Whether you are a cynic or a true believer, TLC’s Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo will dazzle and surprise you with Theresa Caputo Live! The Experience, happening at Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater on Friday, May 19.
Fans of the cable star will be able to experience her “gifts” first hand in an event she describes about engagement and encounters unlike most have ever seen. “So the event, The Experience, is quite amazing,” she states. “Even after 10 years of bringing what I do to a live stage, the spirit always amazes me on the messages they deliver. Because I’ve been to Houston before right before the pandemic and it was such an amazing experience. If anyone is coming back, it will be different and I can explain to you why: what I do is I come out on stage and give a little quick speech on what I do, how I channel spirits and what people can expect for the next two hours.
“Then once I start to sensing and feeling spirits, I come off of the stage and I allow spirits to guide me around the space. I will actually randomly stop in front of someone and channel their departed loved ones. We have cameras that follow me around and a big screen set up, so no matter where someone is seated, they will be able to witness and experience this up close and personal.”
That’s right – so audiences in attendance would be wise to prepare for anything. Since Caputo is off the stage, there’s no telling if the spirits might lead her directly to your feet. “You really don’t know what’s going to happen at the live event,” she agrees. “I always say that people walk into the theatre, hoping to hear from a loved one who has passed. Sometimes when that moment happens, they become like a deer in headlights and they can’t believe what is happening.”
When asked if people should prepare any questions in the event the moment strikes, she assures that no homework is required. “It’s not like a question and answer type of thing,” the 55-year-old New York native clarifies. “The spirit does all the talking and the actual communication.”
Comparing the live show format with those familiar with her long running TLC series, which ended its run in 2019, Caputo seems exhilarated to articulate the many unique, audience-directed experiences she has been part of. “There are several different elements on how the experience is so different live. The spirit might be delivering say, universal messages. Or think we might think as common. But what I’ve had is have spirits bring up things that there are no ways the person could know about.
“For example, a spirit might bring up something that happened years ago to remind their loved ones of the happier times. The Spirit might talk about things that have happened since they died to validate that every breath they take and every milestone they achieve, their loved ones are living life through their eyes. A common one is that their loved one was not there for their departure, so they might say something in reference to nothing was left unsaid, and I heard you say good bye. So now the spirit might say something that they’ve never shared with anyone else.”
“I’ll have spirits communicate with their personality and with laughter, and that can be because we need the levity. These are very heavy messages to hear and a lot of people come to the experience and they don’t know how to laugh. Or sometimes, they simply don’t want to. It’s almost as if the spirit can pick up on that spiritual roller coaster of being able to feel all the pain and the sorrow and the loss and the grief and then give us that ability to smile. That is what I enjoy about the live show, is the spirit is bit more playful, if I may use that term. To witness that and feel that energy in a large space of thousands of people is absolutely amazing.”
These other-worldly experiences have been a learning process for Caputo, who says she first learned she had extra abilities at a very young age. “I have been seeing and sensing since I was 4. I didn’t know I had this gift, I was brought up being told that we all can connect with our loved ones who have died. But being able to connect with everyone’s loved ones, I did not realize I had that ability until my late 20s, early 30s.
“I struggled with my gift for a long time – it was over five years that I struggled with my gift. I was raised Catholic; I struggled with that. Then once I figured out to incorporate my gift with my faith, then I struggled with: God has given me this gift and that is great, but who is going to want to come out to see a medium. I could not understand that. Why would someone want to talk with their loved one who had died?”
The big take-away for the medium? “What I learned over those years, unfortunately who we lose or how they died, we, here, in the physical world are left with these burdens and guilt. The should have, could have, would haves and only ifs. Holding on to these negative emotions does not give us the ability to heal. The experience and the work that I do is about healing. I have learned so much from what I do, I have learned to let go of the things that don’t serve a purpose. It’s OK to feel guilt sadness or sorrow, but to hold onto that is completely different. That is what spirit encourages us to do: let go of these burdens and guilts so that we can heal.”
To many this would be a draining experience, but Caputo reveals often for her, the Experience process yields the opposite result. “I actually feel energized after I read,” she reveals. “For about an hour, I’m super energized. Last night, I was up until 1:30 in the morning because I couldn’t fall asleep. But every time is different. I always say to people: are you tired from a long day of work? It’s the same thing. I actually feel more drained if I resist, and don’t deliver messages. It’s actually harder for me to kind of ignore them. It’s much easier for me to just blurt things out.”
But since this production is so based on the engagement of the audience, the question remains: have the spirits ever stood up the Long Island Medium? And if so, what happens then. “It’s never happened!” she says, thankfully. “Never, because here’s the thing – souls are always around us. Our loved ones are always around. And not everyone needs or wants to hear from their loved ones that have passed! What I do may not be for everyone. There are times when I sense and feel things, but the spirit might not push me to say them. It doesn’t mean this person does not love their loved one who has passed on – they may just not need to hear something in that moment. Or sometimes, they are not ready.
“Honestly, it’s not easy hearing these messages. It’s very, very difficult. There are times when I’m channeling and I can feel the people receiving the messages. It’s way too much for them. Sometimes I have to pull back a little bit so that person can relax and be a little more open to the messages. I make what I do seem very easy, but it’s very difficult to do what I do.”
With the ways things have changed in the 21st Century, Caputo reasons that people are “absolutely” more open now to her unique perspectives than ever before. “I think there are events that happen in the world,” she explains in a serious tone. “Like for me, 9/11 was the big turning point in me accepting my gift. So many people had passed away and their loved ones didn’t know what happened. A lot of people were not even able to recover their loved ones’ physical bodies.
“So we find ourselves in a kind of a similar situation with COVID. Where we weren’t able to be there for our loved ones. I think over the over 20 years of me doing what I do, people are much more open to spirituality but also much more open to what they are sense and feeling are real. That’s what I want people to know – that they don’t have to go to a medium to communicate with their loved ones. They have that connection, that bond that will never be broken. As a medium, I’m just able to validate that for them. Because I do the same thing, when I get messages or signs from my loved one, I am like, am I recalling that? We all second guess it. My job as a medium is to validate that you’re not crazy!”
The Experience is scheduled for Friday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, visit theresacaputo.com. $55-200.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
