A quarter of a century performing magic and 'you get the true version of me on stage' — Keith Barry
As a student of human behaviour, I hack into people's minds. World renowned magician, mentalist and hypnotist — Keith Barry
A magician, hypnotist, mentalist, brain hacker. Keith Barry has been in the entertainment business for over two decades. In that time he’s become a global name, performing on stages all over the world, consulting on big budget movies such as , and latterly, working with corporations and sports stars at the highest levels to enhance their performance.
As he marks his 25th year as a performer, he’s setting off on an Irish tour, with a set that’s a little bit “unhinged”.
“For the new tour, , I chose not to do a greatest hits. I pride myself on every theatre tour I’ve done being different; I’ve always written a new show.”
Barry says he’s returning to his “darker, edgier material”. The move is inspired by his daughter who told him she wished she’d been able to see his “older dark side” tours such as . The dark turn was also partly inspired by his father, who passed away in January 2025.
“A couple of days before he passed away, my dad said: 'Why don’t you bring me on tour?' And I said: 'What do you mean, Dad, bring you on tour?'
"He said: 'Bring my ashes on tour and do the dark stuff and mess with their minds with me'. So I said: 'Ok, I’m going to do a séance segment and try to contact you on the stage'.”
Does he believe in psychic powers?
“Look, my dad didn’t believe in an afterlife. And I don’t believe in psychics, and I don’t believe anybody can contact the dead, but that’s what we’re gonna do every night. I’m going to be honest with the audience: say, I don’t believe anybody can contact the other side, but let’s suspend our disbelief for the next 20 minutes and see what happens.”
It’s going to be a “chunky” show. Barry will use it to showcase his different skill sets. There’ll be a “full-blown hypnosis set” with all the comedy you would expect when people are hypnotised to do things they wouldn’t normally do, as well as brain hacking elements, including a lie-detection sequence.
But the end of the show, which Barry says may well be his last theatre tour, is designed to bring his audience to tears: “I do believe the end of the show is gonna be so joyous that people are just gonna be bawling in the audience, but in a nice way, that their hearts are gonna be full leaving.”
As we sit in a corridor in the Metropole Hotel in Cork city, with all the hustle and bustle happening around us, I can see his enthusiasm for the upcoming tour. He appears what I can only describe as pumped.
For Barry, who works primarily in the corporate space now, the tour is a release of sorts: “This tour is about going on stage, having fun again, because in the corporate space I have to be careful what I do and what I say, and it's more serious in tone. is literally whatever comes into my imagination gets output on stage. There's no rules, no regulations, and the buck stops with me — the creation of its production, the direction of it as well. So you get the true version of me on stage.”
It’s clear that magic is in his veins. From the age of five the Waterford-born performer was drawn to it. From his first magic set to a magic book he bought on a school tour to Scotland when he was 14, he’s been captivated by magic, the inner workings of the mind, and performing.
Though his parents were supportive of his love of magic, they insisted he go to college.
“I didn’t disagree,” he says, “I thought it would be good to have something to fall back on.”
He studied science in college and went on to work as a cosmetic scientist in Dublin, before the paying magic gigs took off.
“That happened when I was 23. I was out the door with weddings and parties, and I knew I'd always regret it if I didn’t try it. And that was it. I’ve been busy ever since, and never looked back.”
Work for Barry now sees him jetting around the world. London, working with MasterCard; working with Lindt in Sweden; Google in Dublin.
Doing both a tour and corporate work simply isn’t sustainable, he says. “And I'm very mindful of the fact that I actually don't want to be an absent father around my kids. They’re my major priority. So I don't want to be away as much these days.”
With two teenagers, it’s a busy time in the Barry household. “I always say to people — it never gets easier and it never gets harder. It's just different waves at different times. Nowadays, I’m very much a taxi driver.”
With 25 years under his belt, how does he see the next period of his life panning out?
“I'm looking forward to having time to think about that. What I don't want to do is follow the trap of just plodding along. First of all, I want a lot of adventure. But then I do think a large aspect of my work will go back to helping people in the public, maybe some kind of mindset shift work, where I take groups of people and help them with whatever they need. I want to do some legacy-based work. And some fishing.”
A keen angler, Barry loves nothing more than spending the day on his own, with an 'empty brain': “Fishing is my therapy. It’s one of my happy places. To go fishing and not talk to anybody all day. Lie down on the grass, have a bit of lunch, and don't think of anything except where are the fish, and it's great. And that's why I always say to people who are stressed or anxious or depressed or whatever it is, find something where you can reconnect with nature.”
As he gears up for what will be a three-month tour, including dates in the Cork Opera House and the Three Arena Dublin, it feels like Barry is at a time of reflection in his life. While more touring may not be on the cards, it sounds like there is still plenty to come from Keith Barry.
The vanishing red silk handkerchief.
Wim Hoff breathing.
Diving. As in diving into a swimming pool. I just can’t wrap my head around it.
At the Winterville festival in Waterford a number of years ago, where I was hanging upside down from a crane in a straight jacket covered in chains, with my head wrapped in clingfilm and having to escape from that in front of 10,000 people.
Encasing myself in a ton of ice for 47 minutes for my TV show, on TV3 at the time, and having to be carted off to hospital and then being sick for about six weeks afterwards. So not the smartest thing I've ever done.
The audience, the connection. In my head, I visualise, I know it sounds silly, but I visualise silver streams of consciousness going into everybody's head. So I visualise myself on stage, and 1,000 silver streams going from my head into everybody else's heads. So I’m connecting to every single person in the audience. It's that power of connection.
- Keith Barry: Unhinged opens at Cork Opera House on Friday, January 23 and continues to Galway, Wicklow, Dublin, Sligo, Mayo, Waterford, Bantry, Leitrim, Limerick and Louth. Tickets at keithbarry.com
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