Foil, Arms & Hog: Craic-Ling

Foil, Arms & Hog are an Irish comedy trio with some great tips on how to live life to the fullest without making too much of a splash. Their hilarious skit, An Irish Intervention, which can be found on YouTube, has them portraying a troubled Irish family unit with a son who doesn’t drink and hides bottles of water under his bed. The ability to turn the mundane on its head, attempting to solve everyday problems by making the ridiculous an acceptable reality, has resonated with audiences everywhere. The team consists of, ‘Foil,’ Sean Finegan who is the foil, or the butt of the jokes, ‘Arms,’ Connor Mckenna, who is the smallest of the group all gangly arms and legs and,‘Hog’ Sean Flanagan who is always trying to steal or, hog, the limelight. These three lads met as students at Dublin University and now write, edit and perform short sketches from their office which they then film for their own channel.

“The inspirations for sketches generally come from everyday life and begin with one of the trio sharing a story with the other two. If the others laugh, according to Connor Mckenna, it means, “Shit, now we’ll have to work on it.” They usually think of a name for a show before writing the sketch. “We come up with about 2000 terrible names, break it down to 12 and then come up with a winner,” says Connor.

Well known on radio, TV and stage in Ireland they also have a wide reach online with sketches such as How To Be Late For Work, and, The Worry Protection Company, which aims to stop us sweating the small stuff. The show they are bringing to Sydney, Craic-Ling, promises to be a hoot with sound advice on holding a baby, a chant about drunken monks, something we in Australia don’t see often and, a guide on How To Kill An Actor, presumably one who won’t get off the stage. It’s the same show they performed at the Edinburgh Festival which got the thumbs up from Rowan Atkinson of Mr Bean fame. Now that’s some proof indeed of their comic merit.