What Labour’s election win means for Edinburgh Fringe’s political comedians | Ents & Arts News

August 3, 2024 2,267

A change of government means comedians at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival are enjoying “a new host of characters to take the mick out of”.

Matt Forde is no stranger to the demands of political comedy, having voiced the likes of Boris Johnson on Spitting Image and appeared panel shows like the BBC’s Have I Got News For You.

He told Sky News: “Politics is always volatile, there’s always something going on, and I love the challenge of it.”

While he admits the election outcome has meant some hasty rewrites, Forde – who has two shows at the arts festival – says a Labour government to make fun of feels like a bit of a novelty.

“I’ve only really done these shows under a Tory government, so to have a new government, a new host of characters to take the mick out of and to lampoon, actually is a great relief because going back to the Tory well year after year – as much as I’m grateful to the Tories for writing so much of my material – it’s time for us all to move on.”

But is the new prime minister as enjoyable to try to impersonate?

“People think [Sir Keir] Starmer is perhaps a bit calmer and that maybe it’s less fun than doing Boris Johnson, but he still has his own characteristics, you know,” says Forde.

“There’s something very locked up about Keir Starmer; the upright back, the chest, the repetition at the end of sentences and the way that he sounds.”

While there are no plans announced for the new PM to head to the Fringe to hear how he’s sounding, plenty of politicians are set to appear.

Alex Salmond, Ruth Davidson, Rachel Reeves, Humza Yousaf and Liz Truss are all slated to appear at various speaking events.

Truss is also the focus of not one, but two Fringe shows sending up her short stint in office, with all-male a capella group The Techtonics setting the story of the 44 Days Of Liz Truss to music.

And Nerine Skinner, a former semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent who went viral for her parodies of the former leader, will offer comedy fans the chance to laugh at The Exorcism Of Liz Truss.

The character comedian says the key to a good Truss impression is “the smile” complete with “blank eyes” that at the same time look “really startled”.

Then, she says, it’s a case of physically wandering around the stage looking “confused and not being sure where to go”.

She says her Truss routine was, at first, just a way of amusing her mates.

“Some friends sent me a video of her and said, ‘You have to do a parody’, so it started as a bit of a joke.”

But the snap election has forced Skinner to reframe some of what she had originally written.

“I needed to adapt it, put some Labour references in there… and work out what the tone of the show is going to be, whether it’s like almost nostalgic now or whether it’s still fresh enough,” she says. “It’s going to be really interesting to see how the show develops over time.”

Skinner is among a number of political comedians at the Fringe who find themselves having to rethink how they mark the end of a political chapter that has provided them with plenty of punchlines.