunteers left the stage due to being at a low level of hypnosis. This meant they were not really feeling the effects of the hypnosis at all. By the end of the show, around half of the volunteers were left on stage.

Eventually, DeLuca began giving the volunteers more individual suggestions, while still occasionally doing the group suggestions.

Some people, like Nguyen, were at a deeper level of hypnosis than others. DeLuca worked this into his show by giving these volunteers some of the more elaborate suggestions, such as believing fruits were their friends or having three people dance all at once when they heard a song.

DeLuca said that he wanted to bring out the volunteers’ personalities through the hypnosis.

“When people are volunteering, you never how it’s going to go, you never know what you’re going to get,” DeLuca said. “For this show I had very charming people on stage, people with identity.”

Once they were not hypnotized any longer, DeLuca had the volunteers stand up and shout their names to the applauding audience.