Lineup
Colin Cloud
Look at your hands. Your nails. The heels of your shoes. What do you see?
Nothing?Imagine someone who could look at those details and see everything. Everything.
Only, you don’t have to imagine. Because this is precisely what Colin Cloud does.
He’ll know what you’ve had for lunch, where you’ve been that day, what you do for a living, the car you drive, even your PIN code. He’ll read you like a book. He’s already sure you’re quite the page-turner.
Acclaimed stage mentalist Colin Cloud is the Sherlock Holmes of entertainment, if Holmes had a flair for comedy. He’s the Great Detective of live events.
His astounding deductions and outrageous stunts have stunned audiences from New York to Australia; from London’s West End to Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
His Edinburgh Fringe shows sell out annually and have been voted in the top three shows to see from over 4000 acts. In 2017, Cloud appeared on the Royal Variety Performance and toured the U.S. in The Illusionists Live from Broadway.
Colin Cloud is the best and maybe even the wisest man you’ve ever known. Cloud has performed for professional sceptics like Penn and Teller. He has wowed the hard-to-please Simon Cowell. He has certainly left people convinced that he does indeed have mystical skills of reading minds and influencing outcomes. The media have described him as the real-life Sherlock and witnesses don’t say much as they’re usually left speechless.
When the other boys were out playing football and hiding in the woods, Colin was predicting the score and finding their hiding places with almost psychic accuracy.
Performer, keynote speaker, consultant, coach, comedian: the entertaining and endearing Colin Cloud is THE forensic mind reader, and you know you want to see him.
What’s more – he knows it too.
"We could rule the world together." - Simon Cowell "Utterly mind blowing." - Prince William "Do me!" - Holly Willoughby
John Loughton
John is a social entrepreneur, youth campaigner, activist and leadership coach on a mission to make every young person unlock their inner confidence. John ran his first campaign aged 11 despite facing a challenging childhood. He has gone on to speak to over one million people, toured across 45 countries and helped raise over £4million for good causes. He is CEO of global leadership company Dare2Lead, which has trained over over 30,000 people. He is also Founder of Scran Academy, a catering social enterprise changing the lives of disadvantaged young people.
In 2007 John was elected Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament and has frequently represented Scotland and the UK on the international stage, including Commonwealth, UN, G8 and EU Summits. John was named Outstanding Youth of the World 2013 in Rio de Janiero Brazil, joining an elite including John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley. He has worked with world leaders including The Queen, UN Secretary General, Nobel Peace Prize winners and various international Heads of State. On a lighter note, in 2007 he rose in prominence after winning the TV show Celebrity Big Brother Hijack.
Kirsten McCrossan
Kirsten is currently Managing Director of The Drama Box; a fun loving dream team who work with schools all over Scotland championing #MoreDrama in order to inspire as much imagination, communication and laughter as possible.
Kirsten started out in Belmont Academy in Ayr where she was made to sit by herself in almost every class as she never stopped talking. She failed most of her Highers in fifth year and cried a lot about it. Luckily Kirsten had her hobby of youth theatre to throw her energy into which has since then turned into the most fulfilling, rewarding and fun career she could have wished for.
Between her school days and today has been a colourful journey including: going to college; pouring pints in pubs; cleaning rooms in a hotel; working in American summer camps; working full-time in a call centre; repeating a year at college; selling insurance door to door and checking people and cars onto a ferry.
After a good few years of doing all of these random jobs - and picking up some ridiculously useful skills along the way - Kirsten got her big break after applying for jobs within drama - and was offered a full-time position working for Borderline Theatre Company and she hasn’t looked back since.
Since then she has worked happily and successfully as a drama educator working with Education Scotland, The Scottish Book Trust and Youth Theatre Arts Scotland. She founded, ran and then sold Edinburgh theatre school ‘Love Drama’ then travelled around the world. This year Kirsten was named ‘Entrepreneur of the Moment 2018’ by ESpark Ayrshire for her growth of ‘The Drama Box’ and employing a team of three amazing people.
