Prepare to have your mind blown: Renowned mentalist Colin Cloud comes to Wheeler Opera House

An evening with Colin Cloud is the closest you’ll get to mingling with Sherlock Holmes, the fictional character Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created in 1887. Using mentalism, Cloud acts as a real-life Holmes, blowing audience’s minds worldwide, from London’s West End to Broadway to his current, three-year residency in Las Vegas. Friday, he brings his unique blend of psychological illusion, sharp wit, and interactive audience experience to Wheeler Opera House.

“The show, basically, is true to the idea that Sherlock Holmes was a real person, and you walked into a room to watch him present, display, and share his skills and abilities,” Cloud said. “That was my inspiration for largely everything I’ve done in life, if I’m being honest. It’s very much always been the thing that I’ve gone back to time and time again — is finding ways to replicate his skill set. So, essentially, the show is a real look at the abilities of deduction — being able to deduce things about people that (I) couldn’t possibly know, memory demonstration, solving crimes in the room and also creating mysteries for people to try and solve in their own mind.”

He describes his current shows as his best work from the past two decades, all tied together. Within them, he incorporates comedy to both disarm and entertain.

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“That’s the one big difference from Sherlock, is: He was very, I would say, arrogant, obnoxious, and rude, whereas this show certainly has more heart than being in the presence of the actual Sherlock would have been.”

When Cloud discovered Holmes at age 7, he believed the sleuth was real.

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“Six months or a year later, I found out he never actually existed, and it was like that Santa-Claus-balloon-burst moment, where it was devastating,” he said.

Still, Holmes’ skills fascinated him, as did science, which led him to discover psychology, and, eventually, hypnosis and mentalism.

“I’m like, ‘surely this is not real,’ and then I started trying it and found it was devastatingly accurate,” he said about hypnosis.

At age 15, the University of Glasgow accepted him to study forensic investigation, which somewhat reflects Holmes’ real-life inspiration: Doyle’s medical school professor, who could diagnose patients by studying their appearance and mannerisms.

Forensic investigation requires grace under pressure, and Cloud noticed that stand-up comedians honed that quality.

“They have a great perception of the world. They’re great at picking up on traits and things that we all do,” he said. “The best comedians are great at loving being present and noticing things in the room, so even when they’re up there with the spotlight on them, under pressure, they’re still able to stay calm and be very perceptive, and for me, that was a desirable skill to have.”

Being a shy kid, he first tried to acquire that clear perception under pressure by taking in shows and reading about stand-up, but he discovered the only way to develop such a muscle required reps on stage. He did open mics and earned a residency at a comedy club, mixing in mentalism to make his act more unique.

“Without that, I probably would be in a lab somewhere right now as opposed to being on stages around the world,” he said. “I was really shy and reserved and quiet, so to go to the other extreme now and be on stage — that’s purely because of the inspiration of comedy and having that mindset and skill set.”

After graduating with honors, he worked in the United Kingdom teaching managers how to use mentalist skills in leadership or sales, including memory proficiencies. But when the full-time job began interfering with his performing, he reached a crossroads and committed solely to performing.

“I’m kind of having the same impact, but in a more enlightening and entertaining way than a more educating and enlightening way, so that was just far more appealing,” he said.

He distinguishes mentalism from magic as a sleight of mind rather than sleight of hand. In other words, he employs psychological tricks to draw information out of people.

“Magic is about guiding and leading attention, and then mentalism takes it further than that, where it’s utilizing that attention,” he said.

His show involves audience interaction from start to finish, though he never makes anyone take the stage. He also takes care never to embarrass volunteers on stage. Rather, he considers them co-stars.

“I’m very cognization of the fact that some people just don’t want to be involved, and I can always get a good read on people. I’m very good at knowing who’s going to be good and bad at certain things in the show,” he said. “I always felt stage hypnosis was all about mocking people, which was not really appealing to me, but the skills were very intriguing. That led me to discover mentalism, where it takes a lot of that suggestion and uses it to plant thoughts and extract thoughts rather than just cause people to behave in ridiculous ways.”

After performing at renowned festivals and “The Illusionist,” a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, performed in London’s West End and on Broadway, he appeared on “America’s Got Talent” in 2017. Initially, when the show’s producers approached him, he didn’t accept the offer because television wasn’t on his radar. But when the producer of “The Illusionist” said he heard Cloud was doing the American show, Cloud couldn’t say no.

“It was like your boss telling you that you’re working on a Sunday, and you’re like, ‘I’ve got plans,’ and he says ‘no, you’re working on Sunday,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, OK,'” he said. “But I got into it, and the team was actually amazing.”

Since then, he has reappeared as a special guest a number of times, which elevated his reputation in the U.S. and led to his Vegas residency.

Colorado audiences can expect not only to be astonished, but also to laugh a lot.

“I think it’s going to surprise them how funny the show is, at the same time as being hopefully amazing,” he said. “It really is a combination of these two — they’re my favorite emotions that you can give people.”

In fact, to stun people at the Edinburgh International Festival, he hired a doctor to inject him with deadly snake venom, and then carried out a live search throughout the city with 500 audience members to secure the antidote.

Though audiences probably won’t be searching the mountains for snake-bite antidotes, the family-friendly show promises to be nearly as memorable.