Colin Cloud

Audition Mind-Reading Trick

Revealed

Colin Cloud performed this trick on his audition on the TV show America's got talent. He first says that what he will do will be the closest to the real-life Sherlock Holmes. Let's see!

To demonstrate his Sherlock Holmes abilities, he first picks a couple sitting in the front row, and correctly guesses their professions (the woman is a teacher, the man is a police officer). Very impressive!

Next, Colin asks Tyra to come on stage and sit on a box that is positioned in the middle of the stage. He hands her a prediction, which will only be revealed at the end of the trick.

Cloud then explains that his background in forensic science makes him exceptionally good at recognizing if somebody is lying or telling the truth. To prove this, he gives Howie a coin and asks him to secretly put it in one of his hands. Then, Colin asks him »is the coin in this hand« for each hand, and Howie has to say »yes« both times. With his Sherlock Holmes skills, Colin figures out when Howie wasn't telling the truth, which tells him in which hand the coin is. Amazing!

Next, Colin repeats the same thing with the other three judges, but with an interesting twist. He asks the audience to pick a color, an animal, and a name. Basing his predictions on the choices of the audience (white, cat and Oscar), combined with his body-language reading, he correctly predicts every single one!

As if this wasn't enough, Cloud then returns to Tyra to check his prediction. Inside the box she was sitting on the whole time is a white cat, whose name is Oscar!

Don't believe it? Want to know how does he do it? See the performance yourself, then read the explanation below.

Explanation:

How did he do it? Is he real or fake? Does he actually have Sherlock Holmes skills? We will explain everything. First, let's break the trick down and explain each separate part.

Guessing the professions

At the beginning of the trick, Colin correctly guesses the professions of two people sitting in the front row. How is he able to do that? There are two possibilities: either he somehow got the personal information of the audience (most likely), or those people were stooges, planted here by Colin himself.

Guessing which hand the coin is in

How does he know which hand the coin is in? This is actually quite simple and involves no special body-language reading abilities whatsoever. All Colin needs is a metal detector, which is probably concealed somewhere under his sleeve. As he reaches forward with his arm, the metal detector tells him where the coin is.

How did he predict that the audience will pick 'white', 'cat', and 'Oscar'?

He didn't. Notice he didn't ask one random person from the audience to pick the color, the animal and the name. Rather, they all shouted, and Colin himself 'selected' the responses he wanted.

For example, let's look at how the color white was selected. Colin first asks Mel B to hide the coin in one hand, and then stretch her hands forward. His metal detector tells Colin which hand the coin is in (in this case, it is Mel B's left hand). He then asks the audience to shout the color they selected. Naturally, the crowd shouts all different colors and Colin is free to pick whichever he wants. He just makes sure one of them is white.

So, he picks white and blue. He already knows the coin is in Mel B's left hand. Now all he has o say is: if the coin is in the left hand (which he knows is true), think of white. That's the whole secret!

He repeats the exact same trick with 'cat'. But how does he get 'Oscar'? Well, he has a helper in the audience who shouts 'Oscar'. It's as easy as that.