Cannings teaching hurling skills to Hollywood superstars

Date Published: 04-Aug-2010

Hollywood stars expect to do a variety of activities when promoting a new film but US comedians Adam Sandler and Chris Rock had never held a hurley in their hands before last week.

So who better to teach the stars the subtle arts than Galway’s All Star hurlers Ollie and Joe Canning who were good sports and agreed to travel to Dublin to tackle the challenge for TV3’s Xpose entertainment programme.

On the lawn outside the TV3 studios, the Canning brothers gave the stars, who are currently promoting their box office-busting new film, Grown Ups, a quick lesson.

The Galway stars taught Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James and David Spade how to handle a hurley and sliotar.

After some hilarious, but less than successful efforts at practising, the Canning brothers took all players aside for some serious coaching. Once they had got the hang of the basics, the experts split the group into two teams mixing the Hollywood stars and TV3 Xposé presenters. The first team was made up of Adam Sandler, Kevin James and presenter, Sean Munsanje with the second team being Chris Rock, David Spade and Glenda Gilson of TV3’s Xpose.

The Hollywood stars were delighted to learn the most skilful game in the world and accepted a presentation of Supermacs-sponsored Galway GAA jerseys and Canning hurleys.

Ollie said Adam showed the most skill and really got into the game. “The all basically knew how to strike because they had played baseball but their balls skills were not great. But they were very funny, especially Adam and we really enjoyed the experience.”

See full story with more pictures in this week’s Connacht Tribune.