Alan will be in town next month during The Spree festival – a nine-day extravaganza of music, comedy and entertainment in various venues across the town.

He will take to the stage in the specially-erected Spiegeltent in the town’s County Square on Friday October 17.

And well-travelled Alan, who has performed his show around the world in addition to TV appearances including the Graham Norton Show, has told The Gazette what to expect.

He said: “I can make people think they’ve won the lottery, or be chased by ghosts, or to ask them to smoke a cigarette but they can’t do it.

“I also do a football sketch where I find out which team a guy supports and make him think he is a fan of their arch-rival.

“So each time he hears a piece of music it means there’s been a goal scored by his team, but he will act as if it was the rivals who have just scored!

“I love the crowds in the Glasgow area – I’ve been coming there for many years and have played before in the student unions around some of the local universities.

“The crowds are not dissimilar to those in Liverpool, where I am originally from.” Alan’s hypnotist career stretches back more than 20 years to when he first gained an interest in the subject while working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

But as he explains, his show is all about humour not humiliation – he only looks for volunteers who are happy to be the stars of the show.

He says: “I run a very ethical show. I look for willing volunteers, but they have to be over the age of 18. I look for people that are looking to have a good time “Even sceptics – people who disbelieve it can be done – can really turn a show around then at the end they are the stars of the show.

“But it’s not about making idiots out of them. In my view, people make more fun of themselves doing karaoke when they can’t sing.

“I love my work and am very dedicated to the profession – I also run a hypnotherapy clinic out in Malta where I help people to do thing such as quitting smoking.” The bill for The Spree festival also includes music from King Creosote, Roddy Hart, Dougie MacLean, and Young Fathers plus comedy from Russell Kane, Craig Hill, Daniel Sloss. There is also a full programme of children’s events.

To buy tickets to see Alan or any of the other shows, visit www.thespree.co.uk