Irish Vine stars Fupin Eejits admit the overnight closure of the six-second video sharing platform has come at the right time for them as they are ready to branch out to bigger and better projects.
Senan Byrne and Edward Whelan from Clonmel, who work as psychiatric nurses, and Kilkenny man Stevie Cahill, also a nurse, have become internet sensations with their short videos and have racked up over 300 million views using the now defunct Vine app.
🎈🎈🎈🎈 (w/@StevieCahill, @edwheelo) https://t.co/vbYpjuRtO6
— Senan Byrne (@SenanByrne) January 16, 2017
Vine, which officially ended last night, was launched in early 2013 but has faced fierce competition from competitors like Snapchat and Instagram.
"We were up watching the last few Vines late last night for a bit of nostalgia. There were a few tears in our eyes alright," Senan told RTÉ Entertainment.
The trio admit that while Vine was a great launching pad for the group, it did have its challenges.
"It's hard to build up and get a punch line in six seconds. Now we are focusing on longer content and branching off into five and 10-minute pieces," Senan added. "Stevie is sitting here on front of me trying to write a script for our next sketch that is going to be written and filmed within the next hour.
"We are focusing on higher quality and investing in cameras and mics and really focusing on our Facebook page," Senan said.
The guys have appeared on The Republic of Telly a few times and reveal landing a TV gig would be a dream come true.
"We would love to do more sketches for RTÉ. If you have any contacts put in a good word for us," Senan laughed.
"We have a little bit written for stand-up. We met with an event promoter not so long ago and he's asking us to target the college circuit.
"The likes of Foil, Arms & Hog are excellent at what they do but we're not the D4 Dublin heads, we are 'culchies', so I don't know how it would come across. We'll have to wait and see.
"It is our dream to keep on making videos, whether that is on TV or on the internet. That is all we want - to keep on getting our jokes and ideas out there," he added.
For more on Fupin Eejits check out their Facebook page and YouTube channel.
