Mentalist and entertainer Keith Barry solves a Rubik’s Cube puzzle with one handed while we talk about his upcoming tour, brain hacking techniques and his plan to bring an entire audience into his hypnosis experiment which is a centrepiece of the new show Hypnomagick.
NEW show, Hypnomagick will see Keith Barry bring over 100 people on stage to be hypnotised and make the whole audience disappear right in front of their very eyes. What you, the audience, has to decide is will you stay in your seat or risk going on stage?
“There is more audience interaction in this show than in previous shows,” says the entertainer who has performed to over a million fans in his 14 year career.
“I have cameras and screens so I’ll be springing some surprises on the audience. The whole audience gets to experience an effect on a mass scale using hypnosis which means hypnotising the whole audience, which will be interesting!”
Interesting or terrifying, I think, depending on your willingness to relinquish control and be potentially be made a complete eejit of by the expert mind hacker. I wonder if anyone can be hypnotised? And can an audience member resist being put under hypnosis?
“Anybody can be hypnotised. And anybody who resists hypnosis, then they make my job a bit more difficult.”
“I like to get the odd sceptic up on stage, sceptics all think the same way. They are linear in their thinking and because I know how a sceptic thinks I can use that against them. There is nothing better than having a true septic up on stage and five minutes later I have them fast asleep.”
Keith Barry tells me that a few fans of his TV work are too scared of ending up on the stage at his live show, and may be shy of checking out his Hypnomagick. That said, nobody is forced to come up on stage at Keith’s shows – they are invited up. Based on past experience of his shows at UCH there are always loads of volunteers rushing up to have fun onstage with Barry’s mind hacking and magic.
“Look!, the vast majority of hypnotists will tell you they will NOT make you look silly or foolish. They’re f**king lying to ye! The whole idea of getting hypnotised is to do silly, fun and outlandish things that you wouldn’t ordinarily do.”
The Rubik’s Cube in Keith Barry’s hand is not just for his own amusement but will be an integral part of the new show. Like much of what the mentalist achieves in his shows, it is a routine that is taking hours and hours of work to get right. He performed the stunt just once before for a CBS television special in 2006.
“There is an effect in the show which requires me to solve a Rubik’s Cube one-handed, behind my back.”
“Its f**kin crazy what I’m trying to do. There are 43 million variations to solving the puzzle and takes hours and hours of practice every day.”
Keith has starred in more than 40 international TV shows and is becoming a household name in the UK with his primetime ITV1 show ‘You’re Back in the Room’. Across the Atlantic, his own US TV series ‘Deception with Keith Barry’ for Discovery Channel has won him a world of fans with appearances on US talk shows Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel Show and Conan O’Brien.
It is his hard work and his obsessive curiosity about his craft that keeps Keith Barry on top of his game.
“I read and research the history of magic, mentalism and hypnosis. I also spend a lot of time looking for inspiration from many different areas, I read a lot and I have a huge library on philosophy, religion and psychology.”
The Waterford man has wanted to be a magician since he was a child but completed his third level studies while pursuing his dream of becoming a full time entertainer.
“I wanted to do this since I was six when I got my first magic set. My parents said, ‘C’mon Keith, you are going to college and that’s that’.
“I loved college and graduated with a 1.1 honours degree. At the same time I did Chamber of Commerce parties and weddings to earn a few quid.”
Keith Barry’s ‘Hypnomagick’ plays at University Concert Hall on Thursday February 16. Tickets from www.uch.ie
