Foil: See ya later . . . But, yeah, yeah, we honestly, people would be so surprised at how little we worry about that sort of stuff.
AF: Yeah
Foil: We write the sketch and then try to figure it out afterwards.
Hog: You see we’ve written a sketch which will be contained within one single room, with not too, not too flagrant a prop. You know when you’re writing it, you’re not going to be writing anything. You’re not going to be starting to write something on an airplane, for example, it’s very hard to create . . .
Foil: Yeah, yeah [responding to Hog’s statement “not too flagrant a prop”]. Well, we actually have written sketches and we’ve figured out how to do it, like, maybe outdoors is the only problem for us . . .
AF: Yeah.
Hog: Yeah.
Foil: . . . we can’t make it really look like too much outdoors.
Hog: Then again, we’ve done that too with our, with our brick wall. Our portion of a brick wall.
Foil: Yeah . . .
AF: So, I have just a question about one of your interviews . . .
Hog: Yeah.
Foil: Yeah.
AF: On, um, so there was an interview on April 8, 2013 by the Potato.ie . . .
Hog: [sighing] Yeah.
Foil: Uh, huh, okay, I vaguely remember . . .
AF: . . . so was that staged?
Foil: I don’t, I can’t honestly remember what interview it was.
Hog: Was it staged?
AF: Yeah, because it was in your office. It’s the one where you’re all sitting on the couch and the guy’s saying your name wrong and then he . . .
Hog: Oh, yes, yes! It was Cormac, Cormac Moore, was it?
AF: And then he’s all disdainful and he says what’s it like to be a music act and . . .
Foil: I don’t remember, I don’t remember this at all.
Hog: Yeah, I think it’s Cormac Moore, yeah, and, uh, he’s a, yeah, it’s a set up interview, yeah, and he doesn’t know who we are and he’s saying, so I’m here with Foil, Bog and Arms . . .
AF: Yeah.
Hog: Yeah, that’s a set-up, yeah, yeah.
Foil: Okay.
AF: Okay, because you guys played it like you weren’t sure, but I thought it was in your office.
Hog: Yeah, it is in our office and we know Cormac pretty well. I haven’t seen him in a long time, but yes, we knew him well at the time.
Foil: Huh, well there you go. I should watch that back.
Hog: Yeah, yeah you’ll remember when you see it.
Foil: Oh, yeah.
AF: Yeah, it’s very short, but it’s incredibly funny and you do an amazing job at pretending, I guess, that you don’t realize that it’s, uh, an interview that didn’t go quite well.
Hog: We would have never assumed that someone would’ve gotten the name right at that stage anyway.
Foil: That’s true.
AF: Yeah.
Hog: So it’s, you can see the plot holes anyway.
AF: Well what’s interesting is the people who are commenting don’t have . . . they’re very confused.
Foil: [laughs at this] Good! That’s probably . . . that’s good, I like that.
Hog: Right, okay.
AF: So, the other question I had was about, um, your time at UCD . . .
Hog: Yeah.
AF: . . . and, so Arms isn’t here now, but in one of, he just did this podcast, um, interview where he said that he almost never went to classes and Foil, you told me that you did more plays than anybody else . . .
Hog: Hmmm.
Foil: Yeah.
AF: . . . so I was curious did you just kind of go to school to do theatre and kind of get a degree on the side or did you . . .
Hog: Well, I did.
Foil: Yeah, you definitely did . . .
Hog: Yeah, I went to college only to, only to kind of get a degree, um, only to have gone to college, basically, uh, fully knowing that I didn’t want to do engineering outside of college. Well, what about you?
Foil: I didn’t know, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I loved acting, I knew I wanted to do some sort of performance, eh, I felt like, uh, well, everyone around my friends and everyone was going to college, well I should go to college. I didn’t want to write essays, that’s all I knew. I knew I was good at, like, doing technical drawing, so that’s really why I chose architecture. I guess there was kind of a creative element to it, but um, I didn’t, I honestly didn’t know. I’ve never had, um, I’ve never had a plan. It’s just kind of worked out . . . like if I’d ended up doing architecture, I’m like okay I’m doing architecture. Um, but I would’ve loved to do performance. I would’ve loved to been in a band, loved to have done plays. Anything. I mean what I think what’s happened here . . .
Hog: The dream’s dead now . . .
