Psychic spat!
Craig Shearer - 11 September 2023
Last week we saw a psychic spat between Sue Nicholson and Kelvin Cruickshank. These two alleged psychic mediums were once co-performers on the awful Sensing Murder TV show - you know the one that didn’t solve any murders, despite running for 47 episodes over six seasons.
The original Sensing Murder show started in 2006 and ended in 2010, but was resurrected in 2017 and 2018. Over that period, the pair (along with Australian medium Deb Webber) rose to fame (or should that be infamy?) in New Zealand, and they capitalised on that fame by doing tours, performing in little venues up and down New Zealand. They’ve been doing this for quite some time now.
It boggles the mind that there’s enough appetite in this country for multiple psychic performers to be touring, but that’s what they’re doing.
Last week, Cruickshank put out a post on his Facebook page saying that “another medium” had put restrictions on venues in the form of a covenant that prevented the venues from booking other mediums six weeks either side of their booking. It all turned into a bit of a spat, with Sue Nicholson’s managers posting on her page that Kelvin was bullying her, and claiming that one a single venue was “effected (sic)”.
It turns out that Cruickshank has cancelled his South Island tour, which involved six towns down the West Coast (Blenheim, Nelson, Motueka, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika).
Kelvin, down on the farm, from his Facebook Page
Cruickshank states that he’s been “working the industry” doing live shows for 20 years. He’s “very disappointed” and people are upset. He also stated that “we are people that care about people.”
Ironically, Nicholson’s tour was billed as “Last chance to see”. Apparently, she’s retiring from doing tours. I guess that’s a good thing. I’ve actually seen one of her shows, back in about 2007. I was employed by my (at the time) local theatre to run sound for her show. I can tell you it certainly wasn’t impressive, though she did fill the theatre. I guess there’s an endless desperation in some people to be assured that life continues on after death and that their loved ones are still around in some form. All bunk, of course, unless these mediums can demonstrate some actual ability (apart from scamming the public).
From reading Cruickshank’s posts, I see that some of his followers have asked whether the restrictions are in place “for spiritual reasons”, for example “to allow spirit to cross over from the venue.” Alas not, as Cruickshank assures his fans:
“When I work, a karakia or prayer is done for everyone attending at the beginning and the end of each show. This includes our loved ones in spirit. It also means the venue is cleansed before I leave and ready for the next occupants.”
It’s nice that he leaves the venue as he found it - literally free from spirits.
Of course, earlier this year, we publicly challenged Cruickshank with our $100,000 paranormal challenge, to demonstrate that his alleged psychic powers were real. Given that he’s not going to have the income from doing those shows, perhaps he should take up our challenge and claim our $100,000! Yeah, right!
And, Nicholson will be remembered by some members as the psychic who gave a talk at our 2013 NZ Skeptics conference in Wellington, where she made some very weird remarks.