Foil, Arms and Hog: DoomDah

With their own theme music that the audience is encouraged to sing along with, Foil, Arms and Hog make a confident entrance for a boisterous crowd. They deserve that confidence: this is well-conceived and performed sketch comedy that is high on ideas and delivered by the three with energy. What's impressive is the attention to detail, which means that simple conceits develop into complex comic skits. A song mocking self-important bigheads (including critics) and a sequence imagining a human mobile phone could be one-gag efforts in the hands of less-skilled groups. But here the three demonstrate an awareness of how to build comic momentum, carrying the audience along with increasingly absurd logic.

As such, a scene about a confused audience member at a one-person play belies real intelligence in how to construct a comic narrative. Furthermore, it enables all three performers to display their individual skills as well as evidencing the trio's finely-honed onstage relationship. There's also lots of audience participation; it's masterfully handled, functioning as genuine comic moments that build throughout, rather than relying on nastily belittling punters. A sketch drawing on national stereotypes seems a little lazy by comparison, even if it is better formulated than many other comics' comparable fare. Overall, though, there's a party atmosphere in the room that the three know how to create and sustain, and it's all over far too quickly.