"If you do well in your exams; do something amazing with them. If you fail your exams; do something amazing without them."
Christian MacLeod
Christian MacLeod was born in Inverness, Scotland (1991) and announced the creation of the Christian MacLeod brand at 16 years old to reinvent the belt. At the age of 16, with his only career plan to become a professional golfer, designing belts was just his hobby to take his belt designs to the golf course to wear something different and to stand out from the other golfers. Christian turned professional at the age of 18, and after a successful year in competition, Christian was in a terrible accident.
Four months in hospital, and not being able to compete professionally in golf for 2 years, Christian decided to turn his back on his professional golf career and focus entirely on changing the international perception of belts.
What began with a collection of three belts has grown into an entire world. Christian MacLeod has established himself as the pioneer in the art of luxury belts showcasing his debut collection of belts in British GQ and Vogue. His belts are regularly spotted on celebrities and leads successful partnerships with Aston Martin, BMW, Red Bull, Celtic Football Club and Teenage Cancer Trust.
Christian MacLeod’s success has been recognised by a number of awards including, Accessory Designer of the Year, The Herald Fashion Awards (2015), Retail Entrepreneur of the Year, The Retail Trust (2015).
Lucy Lintott
In 2013, at the age of 19, Lucy was diagnosed with the terminal illness MND. Feeling scared and alone she started the legendary blog Lucy’s Fight, to raise awareness of MND and share her incredible story. Fast forward nearly 5 years and Lucy has shared her story with over half a million people and raised around £180,000 for MND Scotland. Lucy told us she’s honoured to be a part of Fire Up Scotland, she’ll be talking about her life with and without MND and the importance of believing in yourself and dreams.
Alice Thompson
Alice Thompson is Co-Founder & Director of Social Bite. Social Bite's journey to becoming one of Scotland's leading social enterprises has been a public phenomenon with public supporters of their work such as George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Prince Harry & Meghan.
However the real story is the one behind the celebs, the story of the homeless people Alice has come into contact with over the years who have shaped how Social Bite do business, and the incredible work now being undertaken by Social Bite to change the face of homelessness in Scotland, for good.
MGA
We cannot wait to see MGA hit the stage at Fire Up Scotland, they are truly extraordinary!
A Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) Approved Centre, MGA is Scotland’s only fully-accredited college with the UK’s Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre (CDMT) and is an approved centre by the Imperial Society for the Teachers of Dance (ISTD).
MGAs guarantee the highest possible standards of training to their students, alongside a wealth of performance opportunities and the option to work towards recognised qualifications in the performing arts with the support of world-class tutors drawn from across the UK, Europe and the US.
Indigo Velvet
Indigo Velvet are set to rock the Hydro at Fire Up Scotland. They ended 2017 with a BBC Introducing live session, their biggest hometown show and a feature on This Morning on ITV. They played 23 UK festivals, generated over half a million Spotify plays and were featured by Passport Approved, (a syndicated Radio show) broadcast on 65 stations worldwide. The young quartet have been championed by Metro, BBC Introducing, Record of the Day, Clash, Amazing Radio and more.
Erin Doogan & Gav Bell
Erin (BeautyCreep) and Gav (MrGavinBell) are two young kick-ass Scottish vloggers with over 3 million views of their videos. Vlogging mostly about all things Scotland, adventure, outdoors and life in general, Erin and Gav have built up a huge following proving that being a YouTuber can have a truly positive impact in the world.
Kevin Quantum
Kevin had the most fascinating introduction into magic. Back in the mid-2000s the most popular reality show on TV was called ‘Faking It‘. The premise was to train someone in a job laterally opposite to the one they already did. So, for example, they would train a classical cellist to become a DJ, or a sheep shearer to become a hair dresser, or a minister to a second hand car salesman, you get the idea. Back in 2005 they took a quiet, mild mannered scientist and trained him to be a magician. And this is the story of how Kevin got into magic. He was that scientist. The most wonderful part of the show was that they taught every participant a new skill. Back in 2005, a 90 minute Easter Day special was aired and watched by almost 7 million people across the UK. It has since been translated into other languages and enjoyed by millions of people all over the world.
