THE GUY THEN PICKS UP HIS SHIRT TO REVEAL A T-SHIRT UNDERNEATH, PRINTED WITH A PICTURE OF HIS DEAD COUSIN.
LIFETIME’S brilliant new show, “Lisa Williams: Life Among The Dead,” needs only a three word review: I love Lisa!
But since I get paid to write more, and I assume you’ve plunked down your dough to read more, in the words of Ricky Riccardo, “I’ve got some ‘splainin to do.”
Brit-born Lisa Williams is a punk clairvoyant (yes), who actually used to be lead singer in a band. She now works full time as a clairvoyant and lives an otherwise-normal life with her husband, Kevin, and little boy, Charlie, in Reddich, Worcestershire, England.
Luckily for Americans, Lisa and family are now residing on our shores (L.A. to be exact) while she does this show.
And if Lisa appeals to the rest of the country the way she appeals to me, they’d better start getting their green cards in order.
Punky, spunky, chunky (thank you Jesus!), thoroughly lovable Lisa of the spikey, many-hued hair is clearly not your average clairvoyant – not in looks nor, more importantly, in talent.
She comes by her gifts legitimately. Her grandmother was the world-renowned psychic Frances Glazebrook, ghost whisperer to British pols, punks and pop stars – and very secret psychic adviser to many American ceo’s.
Lisa’s show is nothing short of startling. In fact, the DVD arrived with a letter from producer Merv Griffin who clearly was blown away also.
“Lisa has a very different talent from any of my previous finds, like Whitney Houston, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor or Ryan Seacrest,” he writes. “Unlike these earlier discoveries, I had to suppress my personal disbelief to recognize that Lisa ‘pops’ as a star and what she does makes for compelling television.” 100 percent accurate, Merv.
The show begins with loopy Lisa stopping a couple of very surprised guys on the street for whom she does on-the-spot readings.
Now, admittedly, it’s not every day that a white, spike-haired British punkster stops a couple of skeptical, African American guys and starts talking to them about their dead friends and relative, practically bringing them to tears.
She tells one man that his cousin who wore the cross appreciates his remembrances. The guy nearly dies himself and then picks up his shirt to reveal a T-shirt underneath, printed with a picture of his dead cousin. He then shows her, around his own neck, the twin to the cross his cousin wore.
But it’s when she reads for a 27-year old grieving widow of an American soldier killed in Iraq that you will really become a believer – unless, of course, you are blinded by tears, which I was.
I won’t give it all away, but one of the things Lisa says that the dead soldier “tells” her is “I wasn’t alone! I wasn’t alone in dying that day.”
In fact, 11 marines died with him in that town that day.
She also meets with a woman who never knew she was the child of rape.
“Lisa” is slated to air only for the next six Mondays – but I wish it would be on every day. For a very long time.
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“Lisa Williams: Life Among The Dead”
[****] (Four stars)
Tonight at 8 on Lifetime