INTERVIEW: Sherlock Holmes returns to Broadway, in the form of Colin Cloud
Photo: The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays stars Colin Cloud as “The Deductionist.” Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by BBB with permission.
Colin Cloud is one of the most successful comedians and mentalists to ever come from Scotland. He adopts the character of Sherlock Holmes for his stage shows, and audience members often find themselves laughing heartily while their minds are blown. His antics, which rely on a particular verbal flair, work well with a large crowd and impressive stage, so it’s no surprise his routine has landed on Broadway thanks to The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays.
The magic show, which plays through Dec. 30 at the Marquis Theatre in Midtown Manhattan, has been a holiday staple in New York City for four years running. This year’s incarnation stars Adam Trent, Chloé Crawford, Shin Lim, Darcy Oake and Cloud. The Light Balance dance company even turns up for a couple special appearances.
Cloud’s portion of The Illusionists focus on his traits as a deductionist, or if audience members prefer: a mind reader. He takes to the stage and offers many funny lines with participating theatergoers (some of them squirming after being picked), but then he gets down to business and amazes the crowd with acts of jaw-dropping and seemingly impossible mentalism.
As his website states, the forensic mind reader knows what people had for lunch, where they visited that day, what they do for a living and the car that drove them to the theater.
JOURNEY TO BROADWAY
Cloud’s journey to The Illusionists came after his buzzed-about shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“They heard about me from performing at the Edinburgh Festival over in Scotland,” Cloud said in a recent phone interview. “My solo shows have been getting bigger and bigger, and they found out who I was. They asked a couple of the Illusionists at the time who were already in the show if they knew much about me. The guys very graciously spoke very highly of me. We arranged a meeting in London, went down, met them, and they had me host their first West End run.”
The Illusionists franchise at this point is international. They have successfully set up shop on Broadway and London’s West End, and toured the world many times over. Cloud said that the producers respected his routines and let him choose the best acts for the expansive show, which highlights the illusions of many performers.
“Because I do so much of my own stuff anyway, I film everything,” he said. “I can just show them clips of what it is I want to do in the show and where I think it will work best. … Basically I say, ‘Look, I think this will work well here. That will work well there, and then maybe do it there.’ And then it’s up to them as directors to piece it together in a way that best complements everyone else. They’re pretty open to it. They’ll maybe ask for a few tweaks or changes. Certains jokes are more appropriate for the time slot that I perform in in Edinburgh where it’s not a family show; it’s more adult. I’ll take certain lines out, tweak certain lines and just make it more appropriate for this franchise.”
Growing up, Cloud — shockingly — did not like magic. He received a magic kit for Christmas one year, and his cousin learned all the tricks before he did. This naturally made him hate magic, but the character of Sherlock Holmes came onto his radar at about the same time. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary creation transfixed the young Cloud, and he became fixated on the character.
“It was always Sherlock Holmes who I was obsessed with,” he said. “When I was about 10, I discovered he never actually existed, so I was devastated, as you can imagine. But … then got into psychology and hypnotism and went to university quite young. I was 15 when I got accepted to study forensic science but specializing in criminal profiling, and started doing comedy. I realized comedians are amazing at observing people. … Their perspective was very Sherlockian in a sense, so started performing in comedy clubs with all the weird psychological stuff. And before I knew it, I was selling out at the Edinburgh Festival, and then it led to this.”
Cloud loves Holmes’ ability to look at someone and know everything. As a character, he is able to study human behavior and then rightly guess motives.
“That, for me, was always very appealing, and those are wonderful skills,” Cloud said. “But then also the whodunit, how-did-he-do-it, locked-room, mystery-type thing, that was always a very appealing aspect as well. That hooked me on to that, I suppose.”
When Cloud performs in The Illusionists on Broadway, he does not know how his performance will end up. That’s because he uses audience participants, and who knows how they will react to his comedy, his requests and his mentalism.
“This is why I love it because every night is totally different, which is unlike most of the other acts,” he said. “For them, they always enjoy it, but it’s always very much the same routine, whereas when that curtain comes up, I literally have no idea who I’m going to get and as a result what exactly is about to happen. So every night is completely different, but for the most part, the backbone stays the same. But it’s very much a different experience every single night. It’s always fun, always keeping me on my toes, and feels fresh and real because it’s in the moment. It feels very much tailored for that audience because, for the most part, it very much is.”
When Cloud is away from Scotland, he often works on new material during his off time. That’s what he’s doing right now in between performances of The Illusionists at the Marquis Theatre. He reported that he’s writing a new show for Edinburgh. He’ll refine his sketches in the first three months of 2019, and then he’ll hit some open-mic nights in small cubs to try the material out. By June or July, he’ll start previewing shows and cutting the performance’s duration to a manageable time.
“Then I’ll show it to the guys at The Illusionists … and then they usually pitch if they want any of the new routines and new variations of the show,” he said. “It’s a nice cycle. I get this time to think about what comes next essentially.”
He added: “I also think mentalism, because it’s very cerebral, runs the risk of being very boring because there’s nothing visual. If you’ve got a lot of young kids there, there needs to be something. When you’ve got people appearing out of nowhere and people swallowing razor blades, when there are things like that that are super visual, for me to be standing there basically just talking in what is essentially a weird accent for most of the room, it’s like this stuff had better be as visual as possible and better be funny to keep them engaged. I’ve always felt the comedy is the glue that holds what I do together, but I never step on the ‘wow’ moments.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays plays through Dec. 30 at the Marquis Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
