Liam Sheehan, magician, mentalist and former bike shop owner
There was huge interest in cycling in Ireland during the era of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche . . .I always had an interest in bicycles and I remember one day going to a school in Douglas in Cork and looking at the bicycle shed. It was full of bikes and there was no bike shop in the local area. I thought it was a great opportunity and left my job to start one.
I stayed there for 12 years and essentially watched the local kids growing up . . .Many would have bought their first bike from me. I sold the business to a guy working for me and the shop, Douglas Cycles, is still going strong. I was never fulfilled in what I was doing with my life. At an early age, my mother would say to me "What do you want to be?" I never found what I wanted to be in life. I had no real focus then.
The first time you see a magic trick . . .You never forget it. For me that was on a trip to Killarney when I was a young fella. I saw a guy who had a silk handkerchief in his hand and made it disappear. It fascinated me. Over the years I began to look at magic and how it developed and I read a lot of the older books on it. I realised a lot of what passes as magic today came from Houdini's time.
We often underestimate the power of the mind . . .Over the years I was moving away from magic and into mind reading. I believe in focusing on the power of your own mind to achieve whatever you want to achieve. It comes from my own personal life. This started with me when I first got married and I lost my daughter at four years of age through cancer. That put a huge mark on my life. I succeeded through that by being positive. I was only 23 at the time. All through my lifetime then, magic was an escape in one way into a different world of happiness. Over the last few years, I have focused on the power of the mind and have done some talks.
I see the reality of life since my daughter died. Sometimes I look at people who are successful and maybe focused on gathering as much money as they can, and I wonder do they realise the reality of what it is all about.
There are not too many people who could say they kept one of the biggest stars in the world waiting . . .Michael Jackson came here in 2006. He had come from Paris and ended up living in Blackwater Castle in Castletownroche in Cork. I had been there previously and I knew the owner. The first night I went down there I didn't know who I was going to meet. It was a Monday night in late June. I was driving down and I get a call from the owner and he said "they are waiting on you". I always laugh at the fact I once got a call more or less saying Michael Jackson was waiting for me.
When I walked into the castle, I went to the drawing room. I looked up and I saw Michael and his three kids and a nanny sitting at the table. I did some close-up magic tricks. I produced a fish for Paris and borrowed a dollar bill and rolled it up and then turned it into a fish. I think when the fish went into the bowl, Michael said “Is the fish okay?” I put it into the sink in the bar. Five minutes later Paris walked back in with the fish in her hand, flapping about. I found Michael to be a very quiet and gentle man. He was very humble in his approach. The first thing I noticed with the kids was that they were mad about him. He was basically a big child.
If there was one trick I could do in my lifetime . . .There is this one illusion that David Copperfield does where he transports a person from the stage to a beach in Florida. I'd love to be able to do something like that. It would probably be Banna Strand in Kerry in my case. It's a big production so I'm not sure I'll ever get to do it.
liamsheehan.ie
