around the world with mr. punch

Welcome to the Around the World With Mr. Punch, the official members-only journal of The Worldwide Friends of Punch and Judy. This lively periodical has been a source of information and inspiration for Punch professionals and amateur enthusiasts since 1993. Your Editors, Glyn Edwards (UK) and Professor Freshwater (aka Diane Rains) (USA), are pleased now to bring you our signature, one-of-a-kind publication in a bold new format. Here in our Around the World With Mr. Punch blog you will find a wealth of articles, media, and special features devoted to The Punch and Judy Show tradition. New articles will be posted immediately after receipt and editing; no waiting between issues! Fresh content may show up at any time, so check back often. Or subscribe to our RSS feed so you won't miss a single delicious morsel! Just click on the "live feed" button above to activate your RSS subscription.

For even more excitement, take full advantage of this blog's interactive content! Read the "Submissions, please!" item for details.

That's the way to do it!

~ Professor Freshwater

One of the benefits of this new, blog-based Around the World With Mr. Punch is the ease with which readers can contribute to the journal's content. We have always welcomed submissions from our Worldwide Friends of Punch and Judy members; indeed our journal depends on your help! You can participate in several ways:

Read More »

Read More »

The story about me putting a Health & Safety officer into my show last year as a topical officious official (because I'd been asked to submit a Risk Assesment to a prospective booker) has been taken on board by the government's Health and Safety Executive itself. It's featured as the Myth of The Month for August on their official website from where the above image comes. Punch and Judy needing a Risk Assesment form is now a 'myth' they are trying to fight. At least it shows that Mr. Punch can still make a point on behalf of Joe and Josephine Public. Quoting 'Health & Safety' reasons has become a national excuse for doing (or preventing) just about any trivial matter. The appearance of the ubiquitous Health & Safety man never fails to make adults laugh when I use the routine. Meanwhile I came across (courtesy of Ray DaSilva an image of Punch and Judy promoting safety issues in an earlier era).

If anyone's wondered about the dearth of posts in the past month it's because keeping abreast of the bookings and getting a Punch exhibition together amount to a 25/8 job in a 24/7 world. Still, it beats working for a living (as they say). Certainly beats being a banker anyhow. Who'se going to be the first to adapt the counting routine as a financial shell-game parody? Meanwhile I just had to post a picture of the gig I did in Trafalgar Square. My booth is inside a blue and white striped box (because that's the corporate colours of the O2 cell phone network who were sponsoring the event) but what the heck. Trafalgar Square is Trafalgar Square: the actual centre of London as in all those 'X Miles to London' signs. A thrones throw from Buckinham Palace, a short spit to the Houses of Parliament, with the National Gallery to one side and Nelson's Column smack in the middle. Having the chance to let Punch comment to Judy about the bloke on the statue having been a guest on the show once was an opportunity you don't get very often. The whole event was actually Scrum on the Beach - a sports initiative to promote beach rugby as a worthy activity. Loads of rugby superstars on hand in a huge inflatable beach rugby pitch filled with olympic grade sand (yes, there is such a thing) plus masses of media hoop-la. The event toured the UK over the Summer in the wake of the Olympics. It was by chance that my booking was for the London appearance - but it was one I leapt at. And I have to say the audiences loved it. No different from any other outdoor crowd - and if any sniffy comments about the suitability of Punch in this day and age were going to surface this was the very place they'd do so. Mr. Punch was smack in the centre of London and having a great old time.

Just in case you've not been alerted to this elsewhere. It's from Brunk Auctions in the USA. Their website is here
November 8-9, 2008
Lot 1050
Punch and Judy puppet set:
Punch, Judy, the clown, the doctor and the alligator, carved and painted wooden heads, some arms and legs, leather ears, Punch with fur hair, various fabrics, wood rods under cloth hoods, early to mid 20th century with modern wood and metal hanging stand, 21 in. to 26 in., alligator head 15-1/2 in. long, stand 23 x 44-1/2 x 9 in.
Judy with one leg off but present, lacking one foot, chips, losses, repairs, old repaint, replaced rod on alligator, fabric with tears, stains, fading.
Estimate: $500 - $1,000

We've all experienced the pungent aroma of our cast members drenched in their Professor's sweat. In a closed booth in summer humidity, the fragrance can be a bit overwhelming! Recently the PUPTCRIT forum had a discussion about getting the sweaty smell out of much-used hand puppets. The consensus was that a mix of vodka and water has a miraculous destinking effect when sprayed on and in the puppet. One must only be careful that Old Red Nose and friends don't become too inebriated to perform!

Isn't vodka also recommended for swazzle disinfection?

Perhaps some vodka bottler should christen a new Punch brand of spirits!

Keith Preston let us know about a lovely little television video promoting Mr. P in Australia:

Mr. Punch Down Under (7mins)

"Our national televison ABC aired this nice little feature last week showing the 'Three Professors' Keith Preston, Lachlan Haig and Chris van der Craats keeping the traditional folk puppet show 'Punch and Judy' alive and well down under in Australia."

