The Comedy Interview: Foil, Arms and Hog

Foil Arms and Hog are one of those comedy groups that mesmerise and amaze you with their quick-witted humour and perfect comic timing on stage. Off stage they are a really nice and funny bunch of guys! I caught up with them in their fancy offices recently for a chat about comedy and their future plans.

So lads my first question has to be about your name. What’s with that?
(After much hole-digging on my part, trying to remember what I heard we finally got to the correct answer!)The lads explain that the name grew from nicknames they had for each other, like ripping it out of each other’s style of performance, so Sean Finegan became Foil as in the comedic foil, the straight man in the sketch, Conor got Arms because he is big into the physical style of comedy and Sean Flanagan ended up with Hog as he likes to ‘hog’ the limelight on stage or in his own words ‘take the helm’.

Ready for action

How did you guys meet?

Well it all came together in the Drama society at UCD. Foil and Arms scored backstage (breaking news maybe!?!) We always had an interest in comedy scenes and really enjoyed writing them. It started for the craic but really took off and turned in to something more serious. It started off with a Fr Ted show which we were going to take to Edinburgh one year with a whole cast but that didn’t happen. The following year the 3 of us took a show over and after that started getting gigs. We actually stopped Hog going to London - he decided to stay after we started getting gigs.

Where do your ideas for your sketches come from?
They are kind of compiled over a few months. Some of them we would run over a shorter period of time, they would then be the less random ones you see. The great thing about having 3 people in the group is that everyone is adding their own ideas and they are all going to be different, there’s also going to be 3 different senses of humour, we never let a sketch off the ground unless all 3 of us are happy with it. We all like completely different things.

It has to be said, you are 3 good-looking lads, so who gets the most female attention?
Ha! Well we wouldn’t wanna be boastful and say yeah we all get loads of attention. [Hog jumps in and says 'well it’s not me anyway! I would probably be the most determined but that’s a different question altogether!'] Most of the time the girls are under the age of 17, so we feel like the shit comedy equivalent of Busted. Arms did however get a number handed to him after a gig one night. None of us is doing well off it lets put it that way…though we have had girlfriends for 90% of the time!

Who are your comedy inspirations?
Our one in common would have to be Fr Ted. There’s loads of great stand up’s in Ireland. David O’Doherty, Conor O’Toole, Sean Hegarty, Trevor Browne, Colm McDonnell. Lots of unsung heroes! Because we see so much comedy we do like it when people do messed up stuff though. Like this year there was a guy in Edinburgh called Sam Simmons, he was just amazing. Proper silly comedy.

The lads in action

You guys spend a lot of time together; do you ever get on each other’s nerves?
From time to time we do like anyone would, but it’s never been bad. There’s never been a fight! Even this year in Edinburgh when we were living in each other’s heads and in each other’s beds, there wasn’t a row. We are actually due a fight; it’s been 4 years now.

What’s the best practical joke you have played on each other?
Well this one was a bit of a slow burner. Foil and Hog shared an apartment for about 2-3 months in the summer and Foil liked to do a lot of cooking whereas Hog didn’t do as much so he didn’t know the cooking apparatus as well. So on the oven there was a timer, the timer rings a bell when finished and because Hog never used the timer he didn’t know that the time coincidentally sounded like the doorbell! So every time Foil was cooking, Hog would get up and go to the door saying ‘ah who is it this time!’ It got to the stage where he was convinced we were being knick knacked and would sprint out of his chair determined to catch the person out! It was just before we went to Edinburgh too so we were really busy with other stuff and we actually forgot to tell him about it! I think we told him at our Christmas party. Oh yeah, we have a Foil Arms and Hog Christmas Party… Just the 3 of us. It’s an exclusive event. You were also witness to another prank there Amanda, [cue me looking quite confused…Foil and Hog admit that the number Arms got from the girl after the gig…Was written by Hog’s girlfriend] No one is safe from our pranks!

Running into the future?

What’s in Foil Arms and Hog’s future?
A fight! Nah we want to try write for radio and TV. We have done a lot of live gigs and they are great but we want to branch out and learn how to be funny for TV and radio.

Right lads, random question time. Seeing as you mention your Christmas party, if you could invite 3 guests, who would they be?
We’d want someone who would be good craic and wouldn’t be splashing the cash about and going to places we couldn’t afford!

Foil: I’m going to go with Chico Marx, cos he would be good fun.

Arms: I just thought of a cool one…Jaoquin Phoenix.

Hog: Vin Diesel or Conan O’Brien!

To throw a curveball into the mix Foil decides he wants to chance his choice to…King Henry VIII! Peter Andre and Jimmy Stewart are also thrown in too. Hog throws Lassie and Earthworm Kim in for the craic too. Notice how we haven’t invited any females? Em, Jessica Rabbit, Tina Fey and Natalie Portman would be on our list!

So there you have it! We have learned that the Foil Arms and Hog boys are modest, haven’t had a row yet, are excellent practical jokers and can throw one hell of a party! So lads eh… room for one more?

You can catch the lads at Cork City Limits on the 16th/17th December
You can follow the lads on Twitter on @FoilArmsAndHog or Facbook: www.facebook.com/foilarmsandhog
Also check out their website for more details: http://www.foilarmsandhog.ie/