Keith Barry

“If you write your own material and perform your own material, then nobody can really expose it because if you keep your secrets close to yourself, then nobody can really expose you.”

“I think to get Simon Cowell out of his comfort zone would be rather interesting. I don't know what I would make him do.”

“We all go to the gym, and we're thinking about how we look and what we're eating, but our brain is a muscle, and you have to train it!”

“Needless to say, my stunts take years to perfect and are closely monitored by a team of trained professionals at all times, so no one should ever think about trying to re-create them.”

“I pray in my own way, not regularly, and I wouldn't say structured prayers. What I'm praying to I'm not sure. I'd be a firm agnostic.”

“In 2006, when doing a live stage show in Ireland, I tried for the first time to instantly induct a subject on stage, something I had never done before, nor did I know if it would ever work. The result almost cost me my career; the man I grabbed and instantly inducted went out cold and fell to the floor.”

“By combining elements such as hypnosis, magic, neurolinguistic programming and psychology, I can make it appear that I can hack into people's brains.”

“If you feel depressed, go and buy twenty books about depression. Learn about it; find out how it works.”

“When you have a traumatic experience, you look at your mindset.”

“I can do lightning mathematics quicker than somebody can do them on a calculator.”

“Magic is all about directing attention. If I didn't want you to look at my right hand then I don't look at it.”

“I wanted to develop a hypnosis show that no-one had ever seen before, so I made it very topical and interesting. I've created a UFC fight night every night on stage, where I hypnotise twenty people into thinking they're mad, crazed UFC fans, and the energy is unbelievable.”

“If someone is lying to you, they'll generally look up to the top right. That means that they're trying to construct an image that doesn't exist.”

“For me, I live for performing live because people look at magicians on television, and they always wonder, 'Is it a camera trick?' 'Is it a stooge?' whereas, live, they know there's no set-ups; there's no stooges.”

“How does the subconscious mind work? Is it independent of the conscious mind? Is it programmed by experiences or instructions? Many questions come up, but the one answer is common: if you can access the subconscious, then you can reprogram it, period!”

“My first TV show was 2003. You wouldn't be in the game this long if you were using stooges and actors and all that kind of stuff; quite honestly, the answer is we don't need them.”

“I mixed hypnosis and magic together to try and create a new area. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel.”

“I'm pretty much self-taught - I never went to any courses. If I want to learn about, say, the frontal lobe, I'll buy 40 books and absorb them in a couple of weeks. I'm a nerd like that.”

“I'm not saying I do evil things. I'm just saying if a cop stops me when I'm speeding, sometimes - not all the time - I might get out of that ticket. Let's just say I don't have any points on my licence in Ireland, and I drive relatively quickly.”

“Sometimes I implant thoughts, sometimes I extract thoughts, but I don't like to explain it too much. It's based on science, deduction, and reasoning - it's a bit like what 'Sherlock' does, except that's a dramatised version. I look at every clue around me.”