A fortune teller from Queens has become an overnight sensation after an appearance on a popular reality television show. NY1’s Ruschell Boone sat down for a reading and has more on why there is now a year-long wait to see her.
Sema Bal says she is not a psychic or a medium. She calls herself gifted–and says her gift is her ability to tell someone's fortune just by looking at the coffee grounds in their cup.
"I feel your energy through the coffee, and I read it through that," she said.
The Turkish immigrant says it's all entertainment, but she takes it very seriously, starting with the brewing and pouring of Turkish coffee. She then heads to her dining table, where she does her readings. You drink the coffee, leaving the grounds at the bottom.
"Concentrate, be open, relax, give your positive energy, and once we come to the grinds, we are going to flip it over," she said.
Bal says her ability to see the future and interpret messages from the dead came to her as a child, but her business got a real jolt after an appearance on the TV show "The Real Housewives of New York." Her clientele nearly tripled overnight.
She went from about three to eight clients a day, and those looking to make an appointment now will have to wait a year to see her.
Bal's fee is $150 dollars per reading. She says some have offered her six times that amount to get on her calendar.
"They want to pay $1,000 because they want to skip. They want to come first, and I always say I don't work that way, whoever books first gets first," she said.
Many are skeptical, but Bal says the practice is steeped in centuries of Turkish tradition. In her book, "The Secret of Coffee Grinds," she says people can learn to do this themselves.
For more information on Bal, go to TurkishCoffeeCupReadings.com.