Foil: Well, I think it’s a better dream because we get to everything. We do the music, we do the . . . we write our own stuff so it’s not boring on stage, you can improv out of it . . .
Hog: Yeah! We’re actors, rock stars and comedians.
Foil: . . . and admin staff, we run our own business as well . . .
Hog: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re CEO’s too.
Foil: Again, it’s like it goes back to, I think you’d be really, really surprised at how little thought has gone in to what has happened.
Hog: Yeah. Planning. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Foil: Don’t get me wrong, we work really hard at whatever, like, is in front of me, but, um, no, I never knew why I picked architecture, really. Like I wouldn’t have been, you kind of apply, um, you have to write down a load of different courses that you could do. So, I had like architecture, engineering, a few different types of engineering. I can’t remember what else, there was loads on the list, I wouldn’t minded what I got really. Or rather I wouldn’t have been super disappointed if I didn’t get architecture, I guess. And I didn’t think I was going to do acting in college. I knew I loved it so I joined the Society and then I was like, oh, my god, I’m very involved. Um, more than my college course, but, yeah, just happy, happy accidents. Foil Arms and Hog became a thing . . .
AF: And is that the same for you Hog? Did you, because you were already acting and you were already doing so much theatre did you not think that you could just pursue that instead of genetics?
Hog: Em, well it was engineering the one I did, but eh, . . .
AF: Oh, engineering, sorry, sorry, big fahn mistake, sorry . . .
Hog: Well, yeah, you know there’s mister two degrees here and then there’s the peasant one degree.
Foil: It wasn’t premeditated, I just fell into two degrees.
Hog: One [unintelligible] [I start talking again and didn’t hear what he says.]
AF: Well, the reason I said that was because I was thinking about badgers.
Foil: Oh, yes.
Hog: Badgers. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
AF: Yes.
Hog: I had to deal with badgers for a very brief period of time.
AF: Badger tunnels.
Hog: I saved, I could have saved more.
Foil: Every time I drive by one, or over one.
Hog: Or over one, yeah. Sorry, what was the question, about, uh . . .
AF: Well, I was just . . . I mean, so Foil’s basically saying that he fell into his life, which I find very interesting and so I’m just curious whether that’s the same for you.
Hog: No, I wouldn’t say I fell into it as much. I think, um, I think from the time I was probably eleven, well I decided I was going to be an entertainer. And from that point on I basically had, threw every iron into every fire and started like surrounding myself with funny and talented people so it’s not much of an accident that I ended up then with two very talented people who had the same kind of mindset and then, um, the rest is history kind of thing, I would say.
AF: So, I’m curious, I mean this is probably not the best question to ask because you could say that you absolutely like it, but what do you think of being written about in fiction?
[Both Hog and Foil really laugh at this question.]
Foil: So bizarre.
Hog: Bizarre and overwhelming.
Foil: It’s awesome to read. You’re never gonna be more invested in a character, in a character that is essentially you, I mean . . .
Hog: Yeah, yeah.
Foil: . . . you know? It’s so, it’s so cool.
Hog: Yes . . . I haven’t read it yet because it is so far out of my world and what reality is at the moment, uh, that uh, that yeah . . .
Foil: It’s like action detective . . .
Hog: It’s very narcissistically entertaining, um, that way, I’m sure . . .
Foil: You’d be surprised at how much . . .
Hog: So, so am I a detective?
Foil: It’s a detective agency . . .
Hog: Does it get nudey at any time because like I heard that these fan fiction things can get a bit lude, is that right?
AF: No, I’ve kept it, I think Foil will know I’ve kept it incredibly, um, it’s yeah, fahns, fahns are really . . . I’ve had a lot of responses from fahns who are just, I mean . . . well, Foil’s kind of womanizer sort of, not really, but he needs women in his life to kind of, um, stave off, stave off the war . . .
[Foil responds here while I’m talking about his character and talks at the same time as me, to Hog.]
Foil: That’s what you read about yourself . . .
Hog: My man!
Foil: But I tell ya, there’s the actions scenes, there’s guns, there’s all this. It’s like, it’s really exciting, people are getting shot and all this, so it’s like when you’re in those moments you’re reading about, well I found I just wanted to know like what’s Foil doing? But also like when you get into the thing, you’re like, oh, my god, oh, my god, because you say it, am I going to get shot? That’s what you’re thinking, am I going to die? I don’t want to die! I love this character.
Hog: Of course I, of course I’m really connected to this character . . .
