John Edward Review

On Tuesday March 11th from 7-9 pm, I witnessed a group reading with the medium John Edward at Manhattans Affinia Hotel in a Ballroom filled with 350 audience members. Although the event was not theatrical the price was the equivalent of a BWY VIP ticket and a premium set for most of his US shows whether on Long Island, Red Bank NJ or Vegas baby at 175.00. If you do the math you know that that ticket sales were nearly 60K and the ballroom was probably about 3K. There was a long aisle down the center and rows of chairs facing a stage. I sat in the 4th row left side center under a crystal chandelier. There were the usual rules and the disclaimers prior to and just after his appearance. No cameras or recording devices altho we were warned with our ticket purchase that there would be taping so I wrongly assumed that it was for his show. He asked us to not speak if read just to confirm with a yes or no answer so he could read the maximim. It is very easy to get seduced into speaking I would imagine but you are made to appear foolish if you do. Apparently he is internationally reknown with radio and television programming and does not do private readings according to his website. He will refer you to others. Silly me, I thought because my death of a loved one was fairly recent, I am open, and not altogether skeptical I would be a shoe-in for a read. I thought the ticket price would clear out the riff-raff but it turns out they were all just like me! I saw a lot of working class people, bridge and tunnel types and there were people in from Atlanta and the UK. There were about 8 people read, or 8 groups as we were instructed to stand with the people who came with you. No one that was read came alone. There was one near miss where I was concerned. Where I felt close to being read or that dad was around somewhere. But it may have been just some commonality. The name Jonah came up, Ricks dog and then he got onto this Bird thing, Kept talking about a bird, a dead bird, a Bird but he was looking on the otherside of the room and then he glanced my direction and pointed (apparently over my head) to" the woman in the plaid and black jacket", well of course I was wearing a suit I bought when Dad was with me from a thrift store in Sister Bay. A black jacket with plaid trim and a plaid skirt. He was still onto the Bird tangent and he said did your father pass? I was like 'yeah and his nick name for me was bird' and then he was talking about seeing a dog dressed as rudolph and I thought of Kennedy,one of Dad's danes he brought to campus to show off. I think he did it with a couple of the danes, but the truth is IT COULD BE ANYONE he was talking about. We all have memories of our loved ones from our life that are commonalities. I wonder how he does when there are cultural differences. Apparently he is big in Australia, especially on the radio. Dad always wanted to go there. Maybe JE and Old Jer will hook up there. Interesting tidbit. JE's birthday is 19 October, the day of Dad's surgery. He also lost his Mom when he was 19 and she was 48. One cool thing about the evening was that he was trying to teach people that we are all vessels for our departed loved ones and that they know what is up with us in our lives now, they see us and watch us and guide us and know when babies are born and see how life goes on. He also said how important it is to love those that are here, to tell them and share with them in the time we have left because we never know 'when'. Honestly though I would be better off having spent most of that 175 in a one on one session with a grief counselor. That said, I am glad I went and on some level Jer was there too in my heart and in the cocktail I had post show.