 |
| Keith Barry : |
Early and personal life :
Born in County Waterford, Ireland, 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 the elderly in their homes, said the government was “insulting” the elderly and said he would “bring the country to a halt” until the Government responded. Pundits referred to the incident in discussions of laws about the actions people can legally take to defend themselves in their homes.
Career :
Barry’s television career began with a series entitled Close Encounters with Keith Barry, which ran from 2003-2005. The show originally aired in Europe and has since aired in 28 countries worldwide.
In 2004, Barry performed in a 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.
Despite never achieving the success of his British counterpart Derren Brown, and widely regarded as the inferior performer of the two, 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 12 May 2006 and was entitled Keith Barry: Extraordinary. The special later aired on New Year's Eve 2006 on The CW and on New Year’s Day 2007 on TV3 in New Zealand and the Arena channel in Australia.
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. In another, he made a blindfolded man lift his arm when he thought others stopped touching him.
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.
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 a successful Irish tour along with a week in Dublin's Vicar Street, Keith and his longtime manager Eamonn Maguire were badly injured in a horrific car crash on the Belfast to Newry road on 1 March 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.
Keith's prestigious TED Talk on www.TED.com is in the top 15 Most Viewed TED Talks of all time and follows from his first ever live stage performance which was at TED in Monterey, California in 2004.
He returned to TED in 2005 and was the special guest performer then on the opening night.
He returned to TED in 2005 and was the special guest performer then on the opening night.
On 29 December 2007 Keith performed in a live Saturday night primetime 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. Participants lit a fuse, started a two minute countdown, and carried the chair into the shed. Workmen hammered additional wood to cover the door and windows from the outside, then left the scene when one minute remained on the countdown. After the countdown was complete, the shed exploded, then the camera changed to reveal Keith safely on top of a gantry some distance away.
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. Participants lit a fuse, started a two minute countdown, and carried the chair into the shed. Workmen hammered additional wood to cover the door and windows from the outside, then left the scene when one minute remained on the countdown. After the countdown was complete, the shed exploded, then the camera changed to reveal Keith safely on top of a gantry some distance away.
Keith has performed live on The Ellen Degeneres Show four times and The Paul O'Grady Show four times.
In 2009 on TV3 Ireland Keith hosted the Irish version of Deal or No Deal.
In February 2010, Keith finished a pilot for a new series on The Discovery Channel in the US. The show is called Deception with Keith Barry and the pilot aired in July 2010. The show was picked up for a season and premiered on 31 May 2011 with 4 one hour shows, Black Ops, Used Car Salesman, Cops and Robbers, and Daring and Dating. The show premiers on Oct 6th 2011 in Taiwan, Nov 1st in Japan, Nov 3rd on Quest in the UK, on Dec 7th in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Dec 13th in Australia and New Zealand and in India in the 1st Quarter of 2012.
Also in 2010 and 2011, Keith toured extensively with his live show “The Asylum” which finished its run in May 2011. On this tour, Keith set the record as the most successful solo act ever to play The Olympia Theatre in Dublin. On 13 July 2011, Keith's new live show “Keith Barry - 8 Deadly Sins” opened to critical acclaim and a standing ovation at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin and ran for 5 weeks setting new box office records during the run. A National "8 DEADLY SINS" Irish tour is planned for Jan/Feb 2012 playing in Killarney, Letterkenny, Castlebar, Donegal, Galway, Wexford, Clonmel, Waterford, Cork, Arklow, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Carrick on Shannon, Limerick, Portlaoise, Mullingar, Ennis, Athlone, Castleblayney, and Navan.
