He has starred in his own TV show, Brainwashed on MTV in the US and since then has starred in a number of specials which saw him perform tricks on celebrities such as Harrison Ford, Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Simpson and many others.

Another TV series, Encounters with Keith Barry is now in 28 countries and last year he appeared in an episode of CSI Miami.

On living out of a suitcase:

On his new show, 'Mental':

It's very difficult to describe it. A lot of people wonder what I can do on stage because they've only seen the TV stuff that I've done. It's a fully audienceinteractive show where I shoot foam rockets into the audience and if a rocket lands on you, near you or next to you, you're up on stage, whether you like it or not. And even if you won't go up on stage, I've been known to grab people, firebrigade style and run with them up to the stage.

When they're on the stage I do all kind of mind tricks with them - I plant thoughts, extract thoughts. I use a decent bit of hypnosis in this show so I'll knock somebody out within three seconds onstage. I'm the only person in Ireland who uses the instant induction which is even by shaking somebody's hand I can knock them straight into a trance.

One of the things I do is that I get them to the stage where they can't even tie their own shoelace, they can't speak, and they can't read out of a book. I've also put some magic routines in there as well because I've found out that people still want to see magic as well as the mind stuff. It's not a stagnant magic show; it's more a comedy/magic show than anything.

On his technique:

I use 20% hypnosis and the other 80% is other techniques which is magic, neurolinguistics, psychology, comedy and a whole load of bullsh*t thrown in as well - apologies!

On his most memorable celebrity encounters:

Different ones stand out for different reasons. Beyoncé freaked out, as did Keanu Reeves. Beyoncé just couldn't understand what I was doing. I was in a restaurant with some mates and down at the end of it was a friend of mine having dinner with someone and he spotted me and jumped up and said, "Keith will you do some magic for my friend". His friend happened to be Keanu Reeves so I picked up a spoon and you know the first Matrix where the spoon bent by itself, the famous scene? I was going to do a spoon bend on him Uri Geller-style but he completely freaked out before he'd even seen anything and said, "I can't see magic, I'm scared of magic", and he jumped up and ran out of the restaurant. I think he was coming down from the night before because he really was acting strange.

I thought that was the end of it but a week later I get a phone call and it's Josh, the guy from the restaurant, and he says, "Keith, you'll never guess who's standing next me." I talk to Josh about once a week anyway so I said, "Who? I have no idea, " and he said, "I'm next to Keanu, he's having a party in his house this Friday night, he wants you to come up and do some magic but don't go near him or he'll punch you in the face." We went up to his mansion - I couldn't even guess what size it was - it was like something out of Cribs on MTV.

Paris Hilton is actually lovely, believe it or not. I've met her loads of times. I probably saw her two months ago, in a nightclub called Hide in Hollywood.

Jessica Simpson was there, Paris, Nicole Ritchie and it's a really small place. I wasn't doing any magic that night and the whole thing was surreal because smoking is illegal indoors and here's Paris with a cigarette, jumping around and dancing on her own and no one even pays any attention to her. It's like, "Ah there's Paris again?" She goes up and dances with Nicole who is obviously sober - and God knows what Paris is on - but she was all out of time and out of synch. I was just laughing my head off at the state of her trying to dance.

On his looks:

I'm taking it easy these days, getting my weight back down after Christmas, for filming. I'm not on a detox programme or anything but I'm just drinking once a week so Saturday night is my night. People don't recognise me at the moment because they still think I'm clean-shaven with spiky blonde hair. I turned 30 in October and thought, f**k it, the boy band days are well and truly gone.

On coming up with new tricks:

There's always more knowledge out there 9that I don't have and that I'm always striving to get. I'm forever going into libraries; I'm forever online and you can always improve on the psychology-based stuff. Even the stunts I come up with - I look into really old magic books from the 1900s and I'll try and pluck an idea out of that and put a modern twist on it. That's what a lot of modern day magicians do.

On other magicians:

I respect David Blaine and I respect Derren Brown but I wouldn't necessarily admire any of them. The guys I really admire are from the 1950s and 1960s and are dead now - Chan Canasta, Basil Horowitz, Corinda, guys you would never have heard of but there were the forefathers of mixing psychology with magic and I have books and books about these guys.

But Blaine I respect because he sort of started the magic revolution and moved it away from David Copperfield and studiobased stuff. But now I think he's gone nuts, standing in boxes and stuff. But they're sourcing all their stuff from the same bank of guys who came up with it all, the originators who came up with it all rather than me or Blaine or Derren Brown, who are just putting new twists on the stuff.

On landing his 'CSI Miami' role:

I was doing magic at a conference for a bunch of people and they said they'd write me into an episode. I genuinely had no idea who they were but it turned out they wrote for CSI Miami. You hear an awful lot of this stuff so I thought no more about it but a week later I got the call saying that they'd scripted me in and needed me for two days of filming. It was hilarious - I had my whole star trailer and everything.

I don't watch much TV, I don't have time, but this is my favourite show. I'd never done any acting before and I hadn't a clue what I was doing. Emily Proctor, who plays Calleigh, came into the trailer beforehand and went over all my lines with me as she learnt her lines. She was really sweet and I have to say it was one of the best crews I've ever worked it. I'd heard a load of horror stories about David Caruso but I found him fine, very amiable and nice.

On the LA lifestyle:

I love LA and Hollywood itself is just mad:

full of these eclectic nutcases and it's not as healthy as people think. They all drink, they all smoke but they all go to the gym and eat properly as well.

You do burn the candle at both ends.

Part of my job is to be seen and to be out on the scene but it does take its toll. I eventually would like to settle back down in Ireland but that won't happen until my 40s.

Keith Barry is appearing at the Everyman Theatre in Cork tonight and is touring the rest of the country next week. More dates will be announced for February. Visit www. keithbarry. com for further details