BLUE BADGE BUNCH Comes To VAULT Festival

The award-winning Blue Badge Bunch is coming to VAULT Festival on Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th March, 2.50pm; the interactive kids game show offering audiences the experience of what it is like to have different disabilities through interactive games.

Dubbed the "disability Taskmaster", Blue Badge Bunch is hosted by comedian Benny Shakes, who has cerebral palsy, and autistic stand-up comedian Mark Nicholas, plus different comedy guests for each show. The panel and audience get to experience how it feels to have a disability by playing interactive games such as 'Below the Belt,' where participants draw with their bare feet, work out sentences from a speaking aid in 'Jamie's Gamey', and guess the price and purpose of disability equipment in 'The Price is Wrong'.

Saturday 4th March comedian and actor Natalie Durkin, as seen on The John Bishop Show, will be joining Benny and Mark, with 'So You Think You're Funny?' semi-finalist Kate Lovelock appearing on Sunday 5th March.

Host Benny Shakes has cerebral palsy and has been awarded £30k from Arts Council England to develop and tour the show, with support from Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester), The Quarry Theatre Bedford, New Art Exchange (Nottingham). This money is giving disabled artists more paid opportunities and raising awareness of the issues they face in a fun and engaging way.

Host Benny Shakes said, "With Blue Badge Bunch I wanted to create a comedy show that could make the next generation think differently about disability. It's a fun game show about something so important that offers audiences a chance to see how disabled people live each day, and we had an amazing response from audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.

"It feels like this show is more important now than ever. There are still so many misconceptions around disability; in recent months I've experienced abuse about the way I speak, or people assuming that I'm less intelligent than them because I speak differently to them. Blue Badge Bunch gives us the opportunity to educate audiences about disabilities like Cerebral Palsy and Autism in an accessible, interactive way and hopefully change attitudes."

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