Foil, Arms and Hog in Europe: 'We never thought that we’d be playing these places' 

Foil, Arms & Hog in Iceland. Pictures by Cat Gundry Beck.

Foil, Arms & Hog have been together for 15 years but this is their first time performing in the land of fire and ice. When we meet, their show is about to reach the stage on the westernmost tip of Europe, in Iceland.

But just how does Irish comedy translate abroad?

“We’ve been touring this show for the last two years,” says Seán Finegan, also known as Foil, chatting to  Weekend from the most Irish-sounding hotel in the city, the Grand, in Reykjavik.

”We’ve really tried to go into Europe properly,” he elaborates. “There’s a market there and we’ve just kept adding legs to this European tour, like here in Iceland. Last week, we were in Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest. We never thought that we’d be playing those places.”

Clearly, there is a universality to their themes that makes it easy for their international fan base to appreciate. Touring outside Ireland has left them in admiration of the language capabilities of other nationalities, and reveals a trio who are curious about other countries and culturally aware of their international audience. Not for them mumbled jokes and garbled words.

“You really started to realise how terrible Ireland is with languages. In Romania, we were thinking, ‘I wonder how fast can we talk?’ And they were perfect. They got everything. We have one sketch which is all puns. They got them all. It’s like, puns in your second language! And we’ve been talking to German fans who correct our grammar!”

Foil, Arms & Hog: "Every so often, we have to remind ourselves that, stuff that we think is Irish-centric, just isn’t"

And some topics, it seems, have universal appeal.

“The Irish Mammy,” says Foil. “We thought it was going to be mostly for the Irish crowd. And then you have people saying, this is a Sri Lankan Mammy. This is an Argentinian one. And you’re like, okay, we don’t have any right to mothers! They seem to be the same the world over.

“Every so often, we have to remind ourselves that, stuff that we think is Irish-centric, just isn’t.”

The trio try to incorporate some local culture on tour, and play to the local language.

“We try to tip the hat to the local flavours. There’s a bit where Arms does nursery rhymes and instead of singing ‘Ring a Ring o’ Rosie’ he would sing ‘Frère Jacques,’ in France, and so on.”

But there are differences when it comes to our sense of humour.

“There are huge differences in terms of country personality. We noticed it most across Scandinavia. In Sweden and Norway, the crowd were wild. We thought Scandinavia was a home run. We go to Finland … and it’s so quiet. Come the end of the show, and they all jump up, a standing ovation. And they tell us, ‘Oh, yes, we Finns do not laugh out loud. We laugh on the inside.’ On the inside! So, there’s been those mini differences wherever we go.”

Foil, Arms & Hog: “We’d love to do a movie or a sitcom”

They’ve encountered similar while encouraging audience participation onstage.

“We talk to the crowd an awful lot at the start, to find out about the place, ask them what they do and we work all that into the show. But trying to get that information out of some people, in Bucharest, Prague, especially, Warsaw, it was so hard. They just don’t want to tell you.

“Then when we gig in the US, you get the absolute opposite. One man even walked up on the stage to answer us! ‘Ah, yes. My name is Clark and I actually have family from Killarney in Ireland.’ It’s just really funny to see the polar opposite from Prague to Pittsburgh.”

They’ve conquered the world with their weekly Thursday sketches. But there are other big dreams lurking in the background.

“We’d love to do a movie or a sitcom,” says Foil. “We think it might be time to do that. We’ve spent so long trying to establish ourselves on stage and on YouTube, and everything’s been going so well. But I think we want to try something else.”

Unlike many comedians, TV isn’t a priority for them either.

“Well, as much as we’d love to, it’s just the way we’ve built our audience online. It’s a worldwide audience. And now we’re touring all over the world. If we were to stop doing the weekly videos — because we can’t do everything — then we’re leaving our audience behind. So I think if we were to do TV, it would need to be available worldwide.”

Foil, Arms & Hog: "You have to learn to turn off the brain sometimes and remember you’re not here as a tourist, don’t feel guilty that you didn’t get to do the 12 most seen things in Tallinn or Reykjavik."

Meanwhile, back in Europe and their current stint in Iceland, they are using the opportunity to see the sights — when they can.

“You sometimes stay less than 24 hours in a place because of the way tours go. You have to learn to turn off the brain sometimes and remember you’re not here as a tourist, don’t feel guilty that you didn’t get to do the 12 most seen things in Tallinn or Reykjavik. I’ll come back and do that again,” says Foil.

Arms is turning this final date of the tour into an extended holiday, while Foil has been to Iceland once already.

“I got to do the touristy stuff then. I went to the Blue Lagoon and just travelled around. It was covered in snow everywhere. This place is incredible, landscapes you’ve never seen before. We went to where the tectonic plates meet, and saw an ancient house where the head of Iceland lived”.

It’s their first performance in Iceland. I tell them the Icelanders are a good-humoured lot and like a laugh, not too different from ourselves. They concur.

“We did an interview with some Icelandic guys last week and it was really good fun, a great sense of dark humour as well, which is very like the Irish.”

Foil Arms and Hog: "Icelandic people are calm, like it’s only a bit of lava."

The trio did get to see the volcano eruption when flying in, Iceland’s fourth since December of last year, its seventh since 2021. They were excited, while Icelanders seemed quite blasé.

“We were taking pictures on the plane and wondering why is everyone so chill about lava here, everyone’s really relaxed. Icelandic people are calm, like it’s only a bit of lava. They talk about lava in the same way that Irish people talk about rain. ‘Don’t worry, it’s only a little bit of rain you’ll be fine. It’s only a bit of lava you’ll be grand.’ It’s lava, lads.”

Apart from volcanoes, they’ve been sampling a little of the Icelandic culture. Arms raves about the public swimming pools, an Icelandic cultural-heritage staple, while Hog has been enjoying the nation’s saunas and hot tubs. And have they tried that local delicacy beloved by all Icelanders...

“We did actually. Our driver told us, you know, a big thing here is hotdogs. We were like all right, well let’s just get a bit of culture straightaway ... and never felt more American.” says Foil.

“He took us to this hot dog stand by the swimming pool that has been around for a long time. And so we had hot dogs in Iceland. Like true Icelanders.”

• Foil Arms and Hog play a charity gig in aid of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza for Irish Red Cross on April 7 in Vicar Street.
• Tickets from foilarmsandhog.ie/tour