Homeless to take their place in ‘Toy Show’ with Ryan

RYAN Tubridy has revealed that some of Ireland’s homeless children will take part in tonight’s ‘Late Late Toy Show’.

More than 200 child performers and 28 toy testers will entertain the audience and viewers from the stunning nautical set inspired by the Disney classic ‘The Little Mermaid’.

In recent weeks Tubridy has addressed the issue of homelessness on his radio show and said it was something about which he and the RTÉ Toy Show team are very aware.

“There are over 3,000 children homeless,” he said. “I find that preposterous and really not acceptable in 2017.

“Yes, it’s fun, yes there are toys, yes childhood is magic, but it should not be the case that a child is watching the toy show in a room on a hotel bed with three other family members and has to get up the next morning and walk past a bunch of guys who are still drinking from the night before.

“That’s not good and we have a responsibility to talk about that. That’s going to be on our minds tonight.”

Speaking about the ‘Late Late Toy Show’ acts, he said there were two in particular that ‘moved’ him.

“Men don’t cry, you know that,” he joked. “But I have two acts that moved me very much and I think they’re really beautiful. I like that side of the show.”

The traditional opening number will feature Tubridy singing and dancing in costume as The Little Mermaid’s Sebastian, who he thought was a lobster but is actually a crab.

“I’m calling him a ‘crabster’ on the basis that he’s one part crab, one part lobster and one part hipster, which makes him a crabster,” he said. “I’ll be a crabster Tubster thing.”

As to how his daughters feel about that and his dad dancing, he said: “They groan. They’re at that stage.”