Biography

The gifted and often surreal comedian Mark Forward has appeared on John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central, is a multi Canadian Comedy Award Winner, and has made multiple appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Mark is also known for his weekly hit podcast The Mark Forward Podcast, and his critically acclaimed comedy album Things I Thought Of (both available on iTunes). He was a writer and cast member on The Jon Dore Television Show on The Comedy Network/IFC, and can currently be seen on the latest season of cult hit Fargo, as well as Crave TV’s new series Letterkenny, as well as the History Channel’s Join or Die with Craig Ferguson.

He is an accomplished actor with an impressive resume, having also made appearances in Spun Out, The Rocker, Breakfast with Scot, The Sean Cullen Show, The Newsroom and Degrassi and starred alongside Alison Brie in No Stranger than Love, as well as nearly 100 television commercials

“a throwback to a more confrontational era of comedy and refreshingly so” – ★★★★★ Daily Mirror

Mark is a festival stronghold having performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and numerous appearances at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal (where his festival debut won the Homegrown Comic Competition) as well as the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and many others in North America.

With a genuinely off-the-wall approach to his comedy - Forward returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August '17, receiving massive critical acclaim;

"A magnificently ridiculous show.. wholeheartedly & unashamedly commitment to silliness " – ★★★★ Broadway Baby

"Deserves every award he wins.. Bombastic? Unhinged? Unstructured? F-ing insane? Any and all of these would be totally appropriate to describe Mark Forward's show, as long as they were accompanied with so funny you come out feeling physically assaulted" – ★★★★★ Voice Mag

"distinctive and offbeat.. a barnstormer of a show" – ★★★★ The Scotsman

"A show so funny, you’ll feel you’re abdomen has done a heavy gym session by the end. Genuine award winning stuff" – ★★★★★ ShortCom

"a surrealist comedian who constructs bizarre narratives in service of precisely engineered laughs. A fantastic reinterpretation of a classic children's rhyme serves as the perfect way to conclude this glorious hour, before Forward outdoes himself by throwing his all into a barnstorming ending that finally unites the whole room” – ★★★★ The List

"memorable, unique and very funny” – ★★★★ Chortle

"Bombastic? Unhinged? Unstructured? F-ing insane? Any and all of these would be totally appropriate to describe Mark Forward's show, as long as they were accompanied with 'so funny you come out feeling physically assaulted'. He joked about not having a long of time to write the show, and it's hard to know whether or not he was serious. Whether it was meticulously planned lunacy, or truly off-the-cuff unplanned hilarity, Mark Forward exhibited phenomenal skill in the art of comedy, and you absolutely have to see him.." – The Voice

"inspired and absurd. Forward has a Kaufman-esque streak, oscillating between both silliness and more pointed material, but he doesn’t get as antagonistic as Kaufman could. Imagine if Zach Galifianakis’s stand-up was less focused on surreal one-liners and more on ridiculous scenarios and characters... Forward pulls off being weird without ever feeling like he’s trying too hard to be weird, which is hard to do." – The Ten Best Comedians at the Just For Laughs Festival, Paste
Read the full review here

“brilliant and inventive hour of stand-up” – ★★★★ Broadway Baby

“Forward’s humour is infectious, and succeeds in leaving the audience in a giddy, satisfied frame of mind” – ★★★★★ EdFest Mag

Mark’s podcast The Mark Forward Podcast, demonstrated his developed taste for stupid fun, and his comedy album ‘Things I Though Of’ debuted at number 1 on the iTunes Comedy charts in Canada.

“Trying to describe this bear of a man can’t really convey how good he is” – ★★★★ The Scotsman

His material is sometimes silly but fresh, patiently executed with solid punch lines. He has a wildly unique style of stand-up with a genuinely off-the-wall approach to his comedy, that if you had to label it, would be described as Alternative. Forward appears to have a fondness for the undersell, followed with a sensory overload of comedic ability, making him one of Canada’s finest comic exports.

Marks comedy is best descibed thus; the surreal silliness of Eddie Izzard mixed with the charm of Ross Noble, but cut with a contrary disregard for the audience's expectations that is similar to Stewart Lee. On paper it shouldn't work, but in the flesh it is a unique experience.

“This is sharp and beautifully composed madness” – ★★★★ The List

“Stand-up of this quality ought to be a hot ticket” – ★★★★ Chortle

“His delivery is dry as a month-old corpse, considered without being mannered, as he shares his stories, which tend to begin somewhere in reality and end up north of Utterly Mad” – Wow 247