TheNewAdamb99 On Tour
Ulster Hall, Belfast
ADAM Beales is the biggest name in Irish entertainment you've never heard of.
Unless, that is, you're about eight years old, have access to a mobile phone, and have an endless appetite for surfing through YouTube videos.
Pretty much all eight-year-olds then.
Type in 'TheNewAdamb99' and you'll find Adam, a 19-year-old from Derry city, who has racked up an incredible 1.8 million subscribers worldwide.
His snappily-edited videos generally involve fun and games at home alongside his long-suffering little brother Callum, with their parents making the occasional appearance too.
'Extreme salty food prank' and 'Try not to laugh challenge' are typical titles.
Some are astonishingly popular - 'Creepy balloon prank' has had 18 million views, while 'Ignoring my little brother for 24 hours' has been watched 13 million times.
Adam gets a cut of the advertising and although he has not revealed his income, it is enough to have abandoned any university plans.
What started as a hobby has seen him collaborate with entertainment giant Disney and even launch his own clothes range ('merch', the kids call it).
Any like many other YouTubers and podcasters, this kind of popularity can be monetised through live shows.
Which is what brought Beales to Belfast's Ulster Hall on Thursday, the start of a mini-tour including a date in Dublin and a sold-out appearance in Derry tonight.
The stage was dominated, appropriately, by a giant iPhone screen which acted as a prop for videos, pranks, pratfalls and challenges.
And although branded as Adam's show, playing an equal role in proceedings was fellow social media star Joe Tasker, another cheeky young chappie who played the joker to good effect.
The content was nothing new - a family-friendly mix of gunge, gags and audience participation which hasn't changed much since the days of Crackerjack!
The show did feel a bit light - they hardly seemed to have got going before there was an interval - but there's no doubt the kids loved every minute of it.
They screamed when exhorted and generally seemed transfixed by the sight of this huge character from their digital lives writ large on stage.
Adam describes himself as "a not so funny person, trying to act funny in front of a camera" and he comes across as a nice guy, showing just how far hard work and a winning personality can get you.
The former St Columb's College head boy may not yet be ready to be mentioned in the same breath as Heaney, Hume and Friel, but touring your own show around Ireland and beyond while still a teenager is a remarkable achievement. You haven't heard the last of him.
Aeneas Bonner
