There probably aren't too many among us who aren't at least a little susceptible to suggestion. I mean, don't you want to buy popcorn in the movie theater? What about sinking your teeth into a juicy burger after seeing it advertized on television?

This is suggestion hard at work, enticing your decisions. Of course, it's not the kind of suggestion that Marc Savard brings to the table in his hit Las Vegas show Mesmerized. No, no, Savard is a hypnotist who makes sure to give the audience a thrill at the expense of a few (un)lucky volunteers.

With any hypnotist show, half the fun is in playing along. A lot of people enter with their pride front and center, claiming that they can never be hypnotized. Lo and behold, after they sit down and let the host work his twisted voodoo, they're singing God Bless America with their pants around their ankles wearing a red clown nose.

The “experts” claim that the power of suggestion works because the person wants it to. It makes sense. Even the guy marching into the theater a skeptic really wants to be fooled. That's why he's there. It's the same with magic; people want to be tricked; but with Mesmerized, the consequences could haunt you if you're the easily embarrassed type.

You can call Marc's show Mesmerized one of two ways. It's either real or it's fake. Of course, then you get into whether or not Marc would be faking it on purpose, or if the dozen or so people being hypnotized just want their day in the sun. Asking questions about the validity of the show is something for reviewers. For people going to see it, the important fact is that it's definitely fun.

Savard mixes his hypnotism with a healthy dose of comedy. He doesn't take it seriously at all. The crowd is laughing the entire time at the dork-like behavior of the hypnotized, and Marc cannot seem to keep a straight face. He's having fun and the audience is having fun. That's a good show in most opinions.

Savard could use a brush-up in the charisma department. He doesn't seem overly confident on stage when setting the show up. He finds his comfort zone once the people on stage are actually hypnotized and willing to listen to him.

If you're looking to go there to be a volunteer to be hypnotized, then the assistants will bring you around a tray of shots to get loosened up. Don't worry; there's no poison or anything in there. Alcohol is the great inhibiter, and no place on the planet has proven this fact like Vegas.

Mesmerized is playing at the V Theater on the Miracle Mile in Planet Hollywood. As far as hypnotist shows go, you'll find the usual sleep guns, raunchy sex talk, stripper auditions and the like, but every volunteer is sure to have a different reaction, and that's what makes these types of shows so exciting. They're predictable, but they're really not. They're a paradox of entertainment value.