Mind-reader David Meade relishesreturn to his old stomping ground

The Banbridge native is bringing his new show, ‘Seeing is Deceiving’, to the Waterside Theatre, the first time he’s played the venue.

He said it’ll be great to be back in the North West.

David loves Derry and would still be working as a lecturer at Magee had it not been for the meteoric success of his television and theatre career.

Speaking to the ‘Journal’, before the gig he recalled frequenting the hostelries and cafés of the Strand Road while a student and, later, an academic, at the Ulster University campus in the city.

He still has loads of friends and family here and calls it a home from home.

“I used to live here - this is my neck of the woods. I miss it. In fact, if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now I would definitely still be in a full time role at Magee. I loved it,” he said.

“I was in the School of International Business and it was great because I had big classes.

“I had 100 or 150 in a room and it was like a gig to tell you the truth and if you were in any way good or enjoyed teaching at all, Magee was the place to do it because they’ve got big rooms, good students, It’s a great city.

“I was sad to leave the role but I knew I wanted to try this stuff out,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, as the mentalist became a household name through his ‘The David Meade Project’ television series, the number of people attending his business lectures mushroomed unfeasibly.

“The lectures did well. There was one class and we had 110 registered and there were 140 coming to it! I think it was part nosiness,” he said.

The TV personality insisted his mind-reading act is entirely self taught and involves no psychic powers.

To demonstrate, he first copies blind a badly drawn picture of a ship in port, which has just been completed by your reporter on a notepad out of his line of sight.

Then, in a game of suggestion and double bluff, he calls exactly which side of a die your reporter has selected five times in a row. How does he do it?

“It’s all about body language, I’m watching the corner or your eyes, your facial expressions,” he said.

“I remember watching Uri Geller do that exact same trick with the drawing way back in the 1970s and I just watched it and watched it and watched it until I figured out how he does it,” he said.

Go along and see for yourself at the Waterside Theatre on Friday.