After the show Kevin has received Fan mail from folks in every continent across the world. He was taught by the best working professionals in the UK today. In addition he was flown over to Las Vegas where he received a master class on magic from the best magicians in the world “Penn and Teller”. That certainly left his mark on Kevin.
Many people often ask Kevin if he will ever return to Science as a career. He genuinely feels that he has made a bigger mark in the magic world on his audiences that he could have ever made in the world of science. You could say he found his calling and he’s very proud of all the high end magic projects he has created.
Since the show, he has now gone on to become one of the top magicians in the UK. A selection of high profile events and projects that Kevin has created or worked on are outlined below.
Collette Norval
Collette Norval heads up the newly launched social start-up, Social Stuff Ltd, creators of SQUAD. Based in Scotland, the social enterprise manufactures multifunctional performance snoods for sports supporters and outdoor enthusiasts across the UK, with the aim of giving 100% of its profits to charity.
Originally from Glasgow, Collette has always had an interest in entrepreneurship, particularly social enterprise. She has completed a number of entrepreneurially driven leadership programmes including the Hunter Leadership Programme and Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Internship Programme.
On graduating from the University of St Andrews in 2013 with a degree in languages (and no idea what to do with it!) she joined the oil and gas sector on a Commercial Graduate scheme with Wood Group PSN having previously completed a summer internship with the organisation in Houston as a Saltire Foundation Scholar.
At WGPSN she fulfilled a one-year secondment at Aberdeen’s Glencraft; a social enterprise manufacturing beds and mattresses, providing employment opportunities for disabled and disadvantaged people.
In 2015, after being made redundant in the oil and gas downturn, Collette was head-hunted by Aberdeen social entrepreneur and former oil executive Duncan Skinner to establish and take over the helm at Social Stuff.
Since launching in 2016, Social Stuff Ltd has produced SQUADs for several Scottish Premiership & English Championship football clubs including Aberdeen FC, Celtic FC & Preston North End. They also produce their high quality snoods under license for the Scottish Football Association, Scotland Rugby, Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors, as well as manufacturing custom designs for internationals brands and charities such as CISCO, Northlink Ferries, and Kiltwalk.
Collette is currently 1 of 70 Young Innovation Leaders from Europe to be awarded the prestigious 2018 YTILI Fellowship, the flagship program of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) of the U.S. Department of State.
Darren Connell
Darren is a stand up comedian and actor from Glasgow, you may know him as loveable Bobby Muir from BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad.
Darren is a veteran of the stand up circuit in Scotland doing his first gig at the Stand Comedy clubs famous Red Raw night and reaching the final of a Scottish Comedian of the year competition on his 50th gig, he’s also a finalist of the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny competition and a Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year nominee.
Darren has also done some serious acting in the BBC drama Trust me alongside Doctors Who’s Jodie Whittaker but will be returning to his comedy roots as an ugly sister in Cinderella at the gardyne theatre in Dundee.
Kevin Bridges once said “Darren has a bright future ahead” and he’s right as Scot Squad will be returning for a 5th series this year.
Gavin Oattes
Gavin Oattes is the Founder of Fire Up Scotland and Managing Director/Owner of Tree of Knowledge, one of the UK’s most exciting people development organisations. Working with schools and some of the largest organisations in the world, Gavin is now regarded as one the most talented and sought after speakers, regularly delivering keynote speeches at conferences and exhibitions around the world. An award winning comedian, a best-selling author and former Young Entrepreneur of the Year, his inspiration all comes from where he began his career….Primary School Teaching.
SKapade
SKapade Studios is Scotland's number 1 destination for DJs and dance music producers. Their company is run by young people who work in the creative industries, and SKapade support young talents to pursue their dream careers and follow their dreams! Their journey through dance music and business is one of legend and they are busy preparing more than just any old business talk for Fire Up Scotland. Rumour has it Stephen and Steven are bringing their decks…