Just caught Keith Barry on the afternoon Ellen Degernes show, promoting his upcoming CBS TV show. He did three bits:

The first was the 'think of something to draw, write it down, and I'll draw it as you do' bit.

Second was to scramble four wooden bases, one with a sharp steel spike, all hidden under paper cones. He was blindfolded, and he and Ellen both scrambled them so neither knew where the spike was. Then he held her hand over them one at a time, made her choose whether it was safe, and pushed her hand down. Of course, she was safe, but she was actually sweating by the time he was done.

Finally, he did a book test using two of her books. He flipped the pages of one and had her say 'stop' to choose the page number, then had her find the same page number in the other book and told her what was written there.

All good, standard stuff, and well-presented for being in the rushed environment of an afternoon talk show. Ellen and the audience really bit on the steel spike bit! I think he did a pretty good job.

I know people are going to attack him here, but Keith is a really nice guy and works at what he does. He spends most of his hours work on bits, practicing new routines and juggling a very busy schedule.
On top of all that he's a really nice guy and has a great core group around him. We should all be so lucky to have the great manager that he has.

Greg

Of all the days to be sick at home and flipping channels, I managed to catch the smash and stab routine, looked great!

Didn't catch the last book test you mentioned he did, but I recently started performing that same book test (though I offer to use the Harry Potter book series) when I perform it. Always gets a great reaction and is impromptu!

Derek Merdinyan

I think he's a very talented fella, he's inccredibly nice & genuine.

Cheers,

Erick Castle

I find it refreshing. It's kind of bringing magicians back to doing magic rather than stunts. I thought it was a very good special.

I enjoyed his special alot. I wish I had caught that Ellen episode. Wife used to tivo them but stopped