Colin McLeod, known professionally as Colin Cloud, is a British stage

mentalist Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precogniti ...

from Harthill,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, who describes himself as ''The Real Life Sherlock Holmes''. In 2017 he appeared as a semi-finalist on season 12 of ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distribut ...

''.

Personal life

Cloud was born on 9 January 1987 in

Harthill, Scotland Harthill is a rural village split between North Lanarkshire and West Lothian in Scotland, with most of the village in North Lanarkshire. It is located about halfway between Glasgow, to the west, and Edinburgh, to the east. It lies on the Riv ...

. In a 2015 interview with ''stv Glasgow'', Cloud says that he was shy and quiet at school, and that he studied forensic investigation at university. He has stated that he has been inspired by

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's fictional detective,

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

, and the detective's ability to read people. Cloud began his career by studying a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in forensic investigation, specializing in criminal profiling, at Glasgow Caledonian University (2003-2007) before abandoning that line to pursue a career in entertainment. Cloud recently became engaged to Chloe Crawford while working with her on "The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays".

Early career

Cloud joined Tree of Knowledge as a speaker in 2007. He left the company in 2013 to concentrate on developing a TV and stage career. Under the name Colin McLeod, Cloud appeared as a contestant on '' Penn & Teller: Fool Us'', where he failed to fool the judges. In 2012, he appeared on ''

Britain's Got Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquially ...

'' with positive reviews from the four judges. However, McLeod failed to make it through to the live semi-finals. In 2012, Cloud performed at the Edinburgh International Magic Festival.

Career

Cloud performs both public and private shows. He has taken shows to the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

in 2014 to 2016. In June 2015, Cloud joined the touring magic show,

The Illusionists The Illusionists is a touring magic production which features a rotating cast of 5 to 8 magicians who all specialise in specific branches of magic from stage illusions to mind reading to escapology and comedic magic. Scheck, Fran"'The Illusionists ...

as "The Deductionist".

TV and radio

In 2014, in collaboration wit
Don Jack
the partnership ''Prestige'' was established. Since then, Cloud has appeared as a guest on Michael McIntyre's Big Show, Loose Women, Steve Wright and The One Show among other TV and radio performances internationally. More recently, Colin was invited to work with the team of

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

's '' Sherlock'' - working with series creator

Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', '' Sherlock'', and '' Dracula''. Together with ...

creating support material for the Sherlock Christmas Special. In 2017, Cloud was a contestant on season 12 of ''

'' and reached the semi-finals. He later made an appearance on the

Royal Variety Performance The ''Royal Variety Performance'' is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity (of which King Charles III is life-patron). It is attended by senior members of the British royal f ...

. In 2019, Cloud participated in the first season of '' America's Got Talent: The Champions'', where he was eliminated in the preliminary round. He made an appearance as a guest performer alongside season 13 winner,

Shin Lim Liang-Shun Lim (born September 25, 1991), known professionally as Shin Lim, is a Canadian-American magician, recognized for his use of card manipulation and sleight of hand. He is known for elaborate close-up card magic routines, during which h ...

, in the season two finale on 17 February 2020.

Stage shows

* 2011: It's All in the Mind. * 2012:

* 2014: The Colour Ham * 2014: Colin Cloud Forensic Mind Reader * 2015: Wild Cabaret (Glasgow) * 2015: Colin Cloud Kills * 2016: Colin Cloud: Exposé * 2017: Dare * 2017: The Illusionists Live * 2017:

* 2017:

* 2019: America's Got Talent: The Champions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cloud, Colin Mentalists 1987 births Living people Alumni of Glasgow Caledonian University America's Got Talent contestants