Foil, Arms and Hog: Comedy Doesn't Pay

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Hailing from Ireland, Foil, Arms and Hog are yet another bubbly, excitable trio of sketch comedians singing, dancing and gurning for their suppers in a little Edinburgh room this August. And after a couple of well received Fringe runs under their belts, reason dictates that there should be some buzz around their third outing, Comedy Doesn't Pay.

That there's not may well be due to the fact that there is little that feels fresh about this material. Indeed, there is nothing really (besides, perhaps, from the accents) to set them apart from the myriad university sketch troupes kicking about the city this summer. Perhaps worse still is that a fair chunk of the material is recycled from last year. Indeed, these sketches—a dance choreographed to the various error sounds farted out by Windows software and a look at some of the more esoteric mobile phone apps—were among the highlights of the set, which begs the question: just what have the boys been up to in the last 12 months?

Nevertheless, it's not a terrible show – far from it, in fact. Comedy Doesn't Pay is an easily enjoyable hour of comedy. It just isn't at all inventive. The three lads' enthusiastic and joyful performances really do lift some quite staid material into the realms of fun. But is it enough to lift them above the vast swathes of competing acts? Probably not.