I’ve had a few messages asking
if I really want to be a Punch and Judy man as a result of the mentions in the
last couple of blogs. It’s not something I have thought about a lot throughout
my life but the older I get the more appealing such a less pressured pace of
life becomes. I don’t even know how popular the whole concept is nowadays but I
vaguely know that they still exist, maybe as a novelty that parents are more
interested in than children are. A lot of the traditional subject matter doesn’t
sit well these days such as Punch hitting Judy and the baby with a stick, so
for research I will have to go and see a few shows around the country.
The reason it appeals to me is
that it belongs to another age of entertainment, and recalls the glory days of
the British seaside holiday during the Victorian era with a dash of the old Music
Hall thrown in. Punch and Judy actually goes back further, and isn’t even a
British creation. The entertainment has roots in 16th century
Italian commedia dell’arte and arrived in this country in 1662.
A glance around the Internet
hasn’t brought up what I would think of as the Punch and Judy script, the
performer (let’s call him the Punchman or even Professor) makes it up as he
goes along. I always imagined a small repertory cast of Punch, Judy, the baby,
the policeman, and for some reason a crocodile. At no point in my memory can I remember
ever seeing a Punch and Judy show, despite spending most of my life living by
the sea. A Punch and Judy fan site I have found states that there used to be
all manner of characters that don’t seem to be used or even commonly known
these days such as Joey the Clown, The Skeleton, The Doctor (there is a way you
could curry favour with today’s sophisticated young audiences with a character
of that name but you might infringe BBC copyright), Hector the Horse, Pretty
Polly, The Devil (this stopped being so common in Victorian England due to
religion still being big back then), The Hangman, The Blind Man, Mr. Scaramouch
(who presumably came on and did the fandango) and best of all a character known
as The Beadle. This was a gnome faced prankster with one hand smaller than the
other who would play stupid tricks on people and then approach them wearing a
false beard over his own shorter beard as a seemingly impenetrable disguise. That
last bit was made up, but there was a character called The Beadle. How one man
coped with all this isn’t recorded, although it might explain why they aren’t
used anymore.
Puppeteering has fascinated me
for years and is something I have often thought about doing but I haven’t known
what path to take. I don’t want to copy The Muppets or anything that’s been
done so am at a bit of a cul-de-sac about whether or not I could actually do
it. At one point I considered remaking classic films with puppets instead of
humans but not doing it as a comic thing but as the serious piece of drama it
was intended. Money is obviously a sticking point.
The life of the Punchman (to
use its proper term) appeals to my desire for a more laid back approach to life
though. I picture myself as an old man living in a small flat by the sea, not
one of the brash seaside resorts but somewhere a little calmer. The day would
begin with a morning stroll along the beach walking the dog, maybe paddling the
whole way if the weather was nice. Then around ten o’clock when the hotels and
bed and breakfasts had finished breakfast service I would set about the start
of the working day, this would fit in brilliantly with my not being a morning person.
The first performance would be at around eleven o’clock with a couple more
dotted through the day earning money through donations as would a busker. Once
the day was done I would hopefully have made enough money to buy myself an
evening meal or a bag of chips, totally living on what I made. Gone would be
the pressure of podcasts and various other deadlines, although I’m sure I can’t
give up on the music side of things and would keep my hand in somehow. Maybe
doubling up as a gig promoter at a seaside pub would satisfy that need.
I can use a swazzle too so I’m
halfway there.
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