The life story of Michael Flynn, better known as Mattress Mick, has been made into a musical which opens in Dublin tonight.
It tells the story of how the retailer used his unique persona to rescue his failing business during the last recession.
Mattress Mick shot to fame when a video promoting his mattress business called "Back with a Bang" went viral.
The quirky, tongue-in-cheek pop song made the furniture seller from Dublin's south inner city into a household name.
Now the story of his rise to retail fame has been made into a musical.
Mattress Mick the Musical tells the story of the how boy from Pearse St, traded in the famous Dandelion market, took over the family's drapery store and rescued his failing furniture business in Coolock in the teeth of the recession in 2008 with what he describes as a guerrilla marketing campaign.
The musical's writer, director and producer Josephine McCaffery describes it as a mix of Grease, the Blues Brothers and Les Miserables.
She says: "I think people think it's gonna be kind of silly, but it has quite serious elements in it as well you know. It kind of reflects the Celtic Tiger the ups and the downfall as well. I think Mick is such a colourful character.
"He's always dancing or he's doing something quite flamboyant. So I thought that, you know, if we're going to do something about Mick then yeah, a musical actually is a really good idea. I just think he's a really unique character is very different.
"He's very warm, and he's very open as well. He's got a really lovely kind of welcoming energy and he's interested in life and I think that kind of that radiates off him in everything he does."
But why does the man himself think the story of a mattress seller has captured people's imaginations?
Michael Flynn aka Mattress Mick says: "I'd say of people are coming out of pure curiosity. To see me! A lot of people don't believe that I actually exist. They just say, oh you're real! And I enjoy that, I enjoy that interaction.
"So I think the musical will take that myth away. It's a lively musical. It's a funny musical. It's about my life story and the ups and downs of my life. It's interesting, it's because it's a it's a true story."
"Mattress Mick is 13 years old. It was created out of the ashes of another business. I got in trouble in 08/09 so I wanted to reincarnate myself.
"My business failed but I didn't fail so I needed to get out there again. And mattresses was something we sold quite a lot of in the original business. Now I had very little funding. So I to choose, me, a cartoon or an actor as a character. I was the cheapest that's why I am standing here today."
Michael has now registered Mattress Mick as a trade mark and has sold the licence to his business, with ten shops now operating across the country under his brand.
While Michael Flynn himself does not star in the show he and his mattress will be there to welcome the audience and pose for the obligatory selfie
The opening shows, which run in the Liberty Hall theatre tonight and tomorrow, have sold out but Mattress Mick hopes to take the musical on tour around the country if, like his previous ventures, it takes off.
