Saturday with Keith Barry: 'We play the Cheaters Edition of Monopoly — it descends into chaos'

Mentalist, author, keynote speaker and entertainer Keith Barry is coming to the 3Arena on February 7.

08.00

There’s no normal time for me because every Saturday is different and I work more or less 365 days per year. That said, the average time I get up is 8am If I’m gigging and on an early plane to London I might be up at 5am, but if I’m at home, a sleep-in for me is about 9am. I’ll do some breathwork in bed, then I’ll brush my teeth and wash my face.

I will go downstairs and take an ice bath. I’ve been doing breathwork and cold therapy for about 13 years — long before they became popularised. Since I started doing the breathwork seriously about 10 years ago I haven’t had any sore throats, colds, flus… I haven’t been on an antibiotic at all since I started doing the Wim Hof method.

I have a very inflamed body, a lot of which is due to a car accident I was in in 2007. I have a 7in plate and 13 screws in my left leg and a lot of arthritis in the leg; I’ve tendonitis, disc degeneration… I’ve found cold therapy really helps with inflammation and I think it helps with mental resilience and fortitude because you’re sitting in a situation that you don’t want to be in and you’ve to battle with your mind to stay in there.

09.30

I might be intermittent fasting but if I’m not, I’ll have a high protein breakfast. I might have a chicken breast with tumeric and dillisk with three scrambled eggs, maybe some avocado and kimchi and a slice of sourdough bread. I might make a banana omelette with three eggs, protein powder, goji berries, and seeds or I might have steak and eggs.

Keith Barry. Photograph Moya Nolan

10.30

I’ll do 15 minutes of stretch work. I do it watching Judge Judy which is my guilty pleasure.

11.00

My kids do karate on a Saturday morning so that frees me up. I might go to a sauna by the sea in Killiney or Greystones with some friends
followed by a coffee. I might shoot down to Tramore or Dunmore East to do a bit of sea fishing.

13.00

If I haven’t gone fishing I’ll have lunch with my family. I barbecue nearly every day.

14.00

If my daughter Breanna is not doing karate or teaching it, we might go for a cycle as a family. She is a world karate champion. My son Braden is also a world champion in his category. If you’d asked me before they were born whether I’d be a pushy father I’d have said ‘yes’ but if you ask them now they’d say I’m not — all their drive comes from themselves.

We love geo-caching. It’s like treasure hunting — you jump in the car and can end up anywhere searching for treasure. The treasure could be anything from a scroll on a lamppost to something in a box that you get to keep. It’s great fun.

17.00

If we’re eating out we’ll go somewhere casual — there’s a lovely ramen place in Dún Laoghaire that we like to go to or my wife Mairéad might make a curry or a lasagne.

If I am working on a public show I’ll be gone from early in the day. If it’s a corporate show I’ll shoot off at about 5pm, liaise with the organisers, and get set up.

20.00

Everyone will have their own time to chill out. Myself and Mairéad might watch something on the television and then we’ll get a board game going. At the moment it’s Catan. I never thought we’d be a gaming family but we love a game you can have a good argument over.

When we play Monopoly we play the Cheaters Edition — it’ll descend into chaos by the end of it. We also play a lot of chess. If we don’t play a board game we’ll watch something together. We really enjoyed The Traitors UK as my friend Tom Elderfield was in it and the kids know him well too.

01.00

We are all night owls so I won’t be in bed before 1am on a Saturday. I read three or four books simultaneously — magic, mentalism, hypnosis, psychology, biohacking, the allied arts, the mystery arts — strange and weird books and interesting ones on self-development.

I’m currently reading The Advantage by Patrick M Lencioni and have just finished Subconsciously by Aaron Surtees.

I’ll fall asleep when my head hits the pillow but if I wake up during the night I’ll put on a nine-hour binaural delta beats playlist on YouTube and that will help me go straight back to sleep.

• Mentalist, author, keynote speaker and entertainer Keith Barry is coming to the 3Arena on February 7. He was recently on hand to relaunch the newly redesigned EZ Living Interiors store in Waterford Retail Park. ezliving-interiors.ie.