I’ll be interested to see what Keir thinks about my impersonation...
COMIC MATT FORDE TELLS MARION MCMULLEN WHY HE IS READY TO TAKE HIS POLITICAL PARTY PODCAST ONTO THE STAGE
Tony Blair joined you for a political livestream this month and you’ve got three Political Party specials in the West End coming up. How does it feel to be performing again?
I can’t wait. It’s so exciting. I love performing and being on stage. I was doing other stuff at home during lockdown but it’s not the same thing.
If you are a stand-up comedian you come alive on stage. It’s like a footballer not being able to go on the pitch. I can’t wait to be in front of a crowd doing my job.
I’ve had Tony Blair on the show before and it was great to get him for the livestream. The Political Party specials are at the Garrick Theatre in London from May and there’s some heavyweight names taking part – Peter Mandelson and Sayeeda Warsi, (Labour leader) Keir Starmer and Andrea Leadsom and Jess Phillips and Esther Mcvey.
You voiced Keir Starmer on Spitting Image. Has he ever said anything about your impersonation ?
(Laughs) I’m going to have to address that elephant in the room. I’m going to have to mention it. I do his voice on Spitting Image and it will be the first time I will have met him since the show came out. He was immortalised in rubber and I added his voice.
I know he watches the programme and I think he quite likes it. I’m probably the first person who has played Keir Starmer in anything. It will be interesting to know what he thinks of my impression of him.
You also have a new podcast out with Alice Levine called Political Scandal. How would you describe it?
My mum used to say, ‘scandals are like sandals: some are big, some are small, but they always trip somebody up’.
OK, maybe she never said that, but I thought it sounded clever, so I went with it.
I love a good scandal and I love talking to Alice Levine about scandals, so this show is perfect for me. The biggest British scandal of all is that this podcast didn’t exist already. The whole of British history is scandal-ridden so we’re never going to run out of material.
It was an amazing experience recording it. The first one explores the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident who dared to take on the Kremlin and subsequently fled to the UK, to be granted asylum in 2000.
It’s weird looking back on these cases. You find things you’d forgotten or didn’t hear about at the time. It can be heartbreaking, but also farcical. The two guys sent to kill him had two or three attempts that did not succeed. They were idiots.
Did you find it hard to shield for three months during the first lockdown because of your asthma?
Three months seems nothing now.
I bought a bike and I lost a lot of weight and I was doing stand-up online as Boris Johnson or Trump, but you don’t feel the atmosphere of a room. All that stuff is a compromise.
Nobody wants to be a comedian just doing comedy online and sitting in their bedroom with a little laptop.
I had tickets for Glastonbury, the cricket and Euro 2020 and thought ‘this is going to be the best summer of my life’ but it was all put off and I stayed in.
What are you looking forward to now restrictions are easing?
(Laughs) I’ve not had a hangover for ages. I want a hangover and I really want to lie-in on a Sunday and not do anything all day and then order a pizza.
It’s the mundane things you haven’t been able to do that you miss like getting on a bus or a Tube or walking into town to grab a pasty at Greggs or a kebab after you been out. It’s just seeing people, watching football in a pub and seeing family and friends. I’m gagging to get back now and do live shows.
That hunger has never gone away.
I’m sure that lots of comedians will have lots of jokes about Covid, but will audiences want to hear them? We’ll have to see, but it will still be the same excitement in the room.
People are looking forward to buying tickets for something again. You’d always buy tickets for something like The Killers or Liam Gallagher, something to look forward to. It keeps you going and that’s what we need.
My mum used to say, ‘scandals are like sandals: some are big, some are small, but they always trip somebody up’... OK, maybe she never said that, but I thought it sounded clever... Matt on his new Political Scandal podcast
■ Comedian, broadcaster and former political adviser Matt Forde’s Political Party specials run in the West End from May 24. Go to mattforde.com for ticket details. British Scandal is now available on all major UK podcast platforms and Matt’s book Politically Homeless will be released in paperback by Quercus on May 13.