Foil: It’s gas . . .
AF: The thing is Hog, the thing is I made you a, your backstory is that you’re from a theatre family . . .
Hog: Right, okay.
AF: . . . and you have two sisters and you’re the youngest and I give you a whole story about how you got your name, you like to hog the limelight on the stage away from your parents. Like, you’re you know, that kind of thing . . .
Hog: Very good . . .
AF: . . . you’re married, you have two kids . . .
Hog: Okay, the little brats, little brats. God, they break your heart . . .
AF: You love your wife Laura . . .
Hog: Laura, huh, I knew a Laura O’Connell once, I wonder is it her? She turned me down, actually.
AF: Foil, yeah, and Arms is a brooding, blues listening, whiskey drinker.
Hog: Oh . . .
Foil: It’s good, you should definitely like on a bit of holidays.
Hog: Yeah, I was thinking that, yeah, yeah. I might read a, read a passage for my birthday . . . give it a little pep.
Foil: Yeah.
AF: Oh, my god you should definitely . . . oh, I should tell you Happy Birthday, I’ll tell you Happy Birthday early.
Hog: Thanks, yeah, thanks very much . . . so what’s the name of this one, the particular one you’re talking about?
Foil: Em, the new one is the ribbon . . .
AF: So, the old one is FAH and the Case of Warehouse 1 and the new one is the Red Ribbon Murders and you, Hog, are at the center of the Red Ribbon Murders.
Hog: Red Ribbon, I should read that one, alright . . .
AF: You went to the war. You know because it’s the 1950’s LA. And I knew that you liked LA.
Hog: Yeah, there ain’t nothing wrong with LA, it’s true, yeah.
AF: So I tried, well the first one I tried to pull out, um, kind of little easter eggs sort of from sketches and things and that kind of stuff, but like that whole smell the good smell, smell the bad smell. The whole smell the bad smell thing made it into the first one and then the second one is really more . . . oh, Mr. Skeffington is in the second one though. There’s a whole two chapters on Mr. Skeffington.
Hog: Hilarious. You know what’s funny, that I, Mr. Skeffington sounds very familiar, but I can’t remember who that character is.
AF: It was in your live stream . . .
Hog: Oh!
AF: . . . it’s from a Hog show, from when Arms . . .
Hog: Oh, right the kind of, um, the kind of the [unintelligible]
Foil: Mr. Skeffington, [imitates the voice that Arms used when he was reading his sketch on the Hog Show.]
Hog: Yeah.
Foil: Yeah.
AF: Yeah, and then I asked Foil if I could use the character’s name and have permission, but I’m assuming he just gave me permission and never talked to Conor at all.
Foil: Permission granted!
Hog: When you get the Nobel Prize for literature we’re gonna want a little bit a . . . [makes the sign for money with his hands.]
Foil: A kickback . . .
Hog: Yeah, a bit of a kickback . . . let’s be honest but uh . . .
AF: Well, it would be nice to publish it but, I, you know, now I’m just doing it for fun.
Hog: Good for you . . .
Foil: Who knows what the future holds for Mr. Skeffington.
AF: Yeah, I haven’t gotten back to Mr. Skeffington. Now I’m just dealing with Foil, two chapters on Foil and Alice and you’re, you’re . . .
Foil: [talking at the same time as me] Yes . . . two chapters on Foil . . . good stuff . . .
AF: You’ll get to it eventually.
Foil: I will, I will . . . eventually. It’s so much fun reading. I want to tell you some stuff but I don’t want to give it away from the first one, but . . . [he’s talking to Hog here.]
Hog: Sure . . . yeah, yeah, yeah.
Foil: It was, there’s some dark . . . yeah, very exciting.
Hog: Okay.
Foil: Yeah.
AF: Yeah, well, I know I put you on the spot, so thank you about that. So, I just have one question, which would probably would lead into more questions but you can . . . I’m really curious about your Tennis sketch. So, I have been struggling along with trying to write an analysis of the "Tennis" sketch for about three months and I still can’t figure it out, so . . .
Foil: Which one is this, is this the two men together? That one from . . . [He does the voice of the character from the sketch.]
AF: Yeah.
Foil: Okay, yeah . . .
AF: Yeah, and [laughs] I just want to know what it’s about . . .
Foil: Em, I have to try to bring it back into my mind, it’s such a . . .
