Initially conceived to provide some light comic relief from the misery of watching Mick McCarthy s Republic Of Ireland team ritually self-destruct, the Apris Match team have gone on to become one of the success stories of Irish comedy.

With their Best Of video nestling at the top end of the charts and their live show back for another month-long stint at Vicar St., Messrs. Cooke, Cooper and Murphy must, at the end of the day, be over the moon that their stock has gone from strength to strength, Brian.
But it s not all clichi-busting, pundit-pounding satire that the boys specialise in the live show is more theatrically based than the surreal studio analysis they re known for. In fact it s a multimedia experience replete with tapes, backing tracks and even a spoof video lampooning a top Irish rock band!
There s so many different characters and angles, explains Barry Murphy. There are monologues and sketches and songs and dancing and mime. Something for everyone! The humour shifts all the time. It s like a fantastic Tops Of The Town show.
One of the things, which has made the trio so popular, is Gary Cooke s merciless and scarily accurate Eamon Dunphy impersonation. In the live show, Dunphy is given the This Is Your Life treatment, only no-one shows up except a B-list RTE personality. It s priceless stuff. But what does the man himself make of it all? Has Cooke s path ever crossed that of the Real McCoy.
Yeah. I ve met Eamon Dunphy a few times, he says. He s fine with it. He s probably pretty flattered. He d probably be upset if he wasn t featured on it. But Johnny Giles was a bit pissed off one day. I think I used the word arse in his name. It was a sketch during France 98. He came in and said, (slips into character) you ve been a very naughty boy! .
And also because you had sex with his cormorant! adds Risteard Cooper.
Gary: I don t remember that.
Barry: It was in the Apres Winfrey pilot.
Gary: Oh yeah. That was at the wedding of Dave Ignitius a former Derby player. Gilesy jumped out of a cake, shouting Pussy Galore! . We have this alternative life for Johnny where he has a pet cormorant called Colin.
Risteard: I think Gilesy really hates our existence.
Barry: I wouldn t say hates . He doesn t understand why anyone would be interested in lampooning pundits. Because punditry needs time and space to be understood and it should be on 24 hours a day.
Risteard: I think he thinks we re also lampooning football as well. Which we re not at all.
Indeed, Barry Murphy even did a brief stint presenting the Champions League football coverage for RTE without any irony or satire involved at all. Was it more difficult than he expected?
I found it almost impossible, he replies. You need to have a very good memory and a very journalistic mind. And you need to care about Slavia Prague against Gothenburg a little bit too much. And everything s very difficult when you re doing it live.
One of the team s finest moments came in the guise of their bizarre Joe Duffy sketch. You can even now buy t-shirts with the immortal line I Had A Woman On From Clontarf etched on the back.
I met him just before Christmas, says Cooke. I bumped into him going on the show Winning Streak. I felt bad for him because the two people he was with who are well known faces in Irish television were slagging him off to me in front of him.
Another Irish institution to have their balloon pricked by the comic darts of the Apres Match team is U2, who are seen singing the theme to Postman Pat with their customary intensity. So do U2 set themselves up for a slagging?
Gary: By the nature of being really big, you set yourselves up. And with the exception of Paul Wonderful s Joshua Trio, nobody else has really had a go at them. But I actually think they re a great band.
Risteard: We re not really having a go particularly at their music. It s more the image they portray, what they say.
Barry: the bullshit of rock n roll, basically.
Risteard: I personally am of the opinion that pop stars even if they re great rock n rollers should just stay quiet.
Barry: It s like doing this interview. I always find it difficult and I don t understand it. It s not to knock what you do for a living but I don t think anyone s interested in anything any performer has to say. Ever.
Risteard: explaining why they do what they re doing.
Barry: Exactly. You just do it. A lot of what you believe in comes across in what you do. Actions speak louder than words. The words are bullshit. I hate doing this. This is what we take the piss out of. I d like to read this article and then take the piss out of it.
Risteard: Well, we will!

Apris Match s run at Vicar St. continues until early February