Justin Tranz is keenly aware that "hypnotism has never had the big star."

Perhaps TV stardom is the first means to that end.

After five years of soldiering at the bottom rungs of the Las Vegas entertainment ladder, Tranz is hoping a Playboy TV show will help fill a larger room at the Sahara for the return of his live act, "Hip-nosis." The late show shares the stage of the upstairs showroom with an oldies package of Coasters/Platters/Drifters spin-off acts.

"I'm a no-name guy, but what can make it for me is TV exposure," Tranz says.

That's why he was willing to subject himself to the syndicated "Blind Date." Twice.

Being stalked by TV cameras on a blind date, then mocked by word balloons and narrated quips was worth the ego-bruising. "Every time one of them would run, my ticket sales would go up."

Tranz at least gets to be the one controlling the humiliation on "The Extreme Truth II," in which couples undergo hypnosis to explore their sexual relationships. He auditioned against 30 other hypnotists for the second season of the show, which began airing on Saturdays this month.

Getting the TV gig might a good omen that Tranz is ready "to be that guy that breaks out and does it."

It's not that he lacks perseverance.

The Philadelphia native first had to conquer his severe stuttering to become a stage hypnotist. "I felt that I could have a very good quality of life if I could learn how to speak and communicate with people," he says.

He broke into the field as a hypnotherapist, but grew tired of the weight-loss and stop-smoking clinics because "I always had that bit of a ham in me."

A fascination with hypnosis stemmed from a parallel interest in stage magic and a carnival hypnotist he witnessed as a youth. The act made the youngster wonder if he could use hypnosis to make his parents buy him more toys.

Tranz first came to town in 1992, when he made a deal with magician Lance Burton to run a magic shop with Burton's name on it at the Hacienda (where Burton performed before the Monte Carlo opened).

This came after he found the comedy clubs and state fair circuit were "all jammed up," with no room for a new hypnotist.

But for some reason, no stage hypnotists worked the Strip in the late '90s. Riviera entertainment director Steve Schirripa -- who later became famous as an actor on "The Sopranos" -- first gave Tranz a late-night weekend showcase, which encouraged him to try it full time.

In late 1999, Tranz alternated between weekend late shows in the Flamingo's enclosed lounge and weeknights on the second floor of O'Shea's, the Flamingo's small, separately themed annex.

The hypnotist's notions of Flamingo stardom were dashed when the hotel leased its room to The Second City comedy troupe in 2001. The O'Shea's theater, originally built for a magic and ventriloquism museum, had its ups and downs.

Some days, Tranz found himself performing to a whopping 10 or 12 people. "Most would have packed it up, gone home," he recalls with a laugh. "But that's what made me stronger."

A comedian telling the same jokes to a small crowd won't get the same laughs he would in a more crowded room because "laughter is contagious," Tranz says. While some of the other local hypnotists will cancel a show that doesn't sell 100 tickets, "you show me the guy who is doing it with less than that, and that person has skills."

Tranz says he had built O'Shea's to the point of turn-away business before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and afterward had to deal with the ongoing attempts by Caesars Entertainment to close or sell the property. By the time he finally got his eviction notice this past May, "The Extreme Truth" had come along.

Since he first launched "Hip-nosis," Tranz said he has speeded up the act and minimized the time it takes to put volunteers under. If you're looking for a clinical explanation of hypnosis, you'll have to look elsewhere. "Most hypnotists aren't very entertaining people onstage," he says. "My goal is to make people laugh."

"I've learned so many things in the last five years," he adds. "That's what makes me stronger as a hypnotist. It's just that I do it all the time. I believe that's the reason I got the (TV) show. It's because my skills are just that much stronger, only because I work more."