With a notable client base (Jennifer Lopez doesn’t make a move without him — Jenny McCarthy and Courtney Cox too), a televisual résumé (“The Doctors,” “Entertainment Tonight”), one of the biggest agents in the business (repping Rod Stewart, LL Cool J and David Blaine) and a hip, young following, everything is roses for Thomas John.
John, the “Manhattan Medium” and well-regarded psychic author, will work his trade at Tin Angel Oct. 29 to a crowd hungry for connection to the deep light of those lost or looking for personal and professional secrets to be analyzed. The very out and proud psychic also spent time as a drag queen, “Lady Vera Parker.” What’s not to love?
PGN: What makes you different than anyone else with similarly themed psychic abilities? (Not comparing, but just say the Long Island Medium?)
TJ: The main thing to know is what I do isn’t special from anyone else because I believe we all can connect with the other side. We can all get messages from the dead and have psychic abilities. It’s no different from what most of us can do if we practice and pray. Professional mediums all work much the same way, with varying degrees of clairvoyance; we all do it a little differently but the outcome is pretty much the same. My audience does, however, skew younger, maybe because I’m a younger person. When someone is looking for a medium, they are looking for someone to connect with, feel comfortable with, maybe be friends with. I’m also more accessible, and not at all spooky.
PGN: Pretend it’s Oct. 29 and give me a picture of what that event will hold.
TJ: I won’t use any jargon when working with people. You say the word “psychic” and some get an idea of me sitting in the dark with a turban and a crystal ball. That’s not my thing. I’m just a regular person who can connect with the other side in the right situation. It’s not weird, more like a conversation.
PGN: No turbans, but you did spend time in the drag community.
TJ: I did. Mostly before I started doing the readings, I did drag. It wasn’t often than I did those things simultaneously.
PGN: As a kid, how did you know you had these abilities, that you were special in this respect?
TJ: I was 4 or 5 years old. Some of my earliest memories came in seeing spirits I felt weren’t part of the present. I didn’t really understand the implications. I would see an aura around people and had a recognition that that was different, that they had a part of my life. It wasn’t until I was like 18 or 19 that I realized that this was something not everybody had. I also began seeing things more often: friends with spirits around them or spirits coming to me after someone died.
PGN: When did your goal of not just telling, but aiding, people come into play?
TJ: I went to college on a trajectory to study psychology. I knew I wanted to help people through their problems, to care for someone. As I got older, my perception abilities got stronger. People came to me in dreams 24/7 so I started to mediate. I wanted to find out how truly strong these energies were.
PGN: Are you religious? How connected is that to what you do?
TJ: I am spiritual, believe in God, grew up Catholic; I was an altar boy. I think that you have to have an awareness of God, prayer, miracles and karma in order to do what I do — to recognize when spirits are around and how to connect. I don’t go to church but I do go into a state that makes me closer to higher spirituality, something that connects me.
PGN: I don’t want to put too fine a point on celebrity, but how did you get from your start to where you are now?
TJ: When I moved to Manhattan, that’s when things stepped up, by word of mouth. People like Jennifer Lopez came to me from just living in New York City. Same with Los Angeles. I never sought out celebrities. They have all come to me, through friends. It’s all just coincidence. Celebrities have problems too. If I lived in San Diego, I’d have lots of surfer clients.
PGN: Can you tell who are the fake mediums?
TJ: Well, isn’t that true of any industry, that there are insincere and shady doctors, lawyers, journalists?
PGN: Are you in a relationship and how does being psychic work with that interaction?
TJ: That is a very good question. I am in relationship; I have a long-term boyfriend of over two years and it is very good. Oddly enough, I dated another psychic at one point in my life.
PGN: I know where this goes.
TJ: Right? It was interesting. We always joked that each of us knew what the other was doing and would be doing weeks down the line. It is hard on relationships — boyfriends, friendships — because of my intuitions. I might feel something around someone or understand something they don’t yet. I can’t necessarily turn it off.
For more information, visit www.tinangel.com.