Conor Moore to join Bressie for ‘Where is My Mind’ live

Conor Moore has been announced as Niall Breslin’s guest for his Where Is My Mind Podcast live show at Mullingar Arts Centre on November 5.

A firm favourite with sports fans in Ireland and across the globe thanks to his razor-sharp and frequently hilarious impressions of some of the leading figures from the world of GAA, football, golf and Formula 1, Conor has carved out a successful career on both sides of the Atlantic and created his own sub-genre by tapping into people’s love of sport and comedy and merging the two.

Bressie will be aiming to speak to the man behind the many faces of ‘Conor Sketches’, finding out what makes him tick, and how he navigates rubbing shoulders with the A-list of sport, while taking the P out of them.

Niall’s previous guests for his live podcasts included Adam Clayton of U2, Chris O’Dowd and Michael Harding.

Bressie said: “Conor does so many impressions of other people but this conversation is about him, and his work. Conor is incredibly likeable, funny, but we don’t know a lot about the man himself. That’s what the podcast is about, a meaningful conversation, a bit of craic, and hopefully it will heart-warming as well.

“Conor is a very emotionally intelligent guy, you don’t do what he does, at the level he’s at, without emotional intelligence. He reads other people. I mean I would absolutely sh*t myself if I met Tiger Woods, I wouldn’t be able to function, so I’ll be talking to him about how he prepares for those situations because he’s also pulling the piss out of him as well.

“Yet, everybody loves him because he has that warmth and he has that charm and charisma. So I’ll be delving more into that side of things.”

A musician, athlete, author and positive mental health advocate, Niall’s podcast is about how we can better look after our heads and our hearts in the head-melting chaos of the modern world.

So what can we expect from the live show? “There’s a bit of music, spoken word, composition, conversation,” Bressie tells the Westmeath Examiner. “It’s a two-hour show and I think people will quite enjoy it. People have an expectation of what it’s going to be, and but it’s not what people expect. When you think about discussing the mind, you think it’s going to be intense and heavy, but actually it’s quite fun, irreverent and heart-warming.”

While he admits that presenting his award-winning podcast in a live setting can be “quite intimidating”, he says the key is to ensure his guest is comfortable, “that’s the only way you get people to open up”.

Why is there such a need for conversations like these in the modern world?

“The way we’re all feeling now – that overwhelming stress of life, I think that’s exactly how we should be feeling because it’s been a chaotic few years. There’s some people that will tell others to go take a flaxseed smoothie and do mindfulness and everything will be ok. My message is that maybe, the way we’re feeling is quite normal and quite ok. We should be just able to talk about it and share it, and even make fun of it a little bit.

“I don’t try to lecture people, I don’t know what anyone’s dealing with in life, I think it’s more about this mad chaos that we all deal with in life, all of us are dealing with it and carrying that with us. And there’s something kind of comforting in that too.

How does Niall maintain his mental wellbeing on a day-to-day basis? “I do meditate, it’s just very normal to me, it’s not something I think about. I don’t beat myself up if I don’t. I tend to meditate when I feel a little bit overwhelmed, a lot of people always wait till they’re feeling perfectly calm and relaxed. I’m more comfortable sitting with anxiety and discomfort and being curious to it.

“I teach this: there’s is no right or wrong way. It is your way. For example, something I’ve done a lot of this summer was playing golf, and I used to not play golf at all and I find it to be incredibly mindful. Leaving your phone in your car and just speaking with two of three other people, or walking around a park with a stick in your hand, that to me is meditation in itself. But I do a lot of formal practice in itself because I have to.”

Bressie says there will be music on the night too, piano compositions with spoken word, inspired by strong voices like John O’Donoghue, Michael Harding, Sinéad O’Connor.

“People like that have always attracted me in terms of my interests and I’ve basically written a few soundtrack compositions on piano. Most people think I’m a guitar player but actually piano is my first instrument, so it’s not what people expect.”

• Tickets for the Niall Breslin’s 'Where Is My Mind' Podcast featuring Conor Moore are available from Mullingar Arts Centre and from niallbreslin.com.