The Keith Barry Experience review: Lie-detection and lightbulbs impress in RTÉ show
The Keith Barry Experience: Can the mind reader tell the difference between truth and lies from a stranger?
Magician Keith Barry returned to our screens on Saturday night with the second season of his mind-bending show, and it appears to have been a hit with viewers.
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, The Keith Barry Experience steered clear of basic ‘is this your card’ questions and had both participants and those at home scratching their heads and wondering how his tricks worked. It was a delightfully immersive experience and a welcome distraction on a weekend evening.
Barry opened the episode with a promise to put his money where his mouth is and risked €10,000 to prove his skills, but first started off simply with a prop-based game with a marker and leading to a more impressive ‘mind reading’ moment where he correctly guessed the movie one audience member was thinking about – although The Matrix is surely a common guess among those interested in mind-bending moments.
One guest during the show was Emer O'Neill, aka ‘Múinteoir Emer’ from RTÉ’s Home School Hub, and she was left utterly bamboozled by Barry’s numbers game, in which he took her by surprise her by knowing about a scar on her knee she got at age 8. She was so shocked that during the show she shared a photo of the scar on Instagram, writing: “The scar from the fall from my bike. Haven’t thought about this probably since the day it happened, but somehow you knew.”
One trick with lightbulbs, in particular, seemed to catch everyone both in-studio and at home. Participants were asked to pick a random lightbulb from the screen before following directions from Barry. When the instructions finished, all but one purple bulb fell away and, of course, my finger and everyone else’s were planted firmly on top of it.
In retrospect, many people noticed patterns on the screen and how colours were grouped together to guarantee the result, but in the moment it was an impressive feat and it had the desired result: a nation saying 'how did he do that?'
A quick trick to play along at home!
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) April 2, 2022
Can @KeithpBarry find you? 💡💡💡
The #KeithBarry Experience pic.twitter.com/Rbn8yurMwT
However, the showstopping magic trick from Barry was his bet that he could tell a truth from a lie: he was so confident that he put €10,000 on the line. One audience member was chosen to challenge Barry’s skills and after some back and forth between the pair, Barry determined when the man was lying, ensuring the €10,000 stayed firmly in his possession.
On Twitter, reactions shared by viewers were mainly positive. “A fantastic show. The mind boggles as to how?” one viewer pondered, while another said it was a “brilliant show, great to be involved at home as well.”
The Keith Barry Experience has taken over the slot of the extremely popular Tommy Tiernan Show, which wrapped up last weekend, and while it is unlikely to match the latter’s record-breaking viewing figures, the magic and mystery series is a surprisingly watchable show that proves there is an appetite for magic on our screens – it's almost like he read our minds...
