Cork. It has always had its own sense of identity. The idea of the county becoming its own republic is often bandied about, albeit jokingly, but still this captures the spirit of the place.

The melodic accent is trademark, as is the turn of phrase. Too, Corkonians have their own sense of humour.

Three Cork comedians-cum-actors – Tadhg Hickey, Dominic MacHale and Laura O’Mahony – have capitalised on this unique humour in the form of their comedy troupe, CCCahoots.

Pronounced C-C-cahoots, the CC stands for Cork City and cahoots, because well, the three are in cahoots.

Together for nearly four years, they have many strings to their bow. The group started off in stand-up comedy and have since expanded to doing online sketch videos, a series on RTÉ and also the Improvised Pantomime in the Cork Opera House.

Tadhg founded CCCahoots. He explains that the troupe was born when he met Laura and Dominic on the Irish theatre scene. They realised that they actually wanted to focus more so on comedy as opposed to acting and thus changed direction.

CCCahoots’ sketches play on a vast range of topics, from the Pope and budget funerals to ‘Kerry Girls’ and driving tests. Irish Country Living asks Tadhg where they get the inspiration from? But of course the answer is obvious, Cork!

“Our best source of material comes from simply listening and observing everyday Cork. Cork people have a richness to the way they speak. So musical in its rhythm and colourful in its language, it’s just an endless source of content,” reflects Tadhg.

Waterford and beyond

Alongside his role in CCCahoots, Dominic is well-known to audiences as Sargent Healy in The Young Offenders. He concurs with Tadhg that Cork has its own particular humour, but one he feels is accessible to many people.

“I think generally Cork humour is quite self-deprecating, subtle and manages to incorporate sarcasm without being nasty or bitter. However, I think it’s important for people to understand that although we’re all Cork natives in CCCahoots, our humour is not exclusively Corkonian in style.

“The accents and characters may be primarily Cork-based, but I think the themes are universal. In fact, our fan base stretches as far afield as Spain, the US, Australia and Waterford!”

Dominic simultaneously filmed the first series of The Young Offenders and The School, a three-part mockumentary that aired on RTÉ. It was a hectic time for the comedian, but he found coping mechanisms to get through the days.

“There were very long days of shooting with both projects. I had to make sure I was giving my full energy to both. I became quite the expert at napping on set in between scenes, and then springing to life when I was called to shoot,” he laughs. “It’s definitely a skill every actor should have in his or her locker.

“CCCahoots, we’re actually a surprisingly efficient and productive group when we get down to business, sometimes filming three or four sketches in one day.

“However, the atmosphere is always one of fun. It has to be when making comedy. Unless we’re struggling to hold in laughter while we’re filming, we’re not doing our jobs properly.”

Comedy characters

Representing the ladies in CCCahoots, Laura plays a number of very notable characters.

For her, whether these characters are in a standalone sketch or part of a series, it is paramount they are fully developed.

And although the characters can be outlandish at times, all of their traits are based in reality and a lot of leg work goes into establishing their personalities.

“We like all our characters to be fully rounded and believable, whether you meet them briefly or you get to watch them develop over a longer period of time,” explains Laura.

“The School was great because we made three strong, interesting characters and we got to see them develop. But equally there is magic in something like ‘the clogged couple’ who we only see flashes of.”

In Irish Country Living’s humble opinion, one of Laura’s stand-out performances to date is as Peig Sayers attending counselling, in what was an English/Irish bilingual sketch. Hilarious to say the least, but we want to know was Laura always funny?

“I think we all started off as funny, then got distracted and came back to our roots. Tadhg and I went down the theatre path for a while. So did Dominic, who also pursued science for a bit.

“The three of us becoming CCCahoots was like a magic ‘bingo’ moment. It all just clicked and we realised that this was forever. Comedy is the path we all want to travel.”

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