Hog: Doubles [he says this in the voice of one of the characters in the sketch.]
Foil: Eh, uh, doubles . . .
Hog: Two men together, eh, yeah, it’s like that, um, men, men real, the eh, the, the stereotypical alpha male wants to watch only men on TV sweatin’ and their sinewy bodies running up and down, but they’re hypocritically, if that’s taken out of that and made, made, put into a sexual world they’re not comfortable with it at all. That’s kind of what it’s playing off, but it’s really just [unintelligible] isn’t it?
Foil: Yeah, it’s kind of just, yeah, I’m struggling just a little bit to recall . . .
Hog: There’s, there’s like em,
AF: So, it’s two sons, Arms is the son and Hog is the friend, although the, the comments, it’s ambiguous, it’s kind of, you know, what is it going on . . .
Hog: [talks at the same time as me]
AF: You [Foil] play the dad and you’re using probably language that now in 2021 maybe would be considered a little edgy, maybe a little over the top . . .
Hog: [talks at the same time as me again, responding to “maybe a little over the top”]: Probably, yeah.
AF: . . . like poofter and nancy-boy . . . and that kind of stuff, which . . .
Foil: Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, he’s like ah, a really gruff, isn’t he, a really gruff sexist dad and we try to . . .
Hog: Yeah, a closet homophobe as well . . .
Foil: A closet homophobe . . .
AF: Yeah . . .
Foil: . . . or homophobe, closet homophobe, yeah . . .
Hog: self-hating gay . . .
Foil: And um, yeah, then we twist it at the end, by going . . .
AF: Yeah.
Foil: I can’t remember the ins and outs of it . . .
AF: So, I . . . well, I’m curious because, um I have this other question about masculinity, which is something else that I’m kicking around, which is along the lines of everything I’m interested in that has to do with gender. But I just notice, especially like when I analyze the Sandcastle sketch, um, not to put you on the spot Foil, but you’re incredibly touchy-feely and you’re very, you’re always, you know you’re very touchy . . .
Foil: To myself?
AF: No, no, to like Hog and Arms . . .
Foil: Oh, right . . .
Hog: [unintelligible because I’m talking and Foil is talking]
AF: In sketches . . .
Foil: In the work place, uh oh . . .
Hog: [unintelligible] dignity and respect Foil . . .
AF: But I’m just . . . I’m curious because there’s actually like a gay, trans, non-binary fahndom. I mean, there’s people in the fahndom who are considered, you know consider themselves and self-identify that way and they really embrace your comedy and I kind of think that’s because of masculinity you present on the stage or in your sketches, which is incredibly accessible and very open and very a lot of, like there’s a lot of physical closeness and I think, I mean I think that’s partially obviously because you know each other so well but I’m just curious if that was just kind of who you are or how you grew up or . . . ?
Foil: Well, I’m surprised because I would probably be the least . . .
Hog: I’m surprised as well . . .
Foil: . . . I would be the least tactile out of the three of us, definitely.
Hog: I thought you might be, yeah.
Foil: Hm, yeah, definitely. I’m surprised to hear it.
AF: Really? Because you, like what about Irish Intervention?
Foil: Oh, yeah when I’m doing this to you [puts his hand on Hog’s shoulder], and all [unintelligible] yeah, I mean . . .
AF: Or, I mean . . .
Hog: You use your hands to act a lot. You do use your hands a lot when you’re acting . . .
Foil: Hmm. I haven’t, I haven’t even noticed or thought about it, yeah.
AF: I hope that doesn’t, I hope I didn’t offend you by asking.
Foil: No, no, no not at all. Again, you’d be really surprised how little thought and pre-meditated a lot of this stuff is, um or we do.
Hog: You’re like, you’re like the frog DNA in Jurassic Park, filling in all the gaps that aren’t there.
Foil: Um god, I’ll have to . . . yeah, I don’t know I’ve never thought of it like that or how we present . . . it’s really interesting how we would present masculinity on the stage. I definitely, we definitely shy away, not shy away from it, we just think it’s silly, the whole like, the alpha, kind of that thing, I mean that’s just . . . but I don’t think we’re really trying to show anything . . . certainly . . .
AF: Well, I mean, here’s the conundrum because I’m . . . I mean, this is my background is to do, you know, analysis, that’s my training as an academic. I’m also a fahn, so there’s a little rub there because I adore you all . . . I mean, I adore FAH, I adore your work, I think you’re just unbelievably brilliant comedians and then I also want to analyze your work, so, you know, I’m kind of . . .
