Shirley Ghostman channels Col. Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

Chris French tests psychic Shirley Ghostman. Chris is pretty cool. He obviously realizes what’s going on about halfway through final bit.

Wootton interviewed elsewhere:

Qu. What inspired you to create Shirley Ghostman?

Wootton: A close friend lost someone dear and I went to see a psychic with them. Shirley came as a result of me witnessing what was going on. When you’re not the focus of the psychic’s attention, it’s very easy to see the truth of what they’re up to and it really got my back up. I became quite angry and couldn’t believe these charlatans go round ripping people off. I went to see a couple of the more famous psychics do their live performances. You have to admire their showmanship but it’s not fair to prey on people.

Qu. Why did you call him Shirley?

Any boy called Shirley must have been picked on at school and we wanted to give the character an unfortunate backstory because a lot of the celebrity psychics have had pretty depressing upbringings. That’s why they reinvent themselves as someone special who can see dead people. I find that so arrogant. Tess Daly told me about a psychic she saw, so I went along to see them, just to try to find out if they were for real. When I got home and made a transcript of the reading, I realised I had given them all the answers.

This clip involving a genuine exorcist is more disturbing (This is a real exorcist – http://www.boblarson.org/ )…

I liked the exorcist’s line “Listen to me. Instead of dealing with your real life and how messed up it is, you’ve got this make-believe world… and it’s ..it’s the spirits, and it’s like a drug.” The irony.