Funnymen Foil Arms and Hog on the business of getting a laugh

Sínann Fetherston sits down with comedy trio Foil Arms and Hog to discuss their latest tour, memorable moments made in America, and their future career plans...

With over one billion views online, Foil Arms and Hog are fast becoming one of the internet's most renowned comedy sketch groups.

From their viral 'getting past immigration' sketches to fan-favourite characters like student Oisín and his overbearing mother, the group's videos have become a weekly must-see for fans across the globe.

Despite their online popularity, however, the stage is where the trio truly thrives.

Stepping away from traditional stand-up, Sean Finegan (Foil), Conor McKenna (Arms), and Sean Flanagan (Hog) interact with their audiences through imaginative sketches filled to the brim with props, soundtracks, and larger-than-life characters.

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This past August, the Dubliners enjoyed a well-reviewed, sold-out run in the 276-seater Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with their latest show, Hogwash.

From there, they brought the show on a world tour, selling-out performances from New York to Berlin and Vancouver to Helsinki.

Speaking over Zoom, the three explained that, despite writing for international crowds, some jokes just don't translate well.

"We thought we were bullet-proof from doing Edinburgh for so many years," explains Finegan. "We write for an international crowd - and then we got to Boulder, Colorado.

"The very first sketch we did on our first day was based on an old ghost story based on a historical event, so it goes: It was in this building 200 years ago... and someone in the crowd shouted: there was nothing here 200 years ago, so for the rest of America it was 100 years ago," he laughs.

"When we were in Germany, we hadn't changed any of the show, really, apart from dialing back the accents so they could understand us" he continues. "It was all going great until we got to one line in a song that goes I fought in World War II and you're suddenly trying to swallow the words back in, thinking it means something different here!.

An interactive group known for pulling people up on stage, sitting amongst the crowd, and even borrowing props from audience members' handbags, the lads have created some memorable moments while traveling the globe, but one particular night seems to take the cake.

"Portland," says McKenna. "We didn't know much about it, but one of the things we did learn from talking to people from there is that it has the most amount of strip clubs per capita in the world, and so we were kind of teasing them about that, you know?

"They didn't mind, but later on in the show I do a dance thing and when I finished, I kind of landed and was like tah-da! and this woman got up and came right up to me and put a dollar bill in my pants," he laughs.

In comedy, career progression can often be measured in venues as well as in revenue. The first marker of success for an Irish show might be to sell out a Vicar Street, followed by a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that breaks even, followed by a run at the Fringe that actually makes money.

With all of these accomplishments under their belt, what is the next marker of success for the country's most popular sketch group?

"I think we're in a nice place where maybe now we're getting to choose the venues," muses Finegan. "We have choice, and we get to play the venues that we love as opposed to venues that are amazing for rock and roll bands but horrific for a stage act."

"I've got a good measure of success," offers McKenna. "We used to have to share a hotel room or a private room in a hostel where there were three bunks. When we went from three bunks to separate rooms, that was like Fleetwood Mac arriving in separate limousines for us. That was huge."

"The next level was when we got picked up from the airport and someone had a sign for us, so that was cool."

Despite insisting that no five-year plan has ever existed, the former UCD students say they always treated comedy as a full-time job.

"It was never a hobby, we went full-time from almost the beginning," Flanagan explains. "As soon as we left college, we went full-time. After a while, we got an office and put our money where our mouth was."

"That's a good point," agrees Finegan. "When we got the office, we had to go to work and treat it like a job.

There was no direct debit set up," he adds, laughing, "so a guy would come around looking for the money, and there were times we did street performances, so we once gave him a bag of change to pay for the rent on an office for a month."

Looking to the future of their careers, the comics insist that the success of Foil Arms and Hog is their one and only priority.

"There's no plan B," insists McKenna. "Genuinely, this is it."

"We still treat it as a common goal," Finegan adds. "We're so happy it's going well and still building, that's kind of the fun thing.

"Again, I can't stress how much we don't really think," he laughs. "I've never once in the fifteen years thought 'I'm going to make it as a sketch comedian', you just keep going with the flow and it keeps going well, and I don't have to think about that difficult question."

You can watch the trio's upward trajectory continue as they tour Hogwash across Ireland from December 2022 to February 2023.

Tickets to Hogwash are on sale now from www.ticketmaster.ie and local venues.

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