Keith Barry Quotes

All David Blaine is is a good-looking magician.

I consider myself a showman, and I love magic, and I love art, and I love performance, and they're all separate.

For the most part, any serious magic show is not using very much technology newer than theatrical lights.

My goal was becoming the next David Copperfield. I learned how to be a performer by emulating him as a kid - his formula of just talking to people onstage, being free to improvise, being charming and witty with a crowd, together with great, beautiful magic.

I never quite know how to describe what I do. I normally just say, 'Oh, I'm a magician', which probably puts fairly naff ideas in people's minds but is pleasantly conversation-stopping.

I'm a magician. A lot of people don't know that I've won awards. I used to do big stage shows.

I'm not a star, I hate that word, and I'm an entertainer. Stars fall, you know, I'm an entertainer. I want to be known as an entertainer.

My interest was magic, believe it or not. I became an amateur magician and did something like 400 magic shows through my teen years.

My interest in magic was kindled by Steve Martin, the comedian I'd gone to high school with.

He spent hours and hours and hours practising these conjuring tricks. It's just such a curious thing.

Magic is the oldest part of the show business profession. It can now be used as a forward-thinking tool to build a child's confidence. It has been an amazing part in many entertainers' lives, including Steve Martin and the late Johnny Carson.

Magic is the Special Olympics of entertainment.

I'm not a big fan of doing it because I get really frustrated because I can't do any of the tricks, but I love to watch magic.

When I did my first few television specials, my illusions were so advanced that it took a couple of years before the other illusionists could even figure out what I was doing, let alone try to imitate me.

Dai Vernon, the greatest sleight of hand figure in the history of the art, rarely performed. But he invented magic and had an enormous influence on the whole range of sleight of hand. And so often, the magic he was doing was to fool other magicians.

I did magic at children's parties when I was a kid.

I came up with the term 'mindfreak' because I didn't like the word 'magician.' I felt like I wanted to coin a term that would be basically the reaction to my art. It would be a mindfreak and so that's why I came up with that. But, many people say I'm really a student of humanity and psychology.

If people are fans of 'Mindfreak,' they are going to be so excited with 'Believe.' They are actually going to see those illusions that people think can only happen with trick photography.

I can imagine that Rod Stewart likes giving autographs because he's pure showbusiness.

I'm friends with Criss Angel. Criss has offered me a million times to go downstairs and see the setup. I don't want to see it. I just want to go, 'God, how did you do that?'

As a kid, I always was obsessed with Houdini.

Magic is like special effects live, and I love to perform, so it sounded like doing magic tricks were a good way to entertain people.

David Blaine, I think, was the first TV magician to really turn the camera around and make it about the spectator's experience. That's really what magic is all about.

I've always done magic as a hobby. I've done it professionally, too.

What I do is rooted in magic - it's got a big foot planted firmly in conjuring, even if the other foot's planted in psychological techniques.