COMEDY REVIEW : You’re Getting Silly . . . Veeeeery Silly

If someone offers you $1 million to say your name, and you can’t do it, you’re probably losing your mind. Or else Flip Orley has you under his control.

Kristy couldn’t say her name. Nor could several others on stage Tuesday night at the Improv in Pacific Beach. Orley had them right where he wanted them.

The hypnotist-comedian mixed equal parts power of suggestion and volunteers’ imaginations for a hilarious performance.

Orley mines human nature for laughs. His one-man show, without an opening act, gives him the format he prefers. To be successful, he must establish a rapport with the crowd. The personable Phoenix native needs to win the audience’s trust, for, as he constantly repeats, a person can’t be hypnotized unless he or she wants to be.

Not surprisingly, Orley’s opening monologue in his roughly two-hour set more or less focused on hypnotism.

“I promise no one will bark like a dog or squeal like a pig,” he said, then paused. “Now why are some of you looking disappointed?”

He was true to his word.

No one barked or squealed. No one was humiliated or degraded.

They did, however, do other things after Orley set the scene while they were hypnotized.

They auditioned for a film critic’s job on TV, they told Geraldo about meeting space aliens, and they believed Orley’s clothes had fallen off. They laughed, yelled, giggled, blushed, argued and stomped. Listening to a grown man interrupt Geraldo to demand to hear Barry Manilow sing “Copacabana” was a fine moment. Before that, in the same skit, the man’s distant cousin earnestly explained to Geraldo how she had been impregnated by an alien.

These people took their commands seriously. They appeared to truly believe they were on national TV; one woman even apologized to Geraldo for swearing.

During one segment, “Critics Corner,” one volunteer was under so deep that he slumped forward, almost falling out of his chair. A moment later, the woman next to him slouched to her left, starting a domino effect until Orley could straighten everyone out.

Orley is polite but adamant when he sets out the requirements for volunteers. Before calling them on stage, he cautions several times that the act will work only if they are willing and not drunk or jerks.

“Even if you don’t think you’re a (jerk),” Orley said, “if someone else thinks you are, that counts. So don’t come up.”

When members of the sold-out crowd walked on stage for the induction, Orley’s technique was simple. After everyone took a seat, he told them to breathe deeply and relax, focus on his crystal ball or any spot. Relax the muscles from feet to scalp. He started out with 16 people on stage, but narrowed them to seven after he asked them their names. Nine still knew their names, signaling that they weren’t fully under.

Orley, who now lives in Lafayette, La., with his wife, Dana, started his career in the sixth grade when he bought “How to Pick Up Girls Through Hypnotism.” He jokes about it in his act, but he swears it’s true.

In high school, he studied hypnotism privately for three years before doing stand-up comedy in biker bars, strip joints and any place he could in Phoenix and Tucson, where he studied psychology at the University of Arizona. He graduated from the Chicago Institute of Hypnosis.

Orley, 31, didn’t throw hypnotism into his comedy act until a friend suggested it about 11 years ago. He now mainly performs at Improvs, doing extended runs. He’s on the road 36 to 40 weeks a year.

The beauty of Orley’s show is that, because most of the humor comes from volunteers, no two performances are alike. Which is one reason why Orley can do extended runs at the same club. After Tuesday’s show, several fans vowed to see him again before his six-day stop here ends Sunday night.

Early in the show, Orley mentioned that hypnotism has been used to help people quit smoking, lose weight and improve sports performance. On Tuesday, it also increased the laugh level in the room.

Flip Orley continues his one-man show through Sunday at the Improv, 832 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Show times are 8:30 and 10:30 tonight, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Call 483-4522.