Barry's Special.. My take

Did you watch Keith Barry's special last night? I can say that I've never seen Keith before this special, I knew him by name only. After watching his show, I've arrived at the following notions..

There's no way to compare it to David Blaines special- Two entirely different styles of magic. Keith is more of a mentalist and performs effects that David would not perform during his shows. Apples and oranges..

I probably appreciated Keith's show more.. on a magic level. Personally, I'm more of a mentalist than a magician anyway, so there was more in Keith's performance to interest me than in Davids.

Specifically, Keith did a little blindfold driving that was entertaining in that it was not drawn out. Have the masked checked out, put it on, fly around a few curves and scare the crap out of your passenger. Move on to the next effect.. I like it like that..

Keith performed a little himber wallet effect on Matthew McConaughey and a mind reading effect on Jessica Simpson that left her totally befuzzled.. (Which I suspect wasn't very hard..)

He also performed a triple card revelation, coupled with a million dollar bet, on Vivica Fox and friends that left all three women gushing praise for Keith. This may have been my favorite effect, I'm still thinking about it..

The spike and cups effect was pulled on Elijah Woods and Rachael Hunter. A spike was hidden under one cup and Keith used the actors hand to smash the cups. Additionally, he allowed them to pick the cups that were smashed. This was an impressive demonstration with a very nice twist - somewhat more complicated that Cris Korms effect last year..

There was also a nice book effect on the two hosts of Entertainment Tonight (I think). Keith employed a 'black ops hypnosis' technique on the two assistants to make them forget what they had just performed.. Go figure..

There was also a grand finale.. the mixing of six hangmens' noose, and the subsequent placing of one on Keiths neck, chosen at randon by the audience..

I was pleased that most of the effects were mental magic related, as opposed to the typical illusionist-type effects performed by most magicians who are seen on TV.

If you watched.. what did you think?