1. You don’t have to be a psychic to read minds
Keith Barry has said on many occasions that he doesn’t believe in physic powers, calling out the charlatans who try to take money from the public. First he hit out at ‘Psychic Wayne’, offering a €50,000 incentive if Wayne could prove the evidence of his psychic powers, then he posted a series of videos to YouTube exposing the fakery and tactics employed by so-called psychics. Over the phone from Ireland, Barry, who is excited about his first British tour this September, explains why you don’t need otherworldly powers to read minds. Instead he combines the techniques and “skills of psychology, hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming” to crack the codes to our brains and discover everything from “the pin number to someone’s credit card” to “the underwear they are wearing down to the make and colour.”
2. Brain hacking is not hocus pocus, it’s science
Scientists estimate 90 per cent of communication is non-verbal so by reading people’s body language, learning how to interpret “movements, facial cues, micro-expressions” down to the flex of a neck muscle, Barry can tell what what’s going on inside our heads. The term ‘hacking’ applies perfectly, Barry elaborates, because “our brains are like computers” and with years of practice, you can “exploit its bugs and loopholes.” Once you know how to manipulate the mind, he says, it’s easy.
3. Magicians do reveal their secrets
The old adage that magicians and illusionists would die before they reveal their secrets is a myth, Barry helpfully clarifies. He gives the example of one of his idols, the hypnotist Paul Goldin, who loved Ireland. “He shared many of his techniques with me from his death bed,” says Barry. He also spent time with the “surrealist artist” Doc Shiels (the man who gave the world the Loch Ness monster hoax) and is involved with the “darker side” of the business, as Barry puts it. Both have been hugely influential in his career, so he’s passionate about sharing what he knows and encouraging other performers too. “I had the door slammed in my face by many other entertainers,” he says of his formative days. “I thought it was wrong at the time and I think it’s wrong now… so I'm on Facebook all the time replying to people."
Barry doesn't believe is psychics but uses psychology and neuro-linguistic planning to read people's thoughts4. You think you know how he does that trick? You don’t
There are still closely guarded methodologies that are only shared between his team and close colleagues in the profession, says Barry. But what about our social media age… surely that has exposed the insider industry tricks? Not so, he explains. First of all he doesn’t allow filming at his shows. This is because if you hypnotise someone to act like “a Martian from space they may not want their colleagues at work to see that.” What has changed with social media, he says, is that “everyone has an opinion” online but the elaborate theories exposing ‘how he does it’ make him laugh. The further off the mark they are, the more he enjoys reading them, plus he adds, “it’s all publicity.” However, it’s not always hilarious when people try to recreate his tricks. “I did this one trick on the Ellen show,” he explains. He hid a real spike under a cup and used volunteers’ hands to flatten the cups one by one until the cup with the spike was left and revealed. “You need to watch ‘Magic Gone Wrong’ on YouTube,” says Barry, “you can see people stab not only their own hands, but other people’s too.”
5. He doesn’t walk around reading people’s minds
This is one of the most common misconceptions about brain hackers and Barry is keen to assure the public that neither he, nor his peer Derren Brown are “walking around the streets reading people’s minds.” Like any other performer “you can switch it off” when it’s not show time, he says. Be that as it may, his notoriety for making people looking silly in public has made many so nervous that they will turned into a clucking chicken, or made to walk the streets doubled over in the belief they are an old lady shouting at teenagers on skateboards (as he has done) that he is finding it harder to coax volunteers. “I was on The Late Late Show last week and it was really hard to get anyone to come up on stage,” he laughs.
6 The risks are real, and some of them are deadly
“There’s a very serious element of risk, a lot of mentalists have been killed over the years. Copperfield was in hospital twice a week sometimes,” says Barry when asked if the risky stunts he sets up (playing roulette with guns, messing with poisonous snakes etc) are as dangerous as they seem. Recently the Waterford man was invited back to his hometown to recreate a Harry Houdini trick — escaping from a straight jacket while dangling 100 feet off the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, Barry chose to “wrap my head in cling film so I couldn’t see or breathe”. Seven thousand onlookers gathered to watch the feat. The key to staying alive, he reveals, is “having a good team around me who tell me if I’m taking things too far” and added safety precautions built in behind the scenes that the audience never see. That and some serious training, he adds.
Barry causing havoc on his Saturday night ITV show You're Back In The Room7. Mentalists have a sense of humour too, y’know
Barry says humour is an essential part of what he does and he spends long hours scripting the comedy elements (he sleeps just four to five hours a night when working on a show, then “crashes” when its all over). The second half of the Brain Hacker show is all hypnosis so expect to see Barry making people believe confetti is fish guts, or hypnotising ophidiophobics to happily enter a box of snakes believing the reptiles are their favourite celebrities. “When you get people up on stage, that’s when anything can happen and it gets chaotic,” Barry says with relish. “Seeing people laughing their heads off is a great reward.”
8. Bring on the cynics
Hypnosis is real, says Barry, but he welcomes the doubters and non-believers too. “I love the cynics, I love the sceptics,” he enthuses before adding, “because I know what they are thinking.” Tricking someone who doesn’t believe in hypnosis is even more fun he says, and provides a great laugh for his fans. If you still need proof of Barry’s conviction in the power of hypnosis though, listen to this — he hypnotised his wife so she could undergo her second pregnancy with no pain medication or epidural, and they are still happily married. Now, that’s faith.
Tickets for Brain Hacker, which tours Britain from September 16 are on sale now
