An evening with a famous psychic medium, Stuart Michael The Psychic Medium at Wonderville, promising guests messages from the people who passed and interpretations of their recurring dreams, felt unconvincing and flat, with little to wow and amaze a regular audience member.
Coming in as a sceptic, I was ready to be either convinced and converted into a strong believer in the spiritual experiences and afterlife, or to be entertained and have fun watching the encounters of others.
I have got neither from Stuart Michael’s solo show at Wonderville. Everything he did on stage fitted your stereotypical psychic image: he walked on stage in a casual black outfit and a leather jacket – to look more laid-back and relaxed. He started with a couple of light jokes to get the room buzzing, and laid out the key rules of the evening: he will try to pick up on presences, the things may sound vague and be clear only to the person who the spirits are here for, and he is no more than a messenger, helping people to connect and hear the words of hope.
After a quick tour around the room, he performs the first encounter with a couple of deceased relatives of a woman in the front row – the most convincing experience of the evening. He calls the name of the ladies child, gives a few personal details about her deceased parents and passes on their words of pride and joy in her recent achievements.
It goes on with a few other guests, interrupted by a couple of presences not being claimed. While it seems to go smoothly, you cannot stop wondering if these all are just very common and thus easy to guess occurrences: deceased parents, legal proceedings, moves, backaches, romances… all are generic enough to be a fit for more than one person in the audience, and lack the personal touch to be convincing.
The audience members look emotional, though, and every kind word goes a long way for a grieving person. After a short break, Stuart returns to interpret the recurring dreams of guests, and the show gets even less exciting.
The dreams suggested by the guests – falling out teeth, lost shoes, big waves, deaths – all feel too simple. The explanations, offered by Stuart, are very generic and not necessarily fitting. One of the guests openly tells him that she cannot relate to anything he is bringing up. But he waves her comment off, explaining her dream as a subconscious feeling rather than rationalised thought.
While it lasts just half an hour, I feel that people could get better interpretations by simply googling their dreams. The host also seems to know that he’s lost the audience, so performs a few more psychic encounters to wrap up the night.
If you are looking for a psychic medium to make you believe in the word of spirits and prove to you there is a way to connect with people in afterlife, Stuart Michael’s show at Wonderville is not the one. The Psychic Medium did not have any pizzazz or credibility, and you can surely find better ways to spend an evening in London’s West-End.