Hog: You know, you can be critical all you like, we have very thick skin, if you have to ask difficult questions, fire away, you know what I mean? I might not have an answer for you, but whatever.
Foil: I just feel bad that we’re not giving you enough information to help you do these analytical things, um, it could just be a case that we just don’t, don’t . . . we are doing what you’re saying we’re doing but we’re not doing it as consciously, I don’t know . . . in a lot of things, maybe, like, like you were talking about our portrayal of women. We’ve never really, we’ve never really stopped to think about it, like when we did that Anne Flanagan and Oisín sketch the first time we . . .
Hog: We threw it together, yeah . . .
Foil: We threw it together super fast . . .
Hog: Super fast . . .
Foil: We never really thought about it . . .
Hog: The costume ended up looked hilarious for some reason . . .
Foil: Yeah . . .
Hog: . . . so when we threw it together, huh, yeah, yeah . . .
Foil: . . . yeah . . .
Hog: . . . yeah, we couldn’t put it on we were laughing so much . . . yeah, because I suppose . . .
Foil: . . . the wig was your hair . . .
Hog: The wig was my hair and um, yeah, um we hadn’t . . .
[Foil and I talk at the same time for a second]
Foil: A lot just looks right, I guess . . .
AF: Well, I think, culturally I just think it’s a time . . . maybe you’re not . . . I’m just throwing this out there, I’m not saying that it is, but I just think culturally I think maybe one of the reasons why the comedy, not, okay . . . you’re brilliant, okay, we’ve got that down, so you’re brilliant, okay so there’s that. But there’s a need for a kind of kindness, accessibility, you know, sort of awareness of people whether you are aware or not that comes across in your comedy. Like the Anne Flanagan sketch that you just did where Oisín got dumped . . .
Hog: . . . yeah . . .
AF: . . . and Hog is patting you, you know because you’re sobbing . . .
Foil: . . . yeah . . .
AF: . . . I mean, there’s just, there’s something incredibly human about that at a time in the pandemic, I think especially when people are feeling isolated and they want that kind of human care or kindness and it comes across in the comedy . . . it’s funny, I mean I personally laugh hysterically when you’re sobbing, I’m sorry to say because I think it’s actually incredibly funny, but it’s also a very touching moment in that scene, so it’s . . . I think there’s a lot of things going on and that’s one of the reasons why I really like your comedy because I personally find it very multi-layered whether you mean to do that or not!
[Foil and Hog talk a little bit at the same time here]
Foil: . . . yeah . . .
Hog: Yeah, I think we do try to that the odd time . . .
Foil: We’ve . . . yeah . . .
Hog: . . . yeah, like I was thinking . . . I thought that exact same thing in that moment that you’ve picked out there. Yeah, in fact I think that’s maybe in the extended one on Patreon, rather than on the, the, um, the studio cut that went live, um, ah, yeah, and I think, um, that particular female character is a lot more real than most of our other even more heightened characters, she’s, she could have, she has em, and uh, she can play the uh, the drama as well as the comedy, uh which is cool . . .
Foil: Yeah, the lines, sometimes you write a line and you go, no that’s for the mother from the McCormick family, but that’s a line for Anne Flanagan . . .
Hog: Yeah . . . I really like the bits where’s she’s being nice to you, like genuinely nice and it’s not funny, it’s just really nice and sweet . . .
AF: Yeah . . .
Hog: . . . I like, yeah, yeah, uh, filtering those bits in to kind of like put the audience, put their mind, kinda, knock them for six a little bit, like you know. Oh, what is this, oh, now I’m laughing, hahahaha, and then, and then um, yeah, yeah, it’s always good to mix, uh, other genres with comedy because then it gives eh, gives you a reason to have watched it in the first place.
Foil: Yeah . . .
AF: Well, like when you, when you switch gears too, in the pandemic and when you’re on your phones and you, Hog is Anne is in bed upstairs, right, and . . .
Foil: Oh, yes, yeah, yeah . . .
AF: . . . Oisín has to clean and then Oisín gets really upset at the end . . .
Foil: Yes.
Hog: Yeah . . .
AF: . . . so you have that little switch. I always want Oisín just to be slightly nicer to his mother.
