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| Keith Patrick Barry |
Keith Patrick Barry is an Irish illusionist, mentalist, and close-up magician and also knows the art of Covert Hypnosis.
Early and personal life
Born in County Waterford, Ireland on 25 October 1976, Barry's interest in magic began at the age of fourteen when he purchased a book entitled Magic for the complete Klutz.
Barry's grandfather, 82, was attacked in his home in Waterford by burglars in 2009, later dying of his wounds. Barry and his father launched a high-profile campaign to stamp out abuse against old people in their homes, said the government was 'insulting' the old people and said he would 'bring the country to a halt' until the Government responded. There was also political response.
Career
Under the guidance of his manager, Eamonn Maguire, since 2002, Barry has performed on his own television shows in Europe entitled Close Encounters with Keith Barry. The show has been played in 28 countries worldwide.
In 2004, Barry had an MTV television special entitled Brainwashed. 2005 ended with Barry performing a live Christmas special in Europe. Keith Barry Live With Friends featured various celebrities such as magician Billy McComb, Jim Corr of The Corrs, and The Conway Sisters.
Barry's success throughout Europe coupled with his MTV special led to a four year multi-special deal with CBS. His first special with CBS debuted on May 12, 2006 and was entitled Keith Barry: Extraordinary.[11] The special later aired on The CW on New Year's Eve 2006 and on New Years Day, 2007 on TV3 in New Zealand and Australia on the Arena channel.
In the Keith Barry: Extraordinary special, he performed various pieces of illusion and interesting mental feats. In one trick, which he referred to as "Black Ops Hypnosis", he made a host from Entertainment Tonight forget that he had torn a specific page from a book and sealed it in an envelope, in the span of roughly five minutes. Another "trick" is that he made a man lift his arm when he thought others stopped touching him. His eyes were covered. Barry first used suggestion to make the man "concentrate" and lied that he was touching the man. The man imagined the touch and lifted his arm, but Barry and another member of the audience only moved their hand afar.
Following on from a successful week in Dublin's Vicar Street, Keith and his longtime manager, Eamonn Maguire, were both badly injured in a horrific car crash on the Belfast to Newry road on March 1, 2007. Keith suffered severe trauma to his left leg and only returned to the stage later the same year at Vicar Street.
As an actor, he performed in the "Open Water" episode of CSI: Miami.
In 2004 he was invited to talk at the prestigious TED conference in Monterey, California where he performed his first ever live stage show.
On December 29, 2007 Keith performed in a live special on ITV in the UK titled Keith Barry - The Escape Live.The finale of the show featured an escape from a shed rigged with explosives. Keith was tied to a chair with thick ropes by two members of the audience. One of these was Glen Gathard, noted for hoping that Keith Barry would not make it out of the explosion. The chair was carried into the shed where workmen were seen to be hammering additional wood to the exterior of the shed to cover the door and windows. A fuse had been lit and a two minute countdown was in progress. After one minute, the workmen left the scene. After the countdown was complete the shed exploded. Keith was safely on top of a gantry some distance away.
On January 15, 2008 Keith performed live on The Ellen Degeneres Show which he has now done about 4 times.
Keith made appearances on the Paul O'Grady Show on 26 May and 13 October 2008 and 6 March and 1 May 2009.
TV3 Ireland announced that as part of its new 2009/2010 schedule Keith Barry will host the Irish version of Deal or no Deal.
in Feb 2010 Keith finished his new show for the Discovery Channel in the US called "Deception with Keith Barry" which aired in July 2010. The show was then picked up for its first season as a series and is in production with its airing scheduled on The Discovery Channel from April 2011.
Also in 2010 he toured extensively with his show 'The Asylum' which is due to tour again in May 2011
