Raymond was a hypnotist – and a very good one he was. He didn’t use his skill for psychological or medical reasons; he used it to entertain. Large crowds were drawn to his shows. In fact people scrambled over one another in an attempt to get chosen to be part of Raymond’s hypnotic act.

He would get the selected audience member to do stupid things when in an hypnotic trance. For example he got one person to applaud furiously whenever the word “goat” was mentioned. Someone lay on their back on the stage floor and wiggled their legs in the air like a frustrated spider. There were many, many entertaining commands given.

Near the end of his most recent show he went to hypnotize this man and told him he was to walk around and around the stage and every seven steps he was to stop and do a little of the “President Trump Dance”. So entrancing was his hypnotizing that he hypnotized himself. He began walking around the stage stopping to do the Trump dance. It was hilarious.

After a while his wife came up on stage and announced that was the conclusion of the evening’s entertainment. It would take several hours for her husband’s hypnosis to wear off. The audience left, well satisfied.

“That was very convincing, dear,” said his wife. “You can come out of it now.” And he did. “Did you pay the performers we hired?” was his first question.

“The usual,” she said.