Interview: Colin Cloud, of THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY, Coming to Riverside's Fox Performing Arts Center.

One of the world's top magic ensemble companies is coming to Riverside, following a Broadway run, as part of its tour of more than fifty North American cities. THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY™, featuring seven performers, will play the Fox Performing Arts Center (Fox PAC) in Riverside, California, for two shows on Thursday, January 26 and Friday, January 27, 2017.

The troupe consists of "The Manipulator," Yu Ho-Jin, recently named the 2014 "Magician of the Year," by the Academy of Magical Arts; "The Anti-Conjuror," Dan Sperry, described as Marilyn Manson meets David Copperfield; "The Trickster," Jeff Hobson, who combines glamour, showmanship, and comedy; "The Escapologist," Andrew Basso. Italy's star escape artist, whose hero is Houdini; "The Inventor," Kevin James, an inventor, comedian and collector of the strange and unusual, who is known for his innovative illusions; "The Weapon Master," Ben Blaque, America's Got Talent contestant and this country's foremost master of the crossbow; and "The Deductionist," Colin Cloud, a psychic savant who has never lost a game of poker, and a real-life Sherlock Holmes.

Broadway World interviewed Colin Cloud by email about his performance and his talents. We have not edited Mr. Cloud's British spelling and syntax.

Broadway World: Could you explain to our readers what exactly a "deductionist" does?

Colin Cloud: Where the other performers in the show specialise in sleight of hand, stage illusions and mind over matter stunts, everything I do is based on knowledge and observation. I essentially pay attention to members of the audience and deduce and reveal specific facts about them and their lives I shouldn't be able to know.

BWW: Are you what people would consider "psychic," do you have logic capabilities that make Mr. Spock look like an amateur, or are you just extraordinary at noticing details and reading facial expressions and body language?

CC: People are often convinced by the end of the show that I must have some type of psychic power. I don't. Well ... not as far as I'm aware. What I do is now almost intuitive, but I mean that in the same was as driving a car or riding a bike, the more you do it, the better you get at it and the less you have to think about it.

BWW: How did your gift first manifest itself?

CC: I became fascinated by Sherlock Holmes when I was eight years old. I remember flicking through the pages to find the paragraphs where he'd be demonstrating his abilities in observation, deduction, memory ... and found it fascinating. Since then, I'm more or less spent my life finding ways to replicate his skill set. So it's much less about a gift manifesting itself and more about a passion being discovered.

BWW: Do you believe that other people can train themselves to do what you do, or do you have to be born with the ability?

CC: I think it comes down to why we want to learn anything in life. There has to be a genuine desire to want to. It has taken me over 20 years to perfect what I have so far and I'm still improving every day. So unless you have that love for wanting to dedicate those years of study, I don't think most people ever would.

BWW: Have you ever used your skills to help the police solve a crime?

CC: In my final year at university I was involved with this world. However, at the same time, I was performing in a lot of Comedy Clubs. That might seem like a weird leap, but I realised early on that comedians are amazing at studying people and situations under pressure. So the only way to learn that skill of 'reading' large groups of people could only be achieved by getting on stage and actually practising comedy. Before I knew it I was performing all over the world mixing the comedy with the weird mind tricks. So maybe one day I'll go back to the world of investigation, but for now, I'm thoroughly enjoying what I'm doing.

BWW: Is there anything else you'd like to tell the readers of Broadway World?

CC: Well, so far, tickets to the show have been selling out all over and I 'predict' that will be the same there. So get your tickets quickly.

THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY™ will play at the Fox Performing Arts Center for two performances, on Thursday, January 26 (show at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m.) and Friday, January 27, 2017 (show at 8 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.). Tickets are available at www.riversidelive.com, through Ticketmaster, at the box office, and at 1-800-745-3000. The Fox PAC is located at 3801 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501, about 120 miles from San Diego, 70 miles from parts of the San Fernando Valley and West LA, 57 miles from Long Beach, 55 miles from Palm Springs, and 45 miles from Anaheim. The tour's Web site is www.theillusionistslive.com.

Photo Credits: Joan Marcus, Claudia James

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