Foil: [laughs], oh, yeah, and he’ll never give it, he’ll never give it, so you have to keep watching. I think with all of those ones . . . there are a lot of sweet moments . . . I think with all our comedy though, maybe it is fair to say [Hog says something to him at this point and he turns to respond to Hog before continuing to talk to me], yeah, we try to be nice. I do think we do try to be nice, we’re not trying to do, um, that kind of mean, cutting comedy at all. We’ve no interest in doing that. Although we love to watch it with other comedians who do it . . .
Hog: Yeah . . . [emphatic nodding from Hog.]
Foil: Like there’s some comedians who are so, so, so incredibly brilliant at it, you know
Hog: Like Dave McSavage like . . .
Foil: Dave McSavage . . .
Hog: . . . we’ll watch him all day, but we never even go anywhere near . . .
Foil: [practically whispering] No . . .
Hog: . . . what he would say on stage or . . .
Foil: Yeah . . .
Hog: . . . otherwise . . .
Foil: It’s the type of stuff that we’re prepared to perform and say that this is our style of comedy . . .
Hog: Yeah . . .
Foil: . . . sometimes we would like write a joke and you’re like, oh my god we could never say that but if you gave that to a different comedian, they could do it and it would be really funny to watch. But it’s, no, ours is definitely, em, nice and happy. I think that’s, family friendly is another way to call it, I guess, but . . .
Hog: Commercial . . .
AF: So . . .
Foil: Yeah, we don’t want to be mean to anybody, we would hate for anybody to be upset by something we did . . .
Hog: But when we are mean about people, it’s bullying because that’s a very easy target, like well everybody hates them. Like the vulture fund or the coocoo fund . . .
Foil: Yeah, yeah . . .
Hog: Or . . . or like anti-vaxxers because like come on and . . .
Foil: But we didn’t really have a go at them though . . .
Hog: No, we didn’t have a go at them, we didn’t even or anti-climate change where we uh . . . climate deniers, because come on, get over it.
Foil: Yeah . . .
AF: Do you think your motto still stands now, still? Do you think your motto . . .
Hog: Yeah, yeah, because we have to like, we have to like, think, we have to . . . you know, like, toothed comb to even find anything message in our 300 and 50 plus sketches, so you know so there’s only like, there’s only four we’re really talking about here . . .
Foil: Yeah, we try to say we’re not telling anybody what to think. But I know I mentioned earlier, but going back to that Northern Irish one, that would have been very easy for us to put our point of view on it, but we tried to leave it . . . nope.
AF: Uh huh . . .
Hog: Yeah . . .
Foil: There’s England, they have their point of view, Ireland, they have their point of view . . .
Hog: Yeah . . . both are valid . . .
Foil: . . . and Northern Ireland has their own point of view, and uh, yeah . . . just try and let it sit there, just try and portray it in a comedic way and then let the audience take what they want . . . a little bit. I know what you think that maybe messages are coming out, but it’s certainly not . . . we’re not going into it trying to change anybody’s mind.
AF: Yeah, I mean I don’t, I wasn’t thinking that you were really going into it to do that really, per se, but I do think, I guess from my perspective again as an academic I think, well once you produce something and you publish it, it’s out there.
Foil: Yeah . . .
AF: . . . so, you know the perspectives . . . and I think, to me it’s very interesting being in the fahndom because we have Pauline who does comics and you know Heleen does fahn vids and people are, you know, and we just did . . . I don’t know if you saw it? [I show Hog’s bow tie that I colored from @nannerl_art’s page]
Foil: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah . . .
Hog: Yeah . . .
AF: So, you know, Camilla is doing that and so we’re all creating things that are interpreting your work or reflecting your work within the fahndom so that kind of “funny first, think later” is . . . the think later seems to me to be merging a little bit into the funny first because there’s so much interpretation of your work, especially as the pandemic came along, and we started, you know your fandom kind of started hyping up and it’s, I mean, . . . and we’ve talked about this Foil, you know the small, active fandom . . . there’s . . . we’re pretty intense people, like we’re really driving this creativity from your creativity, so you know, the funny first think later, the think later to me is starting to merge a little bit into the funny first, I think, but . . . with the fahns.
Foil: . . . with the fahns, as in you mean the fahns are taking a message from it?
AF: Well, and also because we’re all creating things . . . I mean . . .
Foil: Which is amazing . . . it’s so good.
