Anything goes before a live audience, where Caputo says she lets the spirits guide her to deliver messages to loved ones.
Theresa Caputo, star of TLC’s “Long Island Medium,” says everyone has a spiritual connection to their lost loved ones. / Courtesy of Theresa Caputo
By Valerie Kalfrin
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, April 13, 2017
When you can relay messages from the dead as naturally as TLC’s Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo, daily errands can be a challenge.
“When I walk into a room, everyone wants to talk to their dead relatives,” she said with a laugh, as effervescent over the phone as she is on television. “When I’m not in work mode, I have to be more guarded: ‘I can’t be delayed right now. I have to buy bread and eggs, and I have a doctor’s appointment.’”
Caputo comes to Carol Morsani Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, April 18. A practicing medium for more than 15 years, she said she lets the spirits guide her to audience members to whom they want to deliver a healing message, along with a “validation” – a particular image, sensation, or memory – to prove that their loved one is indeed speaking to them. Cameras follow her throughout the venue so the rest of the audience can share in these intimate moments.
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“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” said Caputo, who visited the USF Sun Dome in 2013. “Spirit just starts channeling. … It’s very incredible. I’ve had people say, I never knew what to expect, but what I witnessed was life-changing.”
Known for her sweeping blonde hair and love of sparkly shoes, Caputo rose to fame from Hicksville, N.Y., where she still lives with Larry, her husband of 27 years, her two grown children, extended family, and dogs. She first began talking to spirits when she was four years old, but she didn’t embrace her gift to communicate with the dead until she was in her twenties and suffering from anxiety.
“It took me many years to incorporate my faith — because I am a practicing Catholic — and my gift,” she said.
She never asks particular questions of the spirit world, which she refers to as Spirit. She just asks for guidance and gives thanks. “I always feel that the messages are given because we need them,” she said.