We recently connected with Shane Cunningham and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shane, thanks for joining us today. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are often hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?

One of the wildest things to happen to date in my career has to be getting invited onto the Steve Harvy Show on NBC television, only two weeks after moving to Los Angeles. I remember I was struggling to get going, to make the connections and ultimately to fit in to a world that seemed to far out of reach yet everything I wanted.

I applied to be on the show through countless Emails and pushing the ‘luck of the Irish’ charm. Finally, I got a call back and the rest was history. just being at universal studios, seeing how everything is done was so incredible for me and an experience I will never forget.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My Name is Shane Cunningham, I’m 28 years old and hail from Galway, Ireland. Currently living in New York City, I’m extremely grateful to be able to travel around the U.S working as an MC & Impressionist entertaining audience of all ages.

Having the ability to brighten up someone’s day or entertain a large room is something I’ve been gifted with and don’t take it for granted at all. I’m very fortunate to be working in the U.S and excited to grow as a performer, entertainer and voice over artist. Sometimes I pinch myself and remind myself that I’m literally living a dream I once dreamt. I have a long way to go by any means but it’s all about the journey, the people you meet and the experiences you encounter along the way.

My repertoire is constantly growing, when I started out, I think I had like five celebrity impressions that I could do that were good. Or good enough lol. now i have a total of 80 plus different voices and characters. I love exploring the different voices and finding new ones to impersonate. That’s the most exciting part, when you find a new impression one that really works well and when you share it with people, seeing their reaction makes it all worthwhile. Of course, there are some voices I just can’t grasp or that take a little longer to perfect. Like anything that’s the challenge in my game whereas someone else in another business would have their own challenges.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Having a creative mind means you think a certain way, different to those who might not be as creative as you.

Everything from trying to improve your home, enhance the experience of those around you, figuring out ways to really make a difference and/or stand out. having a creative mind can be very stressful, you over think even the littlest of things and always try to explore new avenues to make everything better.

For me, being a creative means I never stop trying to come up with new ways to keep things interesting. Keeping my mind active and ‘creative’ is essential. Constantly coming up with new ideas. This however can have its own flaws as I can never really settle on just one project, My mind works at best when I have three or four project ongoing. jumping back and forth each project giving me inspiration for the next.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Other people opinion of you doesn’t matter!

Being in the public eye, always looking for the approval of others is something I’ve struggled with a lot over the years. You put your work out there for the feedback. WRONG. This is something that took me far too long to overcome or to come to terms with.

You put your work out there for YOU.
For so long I’d always value what other people thought, the good and the bad but the problem is if you listen to the good, you’re naturally going to want to hear the bad comments. Canceling out the noise is something all creators really need to master in order to be truly happy doing what they love to do.

Every video I’d post in the past, I would be logged back on within 5 minutes reading the comments again. Thankfully for the most part it was all good feedback. I quickly learned that my happiness wasn’t going to come from someone telling me ‘I was very good’ or you need to do this or ‘congratulations’ – it’s the price you pay of course for going public with what you do, but it’s important, very important to not let anyone you meet along the way get you down or tell you you’re not good enough.

Everyone is on their own time clock, have fun with it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: cshanecunningham
• Twitter: shanesvoices