Frank Santos, commonly known as the R-rated Hypnotist who gave frequent performances at Boston University over the years, died Tuesday morning in his sleep at his Cumberland, R.I. residence. He was 60. Santos entertained hundreds of thousands of students over his 20-year career as a hypnotist at various shows ranging from fraternity house gatherings to the annual BU show each September at the George Sherman Union. Santos hypnotized audience members as the main attraction, and had just performed a show at BU on Sept. 12.’ ‘He wasn’t that old,’ College of Arts and Sciences junior Brittany Aranowitz said. ‘It’s like a BU freshman tradition at BU Central to have him at the beginning of the year.’ CAS junior Jeff Kerestes said Santos shows typically involved making people do embarrassing things. ‘Some of it was very sexual,’ he said. ‘But some of it was just funny, like students on stage singing Backstreet Boys.’ CAS junior Crystal Becerril said Santos made people walk down a runway or dance to songs such as ‘SexyBack’ and ‘Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).’ ‘He wasn’t particularly funny, just what he made people do was funny,’ she said. CAS sophomore Navin Kumar said he attended a full-to-capacity show held at BU’s Metcalf Ballroom in the GSU in Sept. 2008. ‘He made one guy sing like Celine Dion, one like Michael Jackson and then made the rest have sex with the chairs,’ he said. ‘Not artificially, but like for real, with sounds and all. And then he made one guy think his genitals ran away, and the guy started screaming and running around.’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Alpha Epsilon Pi, located on Bay State Road, hosted Frank Santos as a fraternity event, members said. ‘I think [last year] was his third year performing at our house,’ MIT junior and member of Alpha Epsilon Pi Illan Levy said. Levy said Santos hypnotized him on two different occasions. ‘I still remember everything,’ he said. ‘It just put me in a really willing state to do things, but I’m still almost sure that if I really wanted to resist I could have.’ CAS senior Ethan Rubin said that while Santos’ death is unfortunate, he did not enjoy his shows. ‘I wouldn’t wish death on the man,’ he said. ‘But he was really perverted and not funny and just made me uncomfortable.’ Many students said they attended Santos’ shows as freshmen. ‘I went because it was a floor event and as a new freshman, I had a pretty open social calendar and was eager to make friends,’ CAS junior Molly Byrd said. ‘I really enjoyed it. He was very fun and entertaining and it was a night of bonding for me and my floor.’ A wake is scheduled for this Friday at 4 p.m. at the Lincoln Funeral Home on Lonsdale Avenue in Lincoln, R.I. A private funeral will follow.