As part of the Edinburgh People’s Festival, Mark Thomas is planning on
performing an exclusive show to the inmates of Saughton prison.
If all goes to plan, Thomas will
be performing his stand-up show from The Bongo Club before hundreds of prisoners
of HMP Edinburgh on August 10th.
The People’s
Festival has been set up as an alternative to the better known Edinburgh
Festival as an arts event for the residents of the city rather than the
tourists. Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson™) has already confirmed
that she will repeat her Fringe show at the maternity unit in the Edinburgh
Royal Infirmary and now much more weight has been added to the event with
Thomas’s participation.
Ali Black, a spokesman for the
People’s Festival, stated how eager Thomas was to do the gig. He said, “We are
talking about taking a top comedian into a place where he would normally not go.
It doesn’t get any less accessible than Saughton prison and it really highlights
the spirit of the People’s Festival.”
I suppose that’s what’s called a
captive audience.
