How tweet it is: Psychic's return an Internet triumph

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How tweet it is: Psychic's return an Internet triumph
May 6, 2010
By Jamie Hall
Edmonton Journal



The Tour That Twitter Built” is bringing psychic Chip Coffey back to Edmonton on Friday for a command performance.

Last year, Coffey — who’s featured on A&E’s hit shows Paranormal State and Psychic Kids — had just started on the topic of demons when fire alarms started jangling and smoke filled the Myer Horowitz Theatre, forcing the audience into the street and bringing his show to an abrupt halt.

An angry spirit, perhaps? A playful demon?

“No, nothing like that,” laughed Coffey in a recent interview from his home in Atlanta. “There was actually a legitimate explanation for it — some kind of equipment malfunction — but it is kind of spooky that it happened just at that moment, when I was starting to talk about demons.”

Coffey was in Edmonton as part of a Canadian tour for Trixstar Production’s Behind the Icon, which offers fans an up-close-and-personal experience with celebrities. Coffey said he had all but finished speaking when the mayhem occurred, but he still wanted a return engagement to “his favourite Canadian city.”

After he returned to Atlanta, Coffey received dozens of tweets on his Twitter account from his followers in Edmonton, and from across Canada, all asking the same question: When are you coming back?

His reply? “If you want me to come to Canada, let @trixstarmike know where you want me to appear.”

Within hours, Trixstar’s Mike Anderson Twitter account lit up like a Christmas tree.

“I was sitting at home on a Saturday night and I went to check my Twitter account and I had a thousand messages,” he said. “I couldn’t understand why, or what had happened.”

It soon became clear and between them, Anderson and Coffey came up with a plan to leverage the social media networking site. The result was a six-city Canadian tour, which kicks off Friday in Edmonton before heading to Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Halifax and, finally, Hamilton.

Anderson says he is planning to build another Twitter tour for Dog the Bounty Hunter Duane Chapman using the same method.

“It’s amazing how social media has really bridged the gap; we’ve got direct connections with true fans now,” said Anderson. “We can see what people like and what people don’t like, and we’re able to market accordingly.

“It’s changed our business.”