SAN DIEGO HYPNOTIST IS STAR OF STAGE, TV--AND OFFICE

The moment Marshall Sylver takes off his pair of Ray-Bans, stare deeply into his eyes and relax. That’s right--let your arms fall limply to your sides and your head drop slowly forward, almost to your chest.

Now, sleep. And let Sylver, through the power of hypnotic suggestion, get you to do almost anything he tells you to do--from imitating Prince or Madonna on a nightclub stage, to kicking your lifelong smoking habit or overcoming your fear of heights.

“Hypnotism is merely an extraordinary state of mental, physical and psychological relaxation,” Sylver said. “You pass through a state similar to hypnosis twice a day: once as you awaken, and once as you go to sleep.

“And in that state, a person is most responsive to suggestion, which is how hypnosis works. I don’t make my subjects do anything; I give them direct suggestions. And because of the state they’re in when I make those suggestions, they’re inclined to follow them.”

Sylver got a chance to show his skills on “Late Night With David Letterman” in late September.

Unfortunately, Sylver said, things didn’t turn out quite the way he’d planned. Letterman kept scampering around the set like a frightened rabbit, disturbing both Sylver’s and his subjects’ concentration.

Later, Sylver said, he was told by Letterman staff members that the reason for the unruly behavior of their boss was the popular NBC talk show host’s fear that he might fall into a trance himself.

“But when I told them how bad it had made me look, they sympathized and invited me back--with the promise that next time, Letterman would let me perform,” Sylver said.

Last week, Sylver was given his second chance. As promised, Letterman let him do his stuff--and in less than a minute, the 24-year-old San Diegan had hypnotized three volunteers from the audience.

“We felt we owed him one,” said Robert Morton, segment producer with the network show. “The first time he didn’t have the chance to show what he can do, and I felt bad because he wasn’t happy.”

It’s unlikely that Sylver’s triumph on national TV came as much of a surprise to San Diego’s night-life crowd. Aside from Dr. Michael Dean, who’s been giving nightly performances at the Gaslamp Room Supper Club in the Midway district for more than two decades, Sylver is San Diego’s most visible stage hypnotist.

He’s just concluded a 38-week engagement at the three Carlos Murphy’s restaurants in San Diego, where he estimates he hypnotized more than 100 volunteers from the audience each week.

While in a trance, Sylver’s subjects would do whatever he told them to, from imitating their favorite rock stars to imagining the person next to them had the worst breath they’d ever smelled--and reacting accordingly.

His next local appearance is a weeklong engagement at the Improv that starts Nov. 3. Sylver will be the first hypnotist ever to perform at the popular Pacific Beach comedy cafe.

Sylver has also taken his act to Las Vegas, where he recently spent a week in the Holiday Casino on the Strip, performing similar feats of hypnotic control.

And he’s putting together a full-scale Las Vegas revue, similar to Siegfried and Roy’s magic show.

But there’s a serious side to Sylver as well. He’s a fully certified hypnotherapist who trained at Gil Boyne’s respected Hypnotism Training Institute in Glendale.

And when he’s not performing somewhere on stage, he’s generally at his Pacific Beach office, consulting clients who seek hypnotic release from an assortment of phobias or a cure for such afflictions as overeating, smoking or sexual disorders.

“As a stage hypnotist, I’m teaching people the principles of hypnosis as they apply to entertainment,” Sylver said. “What I want them to do is see what kinds of things are possible through hypnosis, in the hopes that it will make them want to find out more about how hypnosis, and hypnotherapy, can help them in their personal lives.”

A hypnotist’s control over his subjects is never complete, Sylver said.

“I can’t wave my arms in front of your face and tell you to rob a bank,” he said. “You won’t do anything against your moral or ethical code.

“Say you want to quit smoking. You first have to recognize that the smoking habit exists in your subconscious mind, which isn’t capable of making judgments. It merely reacts to a judgment you’ve made in your conscious mind that you are a smoker.

“After putting you into a hypnotic trance, I convince you, through the power of suggestion, that you are now a nonsmoker. And once your conscious mind accepts that as the truth, your subconscious mind has no choice but to accept it as well--and you no longer have your habit.”

Eventually, Sylver said, he’d like to give up his hypnotherapy business and concentrate solely on his stage act.

Show business is in his blood. Until he began his career as a stage hypnotist a year ago, Sylver was a professional magician. He set up elaborate stunts for a radio station and a disco; he designed a magical bird character that performed card tricks at a rock club; he pulled doves out of hats on a cruise ship.

But being a hypnotist has its advantages over magic, Sylver said:

“It’s the only way I know that I can sleep with 100 different people a week and still respect myself in the morning.”