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With guest appearances from Megan Fox, Jessica Alba and Taylor Lautner Walpole High’s annual hypnotist show was a sure fire hit. On October 15 Mr. Jim Sponnato graced the Walpole High auditorium with his always hilarious hypnosis routine. Mr. Sponnato had previously visited the high school in 2007 and with a 3 year break came back funnier than ever.
Sponnato kicked off the show by testing the hypnosis ability of the volunteers from the audience. Due to the overwhelming demand to participate in the show only seniors were allowed to volunteer. At the end of the test Kelly Newman, Meg Anchukaitis, Amanda Sem, Grace Lynch, Aine Duffy, Issacar Jean Simon, Ross Perham, Connor Donovan, Jacob Campbell, Steve King, Mike Siteman, Emily Cronin, Victoria Petrillo and Kelsey Cosby were left on stage ready for the act to begin.
Sponnato started off by convincing the participants that the person next to them smelled simply irresistible. Within minutes Ross Perham, Mike Siteman and Issacar Jean Simon were on top of each other urging Mr. Sponnato to smell each of them. After this hilarious trick Sponnato turned the tables and convinced the volunteers that the person next to them had just farted and that the smell had permeated the entire auditorium. On command the participants believed just that. This farting incident led to Aine Duffy getting very upset at Meg Anchukaitis exclaiming to the audience: “Meg just farted ….. In public! How rude!”.
As the show went on Sponnato kept adding more funny components into his act. Connor Donnovan was convinced that he was the laugh police and every time the audience erupted in laughter he would become irrationally upset and scream at everyone to “shut up”. He even went as far as to arrest Mr. Mullaney and send him straight to the laugh jail. Following these hilarious acts Sponnato had an audience member – Shannon Songin – deliver each volunteer an imaginary stuffed animal. Sponnato then went around asking each participant what animal they had and it’s name. Issacar Jean Simon held in his hands his precious bear Izzy-Boom-Boom while Steve King held his bite size gummy bear – Jerry – high above his head. Sponnato then had these imaginary stuffed animals start pooping all over the place. Aine Duffy was very upset about her platypus Penelope pooping everywhere and started crying when Kelsey Cosby told Aine that Aine’s name would not be the in Guinness Book of World Record next to Penelope for the most pooping.
The participants’ dreams came true when Sponnato convinced each volunteer that their favorite celebrity was in the audience. Sponnato chose Emily Cronin, Meg Anchukaitis, Victoria Petrillo, Issacar Jean Simon and Mike Siteman to meet their favorite celebrity. In reality, the volunteers would go out into the audience and pick a random member of the crowd to fulfill their celebrity fantasy. Emily Cronin and Meg Anchukaitis got to meet Taylor Lautner in the form of Junior Bobby Gay while Mike Siteman introduced himself to the stunning Megan Fox in the form of English teacher, Ms. Linden.
Perhaps the biggest crowd-pleaser of the night was when Sponnato created an individual reaction to music for each volunteer. The crowd went wild as Meg Anchukaitis danced to Ke$ha’s smash hit “Tik-Tok” and as Grace Lynch jammed out on her air guitar. Possibly the best performance of the night, however, was by Issacar Jean Simon and Steve King. The two boys jammed out like true divas to Beyonce and Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”. Issacar led the way with his ridiculous and at times provocative dance moves while Steve commanded the crowd with his finger pointing and lip-synching.
The night was filled with crazy stunts and laughter and as always the hypnotist show was a big hit among Walpole High Students. The show took place in the middle of spirit week and helped tie together the major goal of spirit week: bringing the school together and creating timeless memories for the student body as a whole.
