COLIN Cloud doesn't want a penny for my thoughts.

He wants a Skype connection and the chance to see my face so he can read my mind.

But time and technology are against us so we settle for a phone chat.

The Scot has just returned from San Francisco and is feeling a little jet-lagged but sounds chirpy enough on the phone.

The forensic mind reader is set to become the next big thing after securing an American TV deal.

Much in demand, he is taking his tour all over the world and to the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, winding up in Dorchester on September 9 on his mind-reading extravaganza tour.

Colin claims he can recall information from the 'recesses' of your mind such as your PIN number or your Amazon password. Gulp.

Luckily for us though, he's on 'our side' and describes himself as 'the closest thing in the universe to the real life Sherlock Holmes'. Look out Benedict Cumberbatch.

Colin said: "Reading peoples' minds is something that you get better at the more you do it.

"If you play the piano a lot then you get better and in a way we all read people's minds, such as reading people when you play chess.

"I was at primary school when I first got into this. I remember seeing a Sherlock Holmes book in the library.

"I started to read it and I was just fascinated by his deducing of people."

As a 10-year-old Colin then became interested in the hypnotism techniques of Paul McKenna.

"I became fascinated with science and with psychology," he said.

"I went to university at 15 to study forensic science and I became aware that the people who were most aware of other people were stand-up comedians.

"The best comedians are those who pay the most attention.

"It was then that I realised there was a chance for me to stand on a stage and read people."

Colin is hopeful that the show he has filmed with American broadcast company NBC will see the light of day.

"They said they would like to do a television version of some of the stuff I've done on the stage.

"I've been filming with that and everything is looking positive with that.

"The show is very much looking like the show I would imagine making. I'm very hopeful."

I ask how Colin if similarities can be drawn between his TV show and that of Derren Brown's.

He said: "Derren is an absolute master and I'm a great admirer of everything he has done on television.

"I'm more interested in the psychology and I'm using it with more subtlety.

"I think the difference is that my background is more with the observation and I think my personality is very different to Derren's.

"It's like two comedians telling different jokes with the same theme. Everything is very different."

Celebrities to have been marvelled by Colin include Jonathan Ross, Ant and Dec and Uri Geller.

And there was one very famous fellow Scot who wanted Colin to perform a very special entertainment task for him.

Colin said: "Andy Murray's family had me along to perform in their new hotel where his wedding reception took place.

"It was for his gran's 80th birthday so they wanted me to come along and entertain her.

"It went really well and they were an absolute joy."

And Colin has drawn some very interesting conclusions from his observation of people over the years.

He said: "People are always observing other people.

"When you meet someone in person you have no projection of what type of person they might be.

"People put on an act to emphasise the parts of their personality they want people to know.

"On the phone you behave more like you would normally.

"Watching people in bars and coffee shops is fascinating. The more observation skills you pick up, the more you can see things like cat hairs on the back of their trousers and mud on their shoes."

Colin says he is really looking forward to his extensive tour, which starts in September and takes in the Netherlands as well as numerous UK venues.

"In the past I've done shows in Edinburgh, LA, New York and now I'm going up and down the UK which I'm really looking forward to."

He promises his audiences that all his shows are done in a sensitive nature.

"The thought of going to a show where someone can reveal everything about you can be quite intimidating.

"The concept I use is that if Sherlock Holmes was alive today and on stage and doing a show, what would that be like?

"The show I will be doing is a combination of last year's shows and this year's shows.

"I get people to tell me what they would use new skills for.

"Some of them have said they would use them for getting girls' telephone numbers.

"I ask them that if I was going to use the skills they would say to me what is the most ambitious thing you would use those skills for and I tell them I would quite literally use them to get away with murder and that's the concept of the show.

"There's a little bit of Sherlock Holmes in it as well and some Moriarty too."

*Colin Cloud is at Dorchester Corn Exchange on September 9. Contact Dorchester Arts for tickets.