The Sedona International Film Festival is trying out a couple of new shows this September, starting with an appearance by Phoenix mentalist Brett Barry on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 4 p.m.

“I’ve had my eyes on Sedona for a long time,” Barry said. “These types of shows seem to be a bit of an unexplored thing in Sedona for some reason. It seems like a natural place for this type of mind-reading show.”

Mentalism is a form of stage magic in which the performer, rather than manipulating physical objects in unexpected ways, uses conjuring techniques and psychological skills to reveal apparently concealed information regarding props or members of the audience.

“It’s a completely interactive, participatory-type show,” Barry said. “People will be asked to think of things, maybe a favorite pet or someone that they love, and somehow I know what they’re thinking in many cases. I’m not psychic, no claims whatsoever, it’s purely for entertainment purposes … My goal is a fun show for the audience where they’re part of the show.”

“I would call myself a psychological illusionist. It’s not the same as seeing a magic show,” Barry specified. “There’s always a little comedy, but it’s not a comedy show … the comedy usually emanates because the audience said something cute, and then I go with it.”

As Barry explained it, the audience is key to a successful mentalism performance.

“If you bring people up on the stage who are having a good time, everybody’s having a good time,” Barry said. “I’m looking for certain people to participate. I watch the audience and I’m looking for people that are having fun, that are smiling, that are open, and those are the people that I tend to want to bring up and engage with. I’m also trying to find out in my own mind who I think it would be fun to bring up … there are no stooges in the show. I am looking for certain qualities so it makes for a more fun show … people that are going to be engaging and in some ways can follow instructions, can be compliant.”

However, Barry added, “if I ask someone to come up to the stage, it’s not an optional thing. I’m always respectful, but if I say please come up, you’re going to come up as long as you can walk. If you allow people to say ‘I really don’t feel like coming up,’ now they’re in charge of the show.”

He does not feature hypnosis in his show, and pointed out that an old-fashioned approach can often be an advantage for the 21st-century mentalist: “The more that technology evolves, the more that analog methods become the most useful and fooling to an audience.”

“I’m friends with an ex-director of the CIA,” Barry said. “He does mentalism as a hobby. I train with him every year in Las Vegas. He knows that when he performs for his friends, he can’t really use high-tech stuff. He’s using stuff that involves more analog.”

“I try to remember everyone’s name that I meet, not just during my show,” Barry added. “Remembering a name is one of the biggest and best secrets of either an entertainer or a salesperson.”

An enthusiastic chef, Barry used cooking as a metaphor for explaining how he assembles the different components of his show.

“A good cook understands how to combine ingredients,” Barry said. “You can’t really cook or do what I do unless you understand the ingredients, and then you start to find ways to combine them so that no particular ingredient sticks out … Everything that I do is a mixture of methods. Some of the methods may involve my understanding of people over all those years I did sales. Some may involve other things that are what you would call techniques that may be used in magic. Some of the things are ideas that come from psychics or what you’d call oracles … I combine them to create something that is hopefully delicious.”

Is steering people’s decisions one of these ingredients?

“It depends on the routine,” Barry said. “I would say it’s just one ingredient of many … I think it makes for a much more interesting show when people can make what appear to be free decisions, so I don’t really need to steer them to a certain direction. If I pick the right people to do a certain routine, then things usually go very well … each audience is different … and I need to chamelonize myself to that audience.”

Another ingredient is Barry’s dyslexia. “It has an effect on the way that I see things, in seeing things in different ways,” Barry said. “I think my dyslexia’s definitely part of my whole schtick.”

“The show biz thing is a bit in my background,” Barry said. “My grandfather, Dave Barry — he’s the actor, not the writer … he was a comic that was in the movies ‘Some Like It Hot,’ ‘From Beginning to End’ … he was the opening act comedian for Wayne Newton for almost 20 years … I was in residential real estate for 25 years, in Phoenix and Seattle … I basically took my lifetime hobby of magic and mystery, performing, and turned that into a full-time business around 2013.”

Barry emphatically agreed that the skills he developed working in real estate were also applicable to his style of performing arts.

“It translated in two ways,” Barry explained. “The first way, obviously, is getting to know people and the way that they respond. Sometimes in real estate the person that’s talking the most isn’t really the person that’s making the decisions … It may the quieter person who you need to listen to more … Those types of real estate lessons, understanding people, anticipating their decisions and their needs … sometimes little things, breadcrumbs people would say, you have to pay attention, you have to be listening more than you’re talking.”

In addition, Barry noted, “being in the sales thing for all those years allowed me to get up and running as a creative much faster than somebody that just had the creative skills … you need to know how to sell yourself.”

Although Barry has previously performed at a number of corporate events in Sedona, he was recently motivated to expand his scope after seeing a film at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre during a weekend trip.

“I said to my wife, ‘This would be an ideal venue for a show,’” Barry recalled. “What I’ve been looking for is a little bit of a sandbox where I can play and try some things and experiment a little bit that I can’t really do with my corporate show. New things, or things I think might be interesting.”

“I want to create a relationship with Sedona and the audience,” Barry continued. “My hope is to be doing these shows over a period of a year, or more.”

He is currently scheduled to return to the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Nov. 24.

“We have two shows locked in right now, and if things go nicely, we’ll do some shows after the first of the year,” Barry said. “The show that I’ll do in September will be probably 80% different than the show that I do in November. I want to try and make the shows a bit different each time.”

“The goal is not just to create these puzzles, it’s to create a ride,” Barry said. “I want to create something that feels like a rollercoaster ride.”