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For a low budget solution, it was actually pretty funny. To
see Alan Ciparetto sing like Elvis was hilarious, and who knew that new
guy from accounting was such a great belly dancer? When I first put up the posters for a "Holiday Hypno Show", everyone was surprised, and not that thrilled. They didn't realize that the budget for the company holiday party was not only cut, it was shredded. We were actually not going to have a party, but then Joe Bakerson mentioned he had a friend at a Function Hall. With a cheap room on a Friday night, all we needed was |
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some kind of entertainment. |
| My wife Courtney found the whole idea amusing right
from the get go. She had a bit of a mean streak in her sometimes, so she
got quite a kick out of letting me know how bad it was going to be. She
kept on me straight up to the night of the party. But, by the end of the second hour of the party, Courtney was proved wrong. Tammy had charmed the skeptical crowd. She brought ten people on stage, including Alan (the company president). She put them all under without a problem, except two, whom she sent back to the audience. The employees and their spouses seemed a little put off by Tammy's age at first, but by the time Alan finished "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog", everyone was laughing so hard they didn't care how old she was .... everyone except Courtney that is. Courtney didn't like being proved wrong. She spent the whole time |
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sneering at Tammy. Courtney ordered three drinks (ignoring
my disapproving looks) in the first hour of the show. By the end of the
third, she was actually heckling Tammy. I was begging Courtney to be quiet when she yelled out, "Why doesn't the little teen star come hypnotize me into being quiet!" No one really thought Courtney was funny. The function hall was very small, so Tammy had obviously been noticing Courtney's antagonistic behavior. With her eight subjects deeply entranced, Tammy approached the table Courtney and I were at. She was staring Courtney down. My wife was clearly uncomfortable with the intensity of the young woman's gaze. I was too. Tammy said nothing for a moment, in fact, I wondered if she was going to through a punch. Instead, she pulled from her cheesy Santa coat a small gold pocket watch. She held it in front of Courtney for a moment. I heard her say, "See the watch, see only the watch...". |
| Next thing I knew, Courtney was up on stage singing, "I'm
a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie World", a techno song she had hated with
a passion when it was popular a few years ago. The crowd was definitely
laughing at Courtney now. The rest of the show was kind of a blur. I had decided to move my seat from the table, to an empty one on stage. It was pretty standard, Tammy made fools of a lot of the people. One strange thing did happen though, Martians landed right in the middle of the stage. I was the only one who could see them though, and no matter how many times I tried to tell someone, my words only came out in fart language, which made everyone laugh. It was frustrating, but the Martians soon left so I could enjoy the rest of the show. |
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About twenty minutes after the show ended, I saw Courtney
putting on her coat and getting ready to leave. She seemed kind of dazed,
she didn't even really look at me when I asked where she was going. "I'm going to hang out with Tammy at her parent's house. They live nearby, and they are visiting relatives out of state.", Courtney said. I found this to be very strange. I was going to argue with her, point out the absurdity of my wife leaving my company holiday party to hang out with some Junior college stage act at her parents vacated house. I didn't really get a chance though, because she just walked out. I had needed to be at the function hall early that night to set up, so Courtney had taken her own car to meet me. I watched her Saab pull away behind Tammy's beat up Buick as I got to the parking lot. Something was obviously not right, so I decided to follow them. Tammy and Courtney arrived at the house and went inside. I was pretty |
| upset by this point, so I just ran right in after them. The
house was dark as the two women, then myself, entered. Tammy went across
the room and turned on the lights, that's when Courtney turned and saw me. She still had that dazed look on her face. She smiled when she saw me though. I thought that was a good sign, like it was all just some kind of joke. Then she said, "You were right Tammy, he does want to play too" "Courtney, what the hell is going on here? Why are you doing this?", I asked, quite angry. "Shhh John, Tammy wants to play with me, that's all" "She wants to play with you, what the?!", I said, then clued in, "Hey wait a minute, Court, you're still probably under hypnosis!" |
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"Well, of course I am silly!", Courtney said, as
if I was crazy to think she might not be, "I'm still deeply hypnotized,
why else would I be feeling so slutty?", she said. That statement almost made me think this was a joke again. "Courtney, are you putting one over on me?", I asked, hoping she was. "I don't know what you're talking about John, and I don't really care. I'm here so Tammy can play with me, not to argue with you." She wasn't kidding. "Let's go Courtney, we're leaving", I said, and moved forward to grab her arm. "No way, I'm here so Tammy can play with me!", she said again, this time with some heat. |
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"Why don't you two stop bickering like an old married couple and
look over here for a minute", Tammy said from the corner.
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