Hog: But that’s your fault, you know, that’s your fault . . . you know, you know, Caravaggio, he never asked anyone else to paint any other paintings. Do you know what I mean? I’m calling myself Caravaggio now . . .
[Foil and Hog talk at the same time here.]
Foil: Oh, interesting . . .
Hog: Do you like that?
Foil: Dark . . . swordsman . . . spoke like a swordsman, like Caravaggio.
[They stop talking at the same time.]
Hog: If anything, he probably wanted people to stop copying him, which they did.
Foil: I think it’s fun that people take their interpretations and do whatever they create in all different ways, it’s been lovely to see that, it’s really fun. They all seem to have the same sensibility, I guess . . . they’re all, everything that I’ve seen is nice, friendly and fun.
AF: Yeah . . .
Hog: What’s really gas is, em, showing some of . . . looking at some of the fahn art that we’re tagged on, on Instagram or whatever and then showing that to some of my friends who’ve been my friends since whenever, do you know what I mean, and they, eh, often don’t realize how big we kind of are . . . or how far as we are or whatever success we have, uh . . .
AF: Uh huh . . .
Hog: . . . until you show them some of these uh, these fahn art photos and they’re like just, whaaa? That’s you! And they go and yeah, you know it blows my mind as well.
Foil: Yeah . . . And the fact that people are forming friendships based through Foil Arms and Hog, that’s . . .
Hog: It’s quite overwhelming . . .
Foil: . . . that’s the most . . . yeah, I find that is so amazing. It’s so, it’s so . . . that’s so great.
AF: Well, and you’ve also been immortalized in, uh, in uh, an academic conference.
Hog: Yeah . . . like . . .
Foil: Like . . .
AF: I showed, I showed Killing a Houseplant, uh, and so they saw that and I showed a, just a very, very, very tiny bit of Patreon because I didn’t want to take too much away from Patreon.
Foil: Yeah, I think we can trust ya, don’t worry.
AF: But yeah, it was very interesting because people of course didn’t know about you. I talk about you basically to anybody who will listen.
Foil: Thank you.
AF: Including, uh, actually because I teach at a, um, maximum security prison and I’ve talked to some of my students about you, and now they ask me about you and about your work.
Hog: You’re telling like mass murderers . . .
AF: No, no, no . . . no, just, I teach writing there . . . I mean, I’m not in the prison because we’re in a pandemic, so I teach correspondence but I’ve told them about you.
Foil: Did you show them the Motivational speaker goes to a prison sketch?
AF: No, because I can’t show them anything, I can only tell them. Oh, but they know about the novel and they’ve read it.
Foil: No way, amazing.
AF: Yeah! They love it.
Foil: That’s so fair play, that’s a really nice thing to do. That’s super.
AF: So, your reach, your reach is far. Your reach is far.
Foil: That’s great, it’s lovely. That’s bringing people all together from everywhere, it’s class.
AF: I love the fahndom, I think it’s phenomenal . . .
Foil: That’s brilliant.
AF: So, you know, and I think, I mean, I’m, I’m just curious with the . . . do you think that you brought your community from, that idea of community and theater to your own comedy from UCD into the community that you have now?
Hog: That we brought our own what to? . . .
AF: Well just the sensibility of community you had at UCD, do you feel like that’s part of who you are . . .
Hog: No because, no because there’s less, we got rid of some of them . . . they were kind of, I mean, before Foil Arms and Hog was properly formed, some of the people, which we’re still very good friends with at the time were kind of in a, kind of like a pre Foil Arms and Hog sketch group, uh, and they’re not anymore, but we’re friends with them still.
Foil: I think, maybe are you trying to get at the community, the Foil Arms and Hog community is that similar to the DramSoc community?
AF: Yeah, because I mean, I’m just curious, I have no idea either way, I just was thinking that well you have a theater community and then there’s three of you and then that idea of community with using the audience in your, um, performances and just, I don’t know, I was just curious, I don’t know definitively.
Foil: I think the wider, kind of online community, I think has just done its own thing, we’ve em, we’ve never tried to um . . .
Hog: A terrible beauty is born, Yeats.
Foil: [he laughs at Hog’s reference to Yeats] Uh, yeah, I don’t know, it’s just become its thing . . . like, we’re not a, I don’t even like to use the word fan, to say someone’s a fan . . .
Hog: No . . .
Foil: . . . I’m still uncomfortable with that, applying that . . .
