Matt Forde was forced to bring one of his Edinburgh Fringe gigs to an early finish after audience members became unwell.
The 41-year-old comedian is currently showcasing his The End of an Era tour in the Scottish capital as part of the arts festival.
However, today’s evening performance at The Pleasance Theatre was cancelled before the end of his set.
The gig began at 8:00pm and around ten minutes after it started, an incident occurred.
‘A man stood up, but something happened. He may have collapsed. He did manage to leave the venue straight after that,’ explained Entertainment Reporter Kitty Chrisp, who was in attendance at the event.
Spitting Image impressionist Matt – who voices Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer and Donald Trump – then stopped the show and left the stage, before returning shortly after.
Matt continued with his set, which was commended for its humourous material. However, at around 8:50pm, ten minutes before the show was scheduled to end, a similar situation happened again with a different person.
‘I heard people saying “Someone else has collapsed”. Matt had to stop the show again, and he walked off stage,’ Kitty recalled.
A member of staff then took to the microphone and asked the audience to leave the venue.
Kitty added: ‘The lights went up and everyone left.’
Matt, who is known for his political comedy and has performed at the Royal Variety Show, recently spoke to Metro.co.uk about the difficult, but brilliant year he’s had.
While performing at the Fringe last year he experienced terrible back pain, which he assumed was a slipped disc, but was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer.
‘When I was told it was cancer, I thought: “I don’t feel like I’ve got cancer. I’m not emaciated, and I’m not, apart from the pain, unwell”,’ he said.
‘You quickly have to come to terms with it and I think when you’re having those conversations, you’re really not sure how long you’ve got left.’
Matt lost the ability to walk when he was operated on after the discovery of a spine tumour. He then had part of his spine removed to remove the growth and has spent the subsequent months recovering and relearning how to walk.
‘I hopefully won’t have my life shortened by it, and my quality of life hasn’t significantly diminished,’ he said.
‘I’ve got a stoma and I have to self-catheterise in order to pee, and I still need walking sticks to get about, but my walking is improving and I don’t think I’ll need them forever.
‘Really, these things are quite small, I think, compared to the sacrifices that other people make.’
To have missed the asteroid, as Matt puts it, really brings things into perspective.
‘It was actually one of the greatest experiences of my life,’ he says. ‘It really enriched my experience of and perspective on life.
‘I feel like I got something extra out of life for having gone through this, rather than having lost anything.’
On top of stand-up gigs, Matt is a host on The Absolute Radio and presents The Political Party podcast.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Edinburgh Fringe and Matt Forde’s representatives for comment.
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