Well I thought it was funny anway. It's not so much a story as an anecdote. The 'retro themed urban beach' mentioned an a Silly Season posting below is, in fact, a very classy set up at a hotel which if you have a few thousand pounds (or more than a few thousand dollars) at your disposal is a delightful place to spend a long weekend. The picture above is captioned (in the hotel blurb's words) "our exclusive, high-tech beach huts offer a serene sanctuary with eclectic interiors. Each one features a 42" plasma TV, iPods and XBox 360's! There's even a dedicated Sequoia spa beach hut, where you can indulge yourself with one of our exclusive beach treatments." Punch & Judy are part of the post modern 'cool' ambience on this beach. There are no throngs merely a very, very select few. You'll excuse my amusement then if I record that the sole audience at one of my performances comprised a family who lived by the sea in Brighton but who never visited their local beaches and had instead chosen to spend their weekend of leisure on the 5 Star fake beach 75 miles inland from their home - but watching the same Punch show that had been on their local Pier the day before. They enjoyed the show I'm glad to say. (The tricky bit about shows to so precise an audience is that if they throw in the towel part way through you have no one left to play to!)

I've been doing some shows on Brighton Pier recently - which is also a sign of the times for Mr. Punch. Brighton Pier (formerly The Palace Pier) is an iconic British seaside image and the current entertainments manager is in favour of Mr. Punch. Long may he keep his job! It's certainly a pitch that exposes you to throngs of seaside day trippers and holiday makers just as in Punch's heyday as a seaside entertainer. Most of the performances are in the children's rides section near the seaward end of the Pier but Punch as was also given one day of 'main attraction' status as part of the programme of Sunday Fundays the pier's forecourt. There Old Red Nose met just about anyone you might find in today's UK. Brighton has always been nicknamed 'London by the sea' and London is about as cosmopolitan and dieverse a city as you'll find anywhere. Fortunately it all went very well indeed - for the sea-front is a harsh Darwinian environment of competing attractions and the Pier is a microcosm. However with a swazzle, a PA system of some power and a tall stripey booth I'm pleased to say Punch that grabbed an audience, held them and had them returning for the repeat performances. The winds were ferocious and the high seas had claimed a victim who ignored the 'no bathing' signs only a few hours before. The combination of restless energy from passing throngs, the relentless noise of nearby traffic and the tendency of parties of foreign tour students to use the booth as a meeting point made for an exhilarating -- if exhausting - day. What pleased me most was in this totally unsheltered space Punch did the business without needing any special concessions to his age, his pedigree or his cultural significance. He just worked his old magic and made people laugh. Just he'd done for me by the same pier when I was aged 4.

The times they are a changin' for Mr. Punch in the UK as far as the media are concerned. It is a truism (but none the less true) that 'the media' can only hold one piece of narrative at once. For the first decades of my career as a Prof the standard line of questioning by journalists always ran along the lines of 'I expect it's a dying art these days isn't it?'. Then for the past couple of decades it ran 'I expect it's all banned because of Political Correctness these days isn't it?' In the past two years however it has reverted to the 'I believe it's all dying out....' line of questioning. What remains, however, is the perennial fascination with Mr. Punch and the willingness of the media to hang a story around him. I'm not going to argue with that. He's a star - and when the media stop following him he's in trouble. The latest tale is that a survey shows that children no longer see as much Punch & Judy as their parents did and so Chevrolet cars are touring a car with a Punch booth attached around seaside venues to reverse the trend. What a great story! If Mr. Punch were seriously at risk from the Political Correctess taleban then no commercial sponsor would risk going near him. Instead of which he's being used as an excuse to promote cars. (The morality of that I am deliberately side-stepping. It's Punch's potency as a celebrity I'm measuring here.) You can see the story in the British press here.
Meanwhile just on a personal note I've recently performed at 'Basingstoke-on-Sea' (an attempt to attract punters to a landlocked housing development by means of a seaside fun day promotion involving a sand pit, and ice cream van and yours truly), at the 'retro themed urban beach' of a 5 Star Hotel and am lined up as part of 'Scrum at the Beach' (a family-friendly promotion for Beach Rugby sponsored by the 02 cellphone network and backed by the British Rugby Federation) taking place in Trafalgar Sq. Yes THAT Trafalgar Sq. Meanwhile I've heard of department stores running P&J promotions, more P&J at the prestigious new St. Pancras International station and a whole raft of other such high profile ventures. The times are indeed a changin' - and the PC fundamentalists are on the back foot. That is definitely the way to do it.

In marked contrast to the intelligent BBC treatment of Punch & Judy comes proof that the world of advertising can be full of mindless sensationalism (and some downright stupidity). There's a document currently going the email rounds of UK Profs and puppeteers from a London based media company called Hotspur & Argyle They are involved in a film treatment for an MTV anti-domestic violence commercial and hope to feature a Punch puppet beating his female partner with a penis which keeps decreasing in size. Reading the purple prose of the director's written treatment you can almost hear his own panting breath as he works himself himself up into a frenzy. This is the stuff of pure comedy if they didn't mean it to be taken seriously. Needless to say the company will be hard pressed to find anyone with the remotest connection to Punch and Judy straying any where near their dire project. To top it all the producer is at pains to point out that it is a charity film shoot and no fee can be paid. To think that any Prof is likely to assist in cutting the throat of the Punch tradition in such a way AND to think they'd persuade anyone to do it for nothing is a mark of rare professional stupidity indeed. No marks here for Producer Melanie Gore-Grimes or Director Theo Delaney. (And am I the only one to think that the gangsta rap lyrics of songs plugged on MTV have a more mysoginistic and violent 'real world' outlook than anything a comic puppet tale has to offer? Mr. Punch will get good media coverage out of any music industry hypocrisy should the commercial ever get made.)