The David L. Eisler Center ballrooms were echoing with laughter when National College Entertainer of the Year Tom DeLuca used hypnosis on over a dozen Ferris students.
Over 100 people gathered in the ballrooms during friends and family weekend to watch DeLuca’s incredible work. DeLuca has been coming to Ferris for years but hasn’t been back since 2019.
According to DeLuca, he was very excited to return this year and would describe the environment as very warm and friendly.
“It seems to me that the students and parents really wanted to be here,” DeLuca said. “I like coming here. I’ve always felt like people really want to see a show.”
DeLuca also explained that he greatly enjoyed the volunteers he had and that they made the show even better.
“I had some really fun people,” DeLuca said. “The kid who became a banana surgeon, he was a great subject. The woman who picked up the sponge at the end is a great subject. Sometimes you have to take it slow with some, it takes them longer than others, but you never know what you are going to get.”
The Center for Student Involvement orchestrated the show. CSI activities coordinator Ben Avery said that the center wanted to fill friends and family weekend with something that wasn’t necessarily athletics.
“We had done a movie yesterday, and we decided that a live performance of some sort would be kind of perfect,” Avery said. “Tom has a really long tenure coming here and has a great connection with the university. It’s just been a few years since he has been here so we were really excited for the opportunity to bring him back.”
According to Avery, the Center was thrilled with the outcome of the show. Avery felt grateful for the people who volunteered.
“It exceeded our expectations in both the turnout, but also the quality of the show,” Avery said. “We know the quality is always there, but even talking to Tom, it depends on who volunteers, and the right volunteers, volunteered.”
One of these volunteers, pre-pharmacy sophomore Brooklyn Tanner, stepped out of her comfort zone to participate in the activities.
“I decided I wanted to participate because normally I am not the person to voluntarily do these kinds of things,” Tanner said. “So I wanted to push myself outside of the box, I would 100% do it again.”
According to Tanner, her favorite part about this experience was watching everyone’s reaction to the funny things she was asked to do. Tanner also encourages all students to participate and get involved.
“I think it is really good for students to get out and try these kinds of things,” Tanner said. “Because not many people get to do these things very often because of school and everything they may have going on.”
DeLuca’s show wrapped up this year’s Friends and Family Weekend activities with a hypnotic twist.