Hog: No, I still don’t kind of look at myself that way . . . that way I’m someone that there would be fan art about . . .
Foil: Yeah . . .
Hog: That’s still a little bit beyond me . . .
Foil: So I haven’t, we have never tried to encourage a fan group. We encourage, people are great and we love interacting with the people who say that they’re fans, eh, but I really think it’s just taken off and become its own thing, which is the most exciting thing about it. Because we’ve just, we’re like here’s our content and we hope you like it and then people have put the energy and time into forming groups based around it and they’ve created their own community and it does sound like a community similar to the one we enjoyed when we were in college about that theater circle because they were a really close-knit group in college . . .
Hog: Very fun [speaking at the same time as Foil.]
Foil: . . . loads of them and super fun, so you get that sense of fun from it, but we’re also a little bit back from it, looking in on it. I don’t want to ruin it; I don’t want to mess with it.
AF: No, I mean, I think, I think it’s a small community and I think that there’s a lot of very devoted people and we’ve all become friends . . .
Foil: Yeah, it’s fantastic . . .
AF: That’s the biggest thing, we’ve all become friends and really support each other and that was my whole argument with the paper that I wrote, which was this idea of people who felt kind of isolated, you know, in the pandemic have found an outlet or a creative outlet and also found friends and it just happens to be around your comedy. I mean, I think . . .
Foil: Yeah, well we’d like to do anything we can to help, em, it grow and doing its thing and keep people enjoying it, but, eh, yeah we’re, yeah, it’s just great that they’ve created it themselves, I guess, you know.
AF: So, you’re still uncomfortable with the idea of having fans?
Foil: Yeah, it seems almost like . . . it’s like a weird . . . it’s like when someone asks you, oh, you’re famous? You’re like . . . [he rejects this idea of being famous at this point in the interview by making a face and also a noise, which is disdainful of the idea of having fans.] It’s loaded . . .
Hog: Very loaded . . .
Foil: It’s very loaded, I don’t know . . . I don’t know, it’s a weird thing to be like yes! Yeah, you know . . . I don’t know.
Hog: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, there.
Foil: It’s a funny one, I don’t know, I just feel awkward about it, yeah. I never want to say to someone who would describe themselves as a fan that they are a fan. I don’t know.
Hog: Whereas they are happy to be a fan.
Foil: It’s a funny one. I don’t know. There’s something you could do an analysis on.
Hog: Yeah.
AF: Well, I really appreciate you talking to me this long. It’s very kind of you and I basically went through all my questions and more, so . . .
Hog: Thanks a lot.
Foil: That’s great, I hope it works out with the website as well . . .
AF: Yeah, well, also the uh, the flash fiction contest, which flash is a real genre . . .
Foil: Oh, it is?
AF: . . . yeah, it’s not just because FAH is in the name.
Foil: I thought it was just a quick flash, you know, it’s a short . . .
Hog: [starts to sing the Queen song, “Flash”] Flash Gordon and Queen, wasn’t it mashup or something . . .
AF: Yeah . . .
Foil: Yeah . . .
AF: But flash is actually a real genre of fiction . . .
Foil: Eh, yeah . . .
AF: That people write and make a living at, so it’s, I just, . . . which, actually I write poetry, flash poetry, I’ve shown you some of my FAH poetry, I think, um.
Foil: Yeah, yeah . . .
AF: . . . so yeah, so yeah, I’ve gotten quite a few submissions and people are loving it.
Foil: Great . . . great.
AF: So, that’s working out very well . . .
Foil: That’s very exiting [we’re talking at the same time here.]
AF: Yeah, and this probably won’t go up on the website until June because I want to figure out, first of all . . . just figuring out the technology for all of this is slightly beyond me.
Foil: Yeah . . .
AF: Um, it takes me a while to get it all down, but . . .
Foil: I’m sure there’s someone in the fahndom who can give you all the answers you need. They know everything . . .
AF: Well, this is kind of a secret . . .
Foil: Okay . . .
AF: The only two fahns who know are Tillie and Miri.
Foil: We’re swear them to secrecy.
AF: Yeah . . .
Hog: [unintellible]
Foil: I better run, Barbara.
AF: Yeah, thank you so much! I really, really, really appreciate this, thank you!
Foil: You’re welcome, have a nice one, talk to you soon, good luck.
Hog: Bye, thanks.
AF: Bye [waves bye at Foil and Hog.]