Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 - Colin Cloud

I’ve been going to see Colin Cloud at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the last five years now. And every year he never fails to entertain, amaze and astound.

The illusionist extraordinaire has appeared on the Royal Variety Performance and recently appeared on America’s Got Talent. His shows at the Fringe are one of the highlights of the three-week arts and entertainment extravaganza and this year has proved to be no different.

This year’s show is called Sinful and for the first time he has a special guest – his fiancée Chloe Crawford.

The great man begs the question – are you an honest person? And, having answered – did you just lie to yourself? Believe me Colin Cloud will know – he knows everything about you.

He listens to your whispers and gleans those innermost secrets.

Without giving too much away, I can say that Colin Cloud is at his most brilliant this year. I always leave his shows asking myself ‘how the heck did he do that?’ I don’t know – and, if truth be told given what he knew of some of his unsuspecting audience the other night, I don’t want to know.

His shows are utterly compelling – he is simply a genius. His show is well worth the rather lengthy wait in a queue outside the Grand at the Pleasance, even allowing the stewards rather messing up the queuing system for Tuesday evening’s performance.

Colin Cloud – Sinful is at The Pleasance until 25th August 2019.

Colin Cloud Kills

I have seen Colin Cloud before. So when I heard the forensic mind reader extraordinaire was back in Edinburgh, I just had to go and see him again.

Appearing at Summerhall, a throw of a blindfold away from Edinburgh’s Meadows, Cloud’s latest offering - as part of Edinburgh’s Magic Fest – was every bit a mesmerising as the last time I went to his show. Literally, mesmerising.

As the expectant audience filed into Summerhall’s Lab Theatre, the great man sat silently on a chair, blindfolded. With everyone seated his act began and it’s easy to see why he has never lost a game of poker. He recalled information from the recesses of the minds of complete strangers – how he managed to guess where one woman was from simply by listening to her say her name is astonishing.

His website says Colin Cloud will, literally, get away with murder. Of course, he doesn’t actually murder anyone but the finale to his show will leave you open-mouthed with amazement. And just as you think the show has ended, there is one final mind-blowing twist…

The great man is a lover of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle which has resulted in him being described as the closest thing on Earth, nay the Universe, to Sherlock Holmes.

But Colin Cloud’s show is anything but elementary. It is sheer brilliance and I felt privileged to witness a genius at work.

His show is on all this week at Summerhall. Go and see the great man. You will be spellbound.

Colin Cloud - Forensic Mind Reader

He has been described as the next Derren Brown - but forensic mind reader Colin Cloud says he is more like Sherlock Holmes. However you wish to describe him, one word springs to mind – genius.

 

He reads minds. He can read your mind. He reads it just like the imaginary book you just made up. The press release for his show said Uri Geller described him as "one of the greatest thought readers of all time". Against that, it also said Ant and Dec screamed in disbelief at his act although, to be fair, the Geordie duo scream in disbelief most Saturday evenings. Most impressive, though, was that Cloud once left Jonathan Ross speechless, something than endeared me to Cloud even before I went to see his show in Edinburgh on Saturday. Having now witnessed the man from Harthill in action, I suspect Jonathan Ross wasn’t the only person to be left speechless.

 

The pre-show press release described him as entertaining and endearing and that’s exactly how I felt watching Cloud in action. 

In the rather intimate atmosphere of Dynamic Earth, in the shadow of the Scottish Parliament building, Cloud astonished his audience with a mesmerising performance that really was mind-boggling. Some mind-readers can be rather serious about their profession which is understandable given it can be quite a serious subject. However, seconds after taking the stage, Cloud immediately struck a rapport with his audience with humourous quips which set the tone for a hugely entertaining evening. Naturally, this kind of show involves audience participation and, inevitably, there were some in Saturday evening’s audience who were hoping Cloud didn’t select them as part of his act. However, Cloud’s humour and affable approach set those he did select at ease and, unlike some other performers of his ilk, he didn’t make fun of them; rather he laughed with them and they with him.  

Now, I won’t go into detail about the contents of the show for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, I guarantee anyone going to see the great man will be truly amazed by what they have witnessed. How he managed to read people’s minds the way he did was quite incredible to witness and brought gasps of astonishment from some in the hugely appreciative audience. At the end, just as Cloud was declaring his thanks to those who came along and the audience  eased into their coats to head home, the great man delivered a piece de resistance which nearly took my breath away.  

On a Saturday evening when millions of people are slouched on the sofa watching Britain’s Got Talent on the small box, Colin Cloud proved without question that Scotland not only has talent – it has a gifted performer. Cloud will be appearing in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 31 July and throughout August. I urge you to go and see him – you literally won’t believe your eyes.