An eight-year-old snooker prodigy is in the frame to be a superstar after wowing US TV audiences.
Co Offaly kid Adam Wynne started potting balls at 20 months and now requests as far flung as China are rolling in to see him in action.
Proud dad Sean told the Irish Mirror: “All the talented kids go on The Ellen DeGeneres Show first and if they make it they go on to this show she produces in America.
“But Adam was so good they brought him straight on to Little Big Shots.
“Adam was on with a child prodigy, whose mum is one of the American Dance mums. He got more recognition than she did, everyone fell in love with him.
“They gave him a trophy and he was so chuffed.
“I told him before we went to meet Ellen he would need to practise and the night before we went to Hollywood he potted 22 balls in 22 seconds. I nearly fell off my stool.
“We had to wait a year before it was on the telly and the YouTube clip has gone viral in America, he has millions of hits on YouTube.”
The doting Tullamore dad said his son has honed his craft naturally, adding: “He doesn’t even have an interest in snooker, he just takes up the cue and makes the balls talk to him. When he was 20 months old he was able to play on a professional snooker table.
“But all he wants to do is hurling, football and soccer.
“He was on the Late Late when he was three, he went to Germany when he was four.
“He played in a massive show called Klein gegen Gross, which means Little vs Big, competing in a snooker challenge against retired German international footballer Arne Friedrich.
“He was the youngest ever to do the show in Berlin where the child was at a disadvantage and he won, he was four and he potted 22 balls in 46 seconds.”
Despite numerous offers to travel abroad, Sean believes he needs to enjoy his youth without added pressure.
He said: “Lately he’s asking questions about whether I was proud of him and whether he should go back to America.
“A crowd want him to go to China and to play snooker all day in a shopping mall for the crowds.
“He’s such a good kid but we don’t want to put him under pressure.”
