Two Syracuse University students drove yellow Lamborghinis last night – Lamborghinis that appeared out of nowhere on the stage of the Goldstein Auditorium.

In their shiny new cars, the two students jammed to Olivia Newton-John tunes from ‘Grease,’ sped and were pulled over. One even cried to get herself out of a ticket.

And while Allie Haver, a senior international relations major, was crying, hundreds of her peers were laughing at her.

Last night, Syracuse students packed the Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium for the fifth appearance of comedian, licensed hypnotist and ACACIA fraternity alumnus Doug MacCraw.

‘I love coming to Syracuse because the students are always very well-behaved and willing to have a good time,’ MacCraw said. ‘You have to have an open mind to enjoy yourself.’

Around 30 Syracuse students were hypnotized last night, both on stage and in their seats in the audience. MacCraw began the two-hour show by first leading the whole group in relaxation exercises, stressing that each student was fully aware of his or her actions, heightening senses.

‘It was like I was having a really good dream,’ said Ethan Young, a junior acting major.

Young was one of the students featured on stage, but he didn’t volunteer.

Instead, after falling under MacCraw’s spell, MacCraw asked Young to sneak up to the stage, and then fall back asleep after stealthily finding a seat on the already crowded stage.

‘I then proceeded to have really big hands and feet and arguing knees,’ Young said. ‘I think I danced, too.’

The participants were told by MacCraw at the end of the show they wouldn’t remember anything they had done until they walked five steps out into the night air.

‘If you bring someone out of hypnosis too soon, you risk causing a major headache,’ MacCraw said.

To combat the possible headache, MacCraw led the ‘performers’ out of their trancelike state slowly, easing guys back to their seats through ballet dance and the women through model struts.

It wasn’t until the show was over and the audience was outside that the participants remembered what they had just done.

‘Wow. Oh my god,’ Haver said as she stopped dead in her tracks, grabbing her friend’s arm. ‘I am totally bugging. I was just on stage.’

Once outside, the performers’ friends showed them photos of their two-hour space-out, complete with shots of guys galloping up to the stage and others intensely sniffing those around them.

‘It’s pretty weird,’ said Brian Cygan, a television, radio and film graduate student.

Cygan was skeptical at the beginning of the show, believing that hypnotism wasn’t real.

‘I’m still not sure, but to have them all moving around like that on stage was pretty funny,’ he said.

Believers or not, it seemed everyone enjoyed the two-hour show in Goldstein.

For junior economics major Joe Romeo, it was good to see all of the greek support in the audience.

For Maja Henderson, freshman communications and rhetorical studies major, it was hysterical watching those on stage listen to the secrets their elbows were telling them.

And for Haver and a fellow performer, 15-year-old Sasha Smith, it was all about driving their brand new yellow sports cars on stage.

Published on September 6, 2007 at 12:00 pm