Hz… as in hertz. “13 hertz is the gateway to the subconscious,” says Messmer on the phone, referring to the frequency of Alpha waves that our brain emits when consciousness goes to rest, as opposed to beta waves, which correspond to the “active” state of the brain, when we think.
“When we go down to 13 Hz, the doors of the subconscious open and when we access this second state, dreams and imagination take over reality. This is where we can take people on all kinds of adventures, each one as thrilling as the next,” explains the fascinator, who, for his fourth stage proposal, wanted to “be a little more didactic”, while remaining entertaining.
Messmer uses the show to demystify how brain waves work. “I explain what we can use to control these brain waves, what people can do with that. All this in a humorous framework, with supporting demonstrations, with the participation of the public. We’re having fun. »
Traveling in the imagination
«13 Hz gives me the opportunity to go everywhere in the imagination… I can go wherever I want, I can even try a new number, because I am not bound by a framework,” he explains .
“Those who go on stage do so because they want to experience this second state. And the others are amazed by what is happening, completely fascinated too. And they realize that there is nothing dangerous there.”
In Messmer’s mouth, the double meaning of the word “fascinated” is all the more amusing, as the performer is more than capable of carrying out collective hypnoses. He holds the world record in this area.
In January 2023, at the Dôme de Paris, he managed to “put to sleep” 1,066 people, thus beating his own world record – previously set at 854 people.
“The best way to experience hypnosis is to not want to experience it. [Ou] to let go, without wanting too much. In reality, if you think too much, it can get stuck,” says Messmer, who prides himself on having managed to fascinate many skeptics over the course of his career. (Geneviève Charbonneau)
Inspired by his success, Messmer also reserves for his audience a collective hypnosis number at the end of his new show. For this final number, Messmer plays DJ, in order to transform the performance hall into a giant dance floor, or even into a beach club. “Nothing less than Ibiza,” he says with a laugh. Sucked in by the melodic rhythms, “people enter a daze much more quickly, while remaining aware of their surroundings.”
Far from solo, 13 Hz is a family show. Both figuratively and literally. “We always remain respectful.” The participants he brings on stage “are always aware of what they are doing,” promises Messmer. Of course, it can happen that the hypnotist leads his victims “to a deeper state of consciousness”, but he is generally content to “bring them to the border” of their threshold of acceptance. Because the comic effect lies essentially there, in this “internal struggle” which makes us resist showing ourselves to be ridiculous.
On stage, Messmer is supported by two little assistants, named Soleil (seven years old) and Magie (three years old) – his two daughters – and by their mother, Bellair: his partner and right-hand man.
From the outset, Messmer promised the audience that he was going to have fun. The fascinator kept his word. (Photo Le Quotidien, Rocket Lavoie/Photo Le Quotidien, Rocket Lavoie)
Bellair became her “apprentice” about ten years ago.
The two met at a Messmer show, when she volunteered to be his temporary guinea pig…
“After the show, she came to me saying ‘what you did to my brain, I want to learn how to do it too’,” he shares. “I gave him some advice: “Read this book, go to this conference, it will help you”. Afterwards, we stayed in touch. […] Little by little, our relationship evolved, and today, we have two beautiful daughters together.”
Above all, Bellair helps him “ensure safety on stage”. As a bodyguard? No. Rather, guarding the psyches.
The job of his accomplice is also to “create suggestions without the public’s knowledge,” adds Messmer.
“Out of sight, it will program certain people so that they react or interact [de façon inattendue] on stage with another hypnotized person. These are funny moments that people don’t see coming at all… It creates little punchy events that are surprising for the public, but also for me.”
“Sometimes she even tries to trick me: someone reacts to something [je n’avais] not planned, and it completely destabilizes me… I say to myself: “Ah! Hold! There, she’s the one who wants to corner me.” But it allows us to improvise.”
The fascinating Messmer during his visit to the Gatineau Comedy Festival, alongside the duo Les Grandes Crues (Martin Roy, The Law/Martin Roy, The Law)
With family
The couple gives “about 185 shows per year”. After a while, “we had the idea of incorporating our daughters”. “But it’s their choice to participate in the shows,” he is quick to point out.
At home, the two girls have fun hypnotizing each other. For the moment, they are playing, it’s fakesmiled Messmer. Before adding: “Soleil, the oldest, would be capable, I think. I started doing real hypnosis at his age, 7 years old.
It is one of his two adult sons, Antoine, who takes care of the little girls on tour. He also became a stage artist and hypnotist. We know him by his alias: Sandman. “He does a lot of private and corporate events. He is very much in demand in Europe,” says Messmer, visibly very proud of his four offspring.
The Messmer fascinator will be on display Thursday evening at the Curd Festival. (Archives, Le Droit/Archives, Le Droit)
The artist is working in parallel on other television projects as well as a documentary on his tour. And he plans to launch, “probably in the fall of 2025,” a tour of “several-day seminars to teach people to play with their states of consciousness and Hertzian cycles.”
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Messmer will stop at the Salle Odyssée of the Maison de la culture de Gatineau on October 13 and 14.
Subsequently, he will hypnotize crowds across the province. Around twenty dates have already been made official by the end of the year. The tour of 13 Hz will notably visit Trois-Rivières (October 23), Quebec (November 12 and 13) and Sherbrooke (November 15). His tour will continue in 2025, visiting new cities and a few additional ones (including Gatineau, May 27).
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