Theresa Caputo brings her experience as ‘The Long Island Medium’ to the Midland on July 30
Courtesy of Theresa Caputo
Theresa Caputo is the first person to say what she does for a living is crazy.
Being able to see things that other people couldn’t since she was four, Caputo has had to adjust her idea of what’s normal for her entire life. A lot of people know her from her long-running reality show Long Island Medium. With her big platinum blonde hair and unmistakable accent, viewers have welcomed Caputo into their homes for ten years now.
To celebrate this milestone, Caputo is bringing her live show to Kansas City on July 30 at The Midland.
Ahead of the show, The Pitch was able to chat with Caputo about how she came to discover her gift, what it means to her, and much more.
The Pitch: When did you realize you had this gift that other people didn’t?
Caputo: Growing up I thought it was normal for people to see someone standing at the foot of their bed that no one else could see, or hearing someone talk to you in an empty room. I was raised Catholic and my family’s faith was very strong so no one questioned anything I ever said or did when I was young. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I realized I not only had the gift to talk to my loved ones but everyone else’s. I believe that we all can connect with our loved ones who have died. That’s a soul bond that can never and will never be broken.
At one point, I was struggling with my gift. I couldn’t understand it and I didn’t know if people would want to come to a medium to contact their loved ones. And then 9/11 happened. I had a spiritual experience that told me it was important for people to know that their loved ones were at peace. I found that no matter how someone leaves this world we are left with these negative emotions that make it incredibly difficult to heal.
How did being raised in a Catholic household affect your acceptance of your gift?
My parents made it very easy for me. It was almost like because of having the belief in God and heaven and the afterlife made it easier for them to understand what I was experiencing. I would always tell my mom that I felt like something was missing or that I felt so different and didn’t fit in. She said to me ‘Who decided what normal is? If this is normal for you then you embrace it and you nurture it.’ I always say that this is who I am. I didn’t learn to do this or wake up one day and decide that I wanted to talk to dead people, this is just what I do and who I am.
Was there a specific moment that made you realize that you could make it your career?
I honestly never thought of it as a career or anything like that. It was just something that I could do and I just took it for what it was in the moment. I have this memory of going to a spiritual awareness class after 9/11 and I would experience my gift through the class. I remember watching people’s faces and seeing how it would change them. I decided that I would get a telephone line and make business cards and that was it.
How did the show come about?
Someone I knew in the neighborhood came for a reading, Courtney, she’s actually my manager now. She was a producer on TRL and had unfortunately lost her dad. So, she came for a reading and it had such a profound impact on her life and changed her in so many ways that she wanted other people to experience what I could do. She asked me if I would be interested in doing a television show and I said yes. I thought it would just be a few episodes or something but here we are ten years later.
Were you hesitant at all to start doing a television show?
I knew Courtney and I trusted her. We had grown up in the same neighborhood and I knew her family so I knew that I could trust her there was just this feeling I had. I call it Jiminy Cricket. I just knew that it would be okay and none of it ever felt weird to me. It didn’t feel weird to have cameras in my house or follow me around. I think the only thing that felt weird and still feels weird is people knowing who I am. I still freak out when I’m driving somewhere and see my face on a giant billboard or if I’m performing at a casino and there’s a picture of me there it always surprises me.
Do people come up to you a lot in public? How does that affect you?
I really appreciate them. For people to come up to me and thank me for what I do or tell me that they watch the show with their mom or their grandma is so special. I could not continue to do the work that I do without them so I really appreciate their support.
Your tagline for this tour is ‘10 Years of ‘the Experience.’ What does it mean to you to have these people coming out to see you after all this time?
It just goes to show just how important the work I do is. If after ten years I’m still traveling to different theaters and people are coming out to see me it shows that people need–but more importantly, deserve–hope and peace. I say this to people all the time but, especially after COVID, we might not have lost someone but we lost something and it’s hard to navigate that. We deserve to mourn that in a sense. It gives us that gift and that permission to embrace life with happiness and joy. Even though they’re not physically here, it’s good for us to know that they’re living life through our eyes, and spirits, and experiencing all of our milestones with us.
I’m sure you get a lot of skeptics in our line of work, how do you deal with them?
It doesn’t bother me. I mean, I get it, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I think a lot of people just don’t understand what I do and I respect that it might be hard for them to believe in it. But, here’s the thing, I’m not asking them to believe in me and what I do. I’m asking them to believe in an afterlife, that the things they sense and feel are real, and that they still have that love and bond with a loved one who has died. I just tell people to come to the show and see what it is that I do.
Regardless of if you believe in what Caputo does or if you’re just a curious mind wanting to see what it’s all about, you can get your tickets and catch her when she comes to the Midland on July 30.
