Keep one eye over your shoulder, Patrick Kielty – one of the stars of the Toy Show could be coming for your job.
Eleven-year-old Brian Óg Tolan from Co. Tyrone demonstrated video games and a karaoke machine on Friday
night, singing Nathan Carter’s Wagon Wheel with host Kielty.
The charismatic pre-teen also demonstrated a breezy confidence on camera during his segment, suggesting a natural flair for TV presenting.
Brian Óg told the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday: ‘Maybe in 10 or 20 years’ time – if Patrick Kielty’s fed up with his
job I could take it any time, if you know what I mean.’
The young performer added the Late Late host was ‘great’ to be around on Friday. ‘He’s a great fella. He’s nice
and kind to all the children, and he’s just a really fun guy to meet. I was nervous before, but when I actually met him, I
was fine with him – just being casual around him. He’s a really nice man.’
Brian Óg said his dream job is ‘probably to perform – going down that path of singing or acting or presenting’, and explained that he has been on stage plenty before.
‘I sing in the local and stuff like that there. [I’ve been] in the panto. ‘I’ve kind of got the word out now, so maybe I’ll get more
gigs singing. Maybe enter into other competitions and things like that. Just really getting it out there and making my own
songs – really showing people who I am.’
The Trillick lad, also a keen footballer, has performed with the Tumbling Paddies – who came on stage at an event
as he and ‘four or five boys were pretending that we were the actual Tumbling Paddies’.
‘My mom filmed the video, and then that blew up a bit online. I think that got 240,000 views or something.’
Budding astronaut Zara Quinn, also from Co. Tyrone, said her Toy Show experience was ‘so cool and so funny’ –
and extra special because the theme was her favourite film, Home Alone. And meeting Dr Norah Patten, who will become the first Irish person to go to space, was ‘just amazing’ for the six-year-old.
The Benburb girl already has an experiment planned for the plant seeds given to her by Patten that had been on the International
Space Station. ‘I’m gonna get [similar] ones from Earth and grow them and see – are they different, or are they the same?’ she told
the MoS.
Zara plans to be a scientist – whether or not she makes it to space – and is already a keen stargazer, as demonstrated on
Friday night by her impressive knowledge of the moon. ‘When my daddy showed me his telescope, I looked through it and I can see [the moon].
And I’ve seen the International Space Station over my house, and planets – Venus, Saturn and Mars and Jupiter.
‘I’ve got glowing stars all over my ceiling and a glowing moon in my room.’
Budding entrepreneurs Phoebe Cummins and Holly Murphy touched hearts around the country on Friday night with their firm friendship – and impressed with their business acumen.
The girls have made around €150 selling lucky bags along with two other friends. And they were surprised on Friday with
the holiday of a lifetime to Universal Studios in Florida – though Phoebe told the MoS they were ‘a bit suspicious’ something was in the works from a comment made in rehearsals.
Holly said she was ‘ecstatic’ about the holiday together and the girls stayed up half the night talking about it.
‘We were talking about going on the plane and sitting together and seeing the screen thing on the flight. It was just so exciting.’
Phoebe was ‘on cloud nine’ and said that so far, the friends haven’t gone further than a Taylor Swift concert together.
She said her granny had ‘really wanted me to audition for the ToyShow from the minute I could talk’, so is now ‘really, really
happy that I got on it.'
And Kielty was ‘really good’ at keeping everyone relaxed on Friday, Phoebe explained. ‘He was doing some really funny Grinch impressions for us at the rehearsal.’
