The following article is reprinted from the Friday, February 9, 2001 issue of the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper.

You are getting wacky... very wacky

Duo mixes hypnosis and comedy to make people do strange things

By Michele Quintero
Calendar Correspondent

Think you'd never have the guts to sing and dance like Madonna in front of a room full of strangers? How about howling like a wolf? Even if you are usually way too self-conscious to let your hair down in front of others, you might find yourself doing just that if you catch Richard Anthony's and Genie Trefz's show at the Carson Valley Inn on Saturday. Billed as the world's first comedy hypnosis team, the couple is hosting the "Hypnotic Hypnotics" [sic] adult-themed show in the Shannon Ballroom.
        If you've been to a hypnosis show before, the setup will be familiar. The hypnotists will ask for volunteers in the audience and then put them under on stage. The twist to this show is that the hypnotists bounce off one another, upping the ante at each step. Their show, according to Anthony, is "risque but never raunchy."
        "It's very different," he said. "I pick on the girls and Genie picks on the guys. The theme is really based on that. She rescues all the girls from me. We trade off back and fourth [sic] doing bits and building on what each other is doing."
        The way Trefz picks on the men varies, but one way is that she convinces them that they desperately need to go to the bathroom. After playfully torturing them for a while, she sends them on their way only to stop them half-way through the audience to tell them that the one appendage that they are focusing on the most is now missing.
        "The astonished looks on their faces are priceless," Trefz said. "I have to say I enjoy my job."
        Anthony also tortures his volunteers in creative ways.
        "I tell them the entire audience is naked and then we let them think they're joining the party and they're naked too," he said. "I usually have my back to them so I tell them that when I turn around that I will be naked, too. I'm in my early 50s so when I turn around the young girls laugh. I say 'that wasn't the reaction I'm looking for.'"
        Richard then suggests to the ladies that he is the most magnificently endowed male they have ever seen. This time when he turns around the reaction is much more enthusiastic.
        At this point, Jeannie [sic] usually steps in and tells the women that all the other men on stage are equally blessed.
        "The craziest things come out of people's mouths," Anthony said chuckling.
        While some hypnotists will suggest to their volunteers to erase from their memory everything that happened on stage, Richard and Genie prefer their guests to remember everything.
        "I wouldn't like to lose an hour of my life and I don't think they do either," Anthony said. "People remember it differently and at different times. Some won't remember everything until 20 minutes later.
        "Have you ever been really drunk the night before and you have to try really hard to piece it back together? Well, it's similar to that. It's like waking up from a dream and it takes a while before you can remember the whole thing."
        The drinking analogy also explains why people do such crazy things while under hypnosis.
        "It lowers the inhibitions, like having three or four drinks," he said. "We often give volunteers post-hypnotic suggestions about being a celebrity. Once they're back in their seats and we're winding down the show we say the trigger word and they'll run back on stage and grab the microphone and start singing 'Like a Virgin' or whatever it is we told them to do."
        Trefz was first introduced to hypnosis when she was a psychology major at Westchester University in Westchester, Penn. About 8 years ago she teamed up with Anthony, who taught her the "entertainment" aspects of the practice.
        Anthony once managed Pat Collins, the "Hip Hypnotist," a long-time Reno favorite. He has been studying and practicing hypnosis for 33 years, working with some of the top hypnotists in the country when he was stationed in Las Vegas while in the Air Force in the late '60s. They created the Professional Hypnotist Association in 1972, which is now a national organization.
        Although Richard and Genie are making their debut in Gardnerville this weekend, they have toured extensively in Atlantic City and in the New England states for years. Besided the entertainment aspects, Anthony and his early colleagues were members of Hypnomercy, hypnostists who used their skills to help cancer patients relieve their pain. They are occasionally called in to help patients with psychosomatic illnesses.
        After every show, Anthony and Trefz say they are approached by fans who want to be hypnotized out of smoking or to help them lose weight.
        "We usually do it," Trefz said, "but it depends on how tired we are. We'll usually get them started and then we'l recommend someone in the area who can help them. We also have cassettes that we can give them that will help."
        Couples can look forward to the hypnotists' latest venture, video tapes "How to Hypnotize" and "Hypnosis for Lovers," which will be available later this spring.
        "There are six different scenarios presented on the tap. One of them is in front of a big fireplace. They'll help couples who want to live out specific fantasies but are too inhibited to do them. We show them how to set it up but we don't cross any lines. We leave most of it up to the imagination."
        "If it goes well, we'll come up with six more scenarios and make another video,"Trefz said.