The Daily Evergreen Online - News - Local.
The Palouse Empire Fair has come to Colfax. In addition to a series of live entertainment acts, the fair will offer carnival rides, FFA livestock shows and rodeos, said Terry Jeffries, the fair's program coordinator. Food vendors from across the region will have booths, including a Chinese food vendor from Seattle and a chocolatier from Coeur d'Alene, Jeffries said. There will also be booths featuring the old standbys – corn dogs, elephant ears and cotton candy. The fair begins at 8 a.m. and will close at 9 p.m for each day until Sunday, which the fair will close at 5 p.m. instead. As far as live entertainment goes for Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, the main stage will showcase Jerry Harris, a hypnotist who has performed for clients all over the country – from a Nike corporate conference to a WSU Up All Night. Harris said he never has a specific plan about where a performance will go when he walks on stage. He said the liveliness of any given show depends on the liveliness of the volunteers. However, a few trends have shown up throughout all his years of performance. For instance, Harris said he almost always gets his volunteers to start dancing. Sometimes it's salsa with a broomstick as a partner, sometimes it's river dancing and other times, it's Russian ballet, he said. Harris said he often tries to make his shows educational as well as entertaining, demonstrating the role hypnotism can play in the lives of everyday people. "Television is the biggest hypnosis in the world," he said. "When you're watching your favorite program, all you're thinking about is that program." Harris explains hypnotism as a state of thorough relaxation where the conscious mind is focused on something intensely, which allows the subconscious mind to be more freely accessed. Harris has performed at WSU many times, in fact one of his daughters – who's also a hypnotist – is a Coug alumna. Jerry Harris will perform Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and again from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. He will perform on Saturday from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m on Sunday.
