Front page	From the Event Guide archive! This article refers to an event which took place on, or until, 02 December 2006 Theatre Interview – Keith Barry It’s A Kind of Magic The Event Guide speaks to illusionists and magician Keith Barry about his upcoming trio of shows at Vicar Street. Regarding your upcoming shows, what can the audience expect? Well, it is completely different from the last one. I did about forty shows last year of ‘Brainwashed’, and the important thing is that it is completely different to that. This show will be a mixture of magic, hypnosis, psychology, comedy and a lot of blagging and bulllshit, to be quite honest with you. Literally, it will be different to what most people expect. In one of the routines, I have developed a three-stage system for extracting information from people’s minds. I use hypnosis in one stage and in the next I use electro-shock therapy, where I am electrocuting the person on stage. Of course, all this is happening in their heads, but it really does look like they are being electrocuted because they are hopping all around the stage, freaking out. In another one of the routines, to break away from the seriousness, I pull the whole audience in on the trick, except the person on stage. They think that the most amazing magic they have ever seen is happening to them, whereas the audience can see what’s going on, which is that I’ve got a hidden assistant who sneaks out to help me during the routine. So I will put a glass of water on someone’s head and I will tell them to imagine it getting lighter and lighter. Meanwhile, a sixteen stone man in spandex, wearing a devil’s tail, comes out and he sucks all the water out with a straw. The whole audience can see this and it is visually hilarious for them. The person on stage is amazed that I seem to have made the water disappear. So I’m going from the very serious mind-reading routine straight through to real slapstick. As a kid, what sparked your interest in magic? As most magicians have done, I got a magic set when I was very young, a Paul Daniels magic set. That really got my interest going. But it wasn’t really until I was in my mid-teens that I found some really good books on magic and actually figured out how to fool people. It escalated on from there. Where I am at now really came from my days at college, where I was studying chemistry, and where my then-girlfriend (wife, now) was studying psychology. I learned then how to mix psychology and magic and make it look convincing. I’ll get up and appear to read people’s minds, but actually I’m the first to say that I don’t believe in psychics and that I can’t actually do that. What’s funny is that the more I say that I can’t, these days, the more people are tending to believe that I am psychic and can read their minds. It was strange last year, because I had a lot of people asking me to heal their loved ones of various illnesses. But I’m the first one to say that I’m an entertainer and that I can’t and won’t try to do that. Does that ever make you think that the TV evangelists are just a much more highly programmed version of what you do? It’s not even more highly programmed. It has more to do with the fact that they claim to be real. If I claimed that, a lot of people would believe it. But the thing about them is that they are preying on people’s weaknesses, whereas at least I’m saying to people that they are going to be fooled at my shows, that you are going to be entertained. That’s where I really draw the line, because I think what those guys are doing is really bad. I’ll say to people at my shows that I am going to get in contact with their dead loved ones, but only to show them that it’s a trick. Have you discovered during your travels around the world that one nation’s people are more susceptible to your deceptions than others? People in Ireland are certainly more cynical than, for example, over in the States. They are more willing to believe over there than they are here. But I find that a nice challenge. There are two ways to look at it: on the one hand you can say that the Americans are very naïve because they are more open to it, and on the other you can say that they are more open to being entertained. I like the healthy scepticism that we have here, but they usually don’t get the sort of show that they expect. They might be used to seeing me on RTE at 6.30pm, but live I curse a lot, and that’s not just for effect. Simply, it’s genuinely me on stage. They might come in expecting to see a couple of card tricks but they go out thinking “what was that all about”. In reality, it is difficult to describe the show unless you actually see it. Do you approve of the deconstruction approach of magicians like Derren Brown? I think it’s great. I do a similar…I wouldn’t say debunking…but a certain amount of explaining of what I do, and when you do that the trick becomes a lot more impressive to people. I use some similar techniques to Derren Brown, but that approach has been around for many years. Both he and I would have drawn from the work of Chan Canasta, Al Koran and Basil Horwitz. These were all great performers from the 1950s and 1960s and are the forefathers of this kind of entertainment. I think it’s great to explain a little bit and then really fool the shit out of the audience at the same time. Then they really don’t know what the hell has just gone on. Keith Barry performs live at Vicar Street, on Dublin’s Thomas Street, on Thursday 30th November, and Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December. 7.30pm. €25.65, €24.65. www.keithbarry.com / www.vicarstreet.com / www.ticketmaster.ie