Keith Barry's ‘Asylum' comes to MAC

Illusionist and renowned musician Keith Barry returns to the Mullingar Arts Centre on January 5 with his latest show ‘The Asylum'.Keith is one of Ireland's most successful showmen, with countless TV shows airing across Ireland, the UK and the USA, his latest “DECEPTION with KEITH BARRY”, which aired on The Discovery Channel, he has also presented TV3's Deal or No Deal, has tricked many of Hollywood's most famous stars and won countless prestigious awards including “Mentalist of the Year 2009”, the Merlin Award, and Best Magician in Las Vegas.Although Keith would more likely describe himself as a reader of body language than a magician as he explained when he talked to the Westmeath Examiner this week ahead of his upcoming show in Mullingar.“I study human behaviour, we all follow patterns, so I basically look at people's body language, I'm not psychic,” he admits. Having performed shows in the Arts Centre before, I asked him how he found the Mullingar audience:“I love it down there, as you travel to different parts of the country, you meet different types of audiences, some are more sceptical than others, some are scared and some are relaxed. I find in Mullingar you are a mixture of both - a little nervous but more than delighted to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.”I told him a friend of mine had been to one of his shows, where he was able to guess the colour, pattern and make of the underwear women were wearing, so it was no wonder people were a little nervous.“Yes I can tell whether you're wearing pink La Senza or polkadot undies from Pennys, I never reveal if people have gone commando however,” he laughs.When asked if he'd like to reveal how he carries out this useful exercise he simply explains:“Again it's all to do with body language. I use the five sense we all have to create the illusion of having a sixth sense. I can plant thoughts in people's minds as well as extract them.“They don't have to be up on stage either, they can be sitting in the audience and they will suddenly hear a voice inside their head, it's like they are aware of a speech bubble popping inside their head.”His latest show ‘Asylum', which is now on its final run, has been described as outrageous and controversial, yet downright funny, why is that?“The show is loosely based on research I carried out on asylums of the 1800's. The first half is quite fun, I get people to come up on stage, think of a dream and I can describe that dream word for word.“I'm also like a human lie detector, I can tell if you're lying or not, so it's like mind to mind communication which is designed to be outrageously funny where people laugh literally until their faces hurt.In the second half of the show, Keith says he ups the tempo, so to speak:“The second half is purely hypnosis and some of it can get quite dark as I drive people temporarily insane, as if they are living in a real life asylum. But I can assure you I give them a nice surprise at the end that will send them home happy!”For your chance to catch Keith Barry live in Mullingar, simply ring the Mullingar Arts Centre box office on 044 9347777 or call into reception on Mount Street, Mullingar.