Comedian Matt Forde on Anas Sarwar, the SNP and how surviving cancer gave him a new joy for the Fringe

A year is a long time in politics, but for comedian Matt Forde the past 12 months have been life-changing after he was diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer.

The 41-year-old comedian, who has made a career out of mocking politicians, was struck down with excruciating back and leg pain just days before he was due to take to the stage for his Edinburgh Fringe show last year.

He feared this might be his last performance at the legendary festival.

But he is now set to return to the capital for his End of An Era tour this year after undergoing major surgery to remove part of his spine and having to learn to walk again.

Ahead of his 26-night stint at Pleasance Beyond, which kicks off later this month, Matt said: “I never miss a festival, I’ve been going there every year since 2010 and it’s a really important part of my year.

“Edinburgh is a phenomenal city and a beautiful place and I love the atmosphere around the festival and the crowds who come from all over Scotland, the UK and the world.

“The idea of ​​not being there was really hard to swallow, so I pushed myself to do it.”

He added: “Around this time last year I was feeling pain like I had pulled my hamstring, but when I got to Edinburgh it went through the roof.

“It was an explosive, relentless pain in my left buttock and the back of my left thigh, a sharp nerve pain, and I couldn’t lie down or even sit.

“They discovered it was cancer at the base of my spine and that it had touched the nerve.

“It feels like that’s behind me, thank God, and it’s really special to think that I’ll be back on stage in a year’s time.”

The impressionist and Spitting Image writer continues to recover after his latest MRI scan showed his cancer had not returned.

Walking, which was not possible for months after surgery, has improved and he can now “stagger around the house” unaided, but expects to have to use a walking stick when he comes to Edinburgh.

He believes British politics appears to have finally turned the corner on its recovery too with the election of Keir Starmer as the new Prime Minister and the SNP receiving a “dose of reality” in last week’s general election.

As a former Labour aide, Matt said it would be no harder to make fun of his former employer than it would be to make jokes about the Conservatives or the SNP, and that any political party was an easy target for him.

He said: “I’ve always made fun of the Labour Party. I think every political party is ripe for satire and satire. Every political party has idiots in it and makes mistakes. There’s a lot of ambition and all the stuff of human drama in it.

“My programmes have always been critical of all parties – Tory, Labour, SNP, Lib Dems, Greens, Ukip, Reform. I’ve always been for all of them, so that won’t change, it’ll just be the order in which I do them, I suppose.”

Sometimes the audience gets offended, Matt said, admitting that Jeremy Corbyn and SNP supporters were often the ones who stormed out of his shows.

He said: “At one show there was a guy who was laughing the whole time I was doing stuff about Boris and Starmer, but when I got to the SNP and did some stuff about the ferries he stood up and said, ‘I’m Scottish and you’re an arsehole’ and walked off.

“I couldn’t disagree, but I’d been on air for an hour and he was happy with me making fun of everyone, but one little joke about a huge political scandal that cost the country hundreds of millions of pounds and he couldn’t deal with it.”

The SNP’s turmoil in recent years has given it plenty of material, but Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy and Humza Yousaf’s “basically non-existent” one are no laughing matter.

Matt said: “The parallels between the Tories and the SNP were incredible, but I don’t think the SNP ever realised that. They saw themselves as the Tories’ main opponents rather than their greatest tribute act.

“The corruption at the top of the SNP is unlike anything we have seen in the Conservative party before, let alone their dismal record in government.

“The main difference is that Boris Johnson never pretended to be a good person.

“He never tried to sell himself as morally superior to his opponents – Nicola Sturgeon did. But what can she point to as an achievement of all those elections she won?

“Both parties were soundly defeated last Thursday by a party that has come to its senses and is a pragmatic turnaround in British politics.”

Matt said his next show will be based around the general election and the rise of a government that could see Labour’s success replicated in 2026 in the Scottish Parliament.

Although he is working on his impersonation of Prime Minister John Swinney because “I always like to be able to play whoever is in charge”, if Labour gains control in two years’ time he will not have to learn a new character.

He said: “Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is my favourite Scottish politician to impersonate. I love doing it.

“He basically has a great mix of two accents and when I play him, it’s definitely a caricature – very shrill.”

Matt said he told Sarwar before he started impersonating him, for fear of offending him or anyone else.

He said: “When I first started doing it, I texted him and said, ‘Just so you know, I’m doing an impression of you, hope that’s okay.’

“I got in a bit of trouble about it because I’m a white guy playing a politician of a different race, so I thought I’d better let him know. Now I realize that, of course, it’s okay to do that. He’s a very robust individual and I think he likes the fact that he’s being impersonated, really.”

Matt will also be hosting two special podcasts from The Political Party at Gilded Balloon on August 13 and 19, with Sarwar appearing on stage with him at the first event.

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