Tiger Dublin Fringe 2016
Dates: Sep 13 - 20 @ 21:00
Tickets: €18 / €16 conc.
Duration: 55 mins
Venue: Smock Alley Theatre

Going from sketch to sketch with a helpful dose of audience participation, Foil Arms & Hog are back in Dublin to point out pretentious people, find the tallest person in the room and teach us how to speak Dublish. With a mix of song, miming and ad-libbed sections there’s a good chance they’ll go over their running time.

For the second night of Doomdah there wasn’t an empty seat in the Smock Alley main stage, and with the comedy trio helping people to find seats with their microphones on, the laughs start early. The lights are up for the entire hour-long show, keeping the audience involved throughout. Obviously the spine of the show revolves around a handful of rehearsed sketches, but dragging new people up to the stage for most of them you feel like you’re getting something a little bit different each night. It’s The Fringe not a pub, so even if there are people not up for participating you still feel like you’re in safe hands.

Some of the material you’ll recognise from Youtube but a lot of it is new. In fact most of the gags would only work in a live show setting. The One Man Show is a particular standout, building on the joke without dragging it out too long – I won’t ruin it for you though. If you’ve never seen their stuff before then there’s nothing to worry about, there are no inside jokes, but fans will be pleased to see some familiar favourites.

It’s the perfect four star performance, I’d be surprised if anyone left feeling like they didn’t get their money’s worth. Some sketches are better than others, but what keeps the energy up is the constant commentary from the three guys, they bounce off each other even in parts that clearly aren’t rehearsed. There’s a great energy in the room, when one of them leaves they’ll whisper to people in the audience that “they’re not in this bit” in case they were wondering. If you’re queueing up to buy their DVD at the end it might be because you like them just as much as for the sketches. I think for their live shows to really work you have to be in the room with them. Their online videos have gotten their name out there, but if you get a chance you should see them live for a show that’s never the same twice.

A word of warning: if you hate participation avoid the front row.