Eamonn Holmes has told of the "longest six minutes" of his life. The Northern Irish TV presenter was asked about awkward career moments while appearing on Vick Hope's Breakfast Show.
Speaking about an encounter he had with magician David Blaine, the Belfast man said: "Once I interviewed a guy, a magician called David Blaine and he decided not to speak. And basically it was the longest six minutes of my life.
"I sat there and it was only afterwards I thought, 'Why didn't I say this?' Or 'I should have said that to him' or whatever. I mean, I did fill the empty time, but you think of the best lines after, that's the thing.
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"It's a bit like having an argument with Ruth... I think of all the best lines after," Eamonn explained.
Host Vick, who said having Eamonn on the show was 'like being in the presence of royalty', also asked the father-of-four how his career in the TV industry began. The Belfast man's first job was as a bartender.
Eamonn said: "As a young 15 year old, you start working behind the bar, you're shy, you don't have a lot of personality and you get to talk to people.
"You get there and you get into conversations with people who are from all walks of life... you develop that personality whereby you have to sit in the studio and talk to anybody and everybody. And I thought it was a great education really. The problem with me was then at 19, I got a job unexpectedly on TV."
He added: "So I then end up going from being a farming reporter to sports reporter and then at 21, I'm hosting the tea time news programme which is an hour-long, from six until seven o'clock every night.
"And then at 7.30 I'd put on my bar coat and bow tie and I'd go into the bar to work.
"The guy who was the manager and I was the under-manager... he came in and he said, 'Eamonn, what is this all about?'
"He said, 'You serve them up the news until seven o'clock and then at half seven you serve them up pints, it's not right'.
"I said, 'Pat, you don't understand, this TV lark will never last' and he said, 'It'll last' and he pulled my bow tie off and we went out the black and that was the last time I pulled a pint... That was the end of that. He knew that more than me. That was 42-years-ago."
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