“I saw the shadow that actually did look like a leprechaun.”
What if one day you found out you worked alongside one of history’s unsung heroes? The visionary who joined chocolate and peanut butter in holy matrimony, the starry-eyed idealist who believed that, yes, one size can fit all, or the man who captured on camera perhaps the most urgent question of our age: Where da gold at?
For those of us here at Mad Genius, this what-if scenario became reality last year after Kevin Sibley joined our crew. His talent as a photographer and motion graphics artist landed him the job, but it was the revelation that he shot the infamous Crichton Leprechaun news story that blew our minds.
The Crichton Leprechaun
It’s a video that went viral in March of 2006, before “going viral” was a part of our everyday lexicon. It racked up millions of views, generated spoofs, and signaled a coming sea change in a pre-YouTube era. It’s a classic, and while most viral sensations come and go within the blink of an eye, the Crichton Leprechaun has aged like a fine Irish whisky.
The Exclusive Mad Genius Interview
To discuss its enduring popularity, we sat down and chatted with the man who witnessed the whole thing firsthand. As a man who prefers to spend his life behind the camera, photos of Kevin Sibley are extremely rare. We were, however, able to locate this amateur sketch.
Amateur Sketch of Kevin Sibley
What was it like working at WPMI?
When I started there I was a news photographer, which typically meant a 2-11 shift. I’d stay until the ten o’clock news was over. I worked nightside because I was a new guy.
When I came in at 2:00pm, if something was hot, the assignment editor would give us a story. They’d say “Sibley, you’re going out with such-and-such reporter” and we’d get our stuff together, get in the vehicles, and go. We had planned shoots where we’d go to somebody’s house and do interviews. In a lot of cases it was “man on the street” stuff where the city council passed something, or they’re voting on something, and we have to go out and see how people feel about it. We’d go to the Target parking lot and ambush people when they’d come out from shopping.
Let’s talk about the day you filmed the footage. I read that there were calls made to the police about a lot of people gathering. Why did you go out there?
It was a slow news day. Because it was so close to St Patrick’s Day, any story involving St. Patrick’s Day is going to pique the interest of the assignment desk. When I got in, I got the assignment from my editor.
The desk was being told the local R&B radio station in Mobile, 93 BLX, had been inundated with calls about a leprechaun in the Crichton area. I was like “…alright.” I had no idea what this was going to look like.
When you got there, were there police present?
No. Police did not show up until the night-time. Maybe it had happened the night before, but when we went during the day, there weren’t any police there. When we got there, we saw the guy who said “I want the gold!” We went twice that day. We went in the day-time, then we went back to the station, and I captured the footage.
First, we wanted to go in the day-time and see what it was all about. That’s when there were a few cars showing up as well as the guy with the flak jacket and scaffolding spacer piece used as the Leprechaun flute. (editor’s note: his name is Demarco Morrissette).
The FLUTE!
Yeah, it was a piece of scaffolding.
A piece… of scaffolding.
Yeah. He was standing on the corner of the cul de sac. We interviewed him, and everyone was just having a good time goofing around. Everyone was super cool.
“It was a way of telling a lighthearted, holiday story.”
Did you see the Leprechaun?
I saw the shadow that actually did look like a leprechaun. The shadow looked like a small individual’s head with a little top hat.
According to leprechaun and gnome experts at Myst of the Oracle, Leprechauns often pop in and out of the astral plane that’s right above us. So, if you see the leprechaun disappear and reappear – that’s why. That would explain why people were seeing it and then weren’t seeing it.
Alright.
They say that leprechauns are similar size to gnomes – a foot to a foot-and-a-half high, and they wear pilgrim-type hats with the buckle in the front or a conical hat in white and green. This is consistent with the eyewitness account.
Hmm-mm.
Leprechauns are known as wish-granters. They specifically like granting selfless wishes. What wishes do you think that people were making?
Mostly that they want the gold. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t believe anybody ever found it.
Did you ask the leprechaun to grant a wish for you?
I did not speak with the leprechaun. Apparently, when I turned the light on my camera on, he ran away. I was reprimanded by those in attendance. If you notice, the video looks fairly low quality because the camera didn’t handle the low light that well. Every time I tried to turn my light on people reprimanded me and said that I was scaring off the leprechaun.
Have you seen the Key and Peele sketch?
I have.
That sketch presupposes that YOU are the one who came up with the idea for the Leprechaun.
I saw that, and we had absolutely NO hand. That was not what it was. It was a way of telling a lighthearted, holiday story. Most of the stuff we did was negative – like someone getting hit on the interstate. People get tired of those stories.
Jimmy Kimmel calls this the greatest local news story of all time. Do you agree?
When I watch it now, I can’t separate myself from it. It was funny at the time. For the time, it was pretty epic.
Kevin Sibley was born on St. Patrick’s Day. He hasn’t seen the Crichton Leprechaun in over a decade.