WHY DO I PERFORM A PUNCH and JUDY SHOW ?
For fans of Dan Brown novels ...here's my first ever attempt at an AMBIGRAM.
Scott Brooker did this very clever portrait. Cheers Scotty!
In a north Kent seaside town called Herne Bay, there was once a little kid who used to go and sing the Beatles "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" at the 'Saturday-Morning-Cinema' talent show.
I'm told I used to win every other week. A bag of sweets from Mr. Beecham the cinema manager. I don't remember winning or prizes.
But I do remember the multicoloured square footlights.
I also know I wasn't frightened of the audience, and couldn't wait to get up there to do my thing.
So I guess a life in Show-Biz was always on the cards.
The Muppet Show first appeared on our TV screens when I was eleven. That had a profound effect on me: I knew there were people moving the puppets, and I knew I wanted to do that too.
I never could have dreamed I would actually end up puppeteering on TV and Film, and would even get to meet Jim Henson, work for his company, and be directed by him on three different productions.
But long before Kermit and his crazy band of fuzzy, furry friends had captured my imagination, a completely different sort of puppetry had laid claim to my soul.
The little boy with the tambourine was totally addicted to Punch and Judy.
I used to stand at the railings next to the Pier and watch 'Uncle Colin' do his show. It was different, safer times, so I would often be there watching unattended.
In any case our house was barely two streets away, and also my Grandparents managed the Amusement Arcade right opposite the Punch Theatre.
Everyone knew if you wanted to find Richard, and it was show time, he'd be at the Punch and Judy. Colin Bennet did a wonderful show, in a solid wooden theatre. His show was always the same: it never deviated in word or action ( it didn't need to it was perfect !)
I must have seen it dozens and dozens of times. I have to remind myself of that when children come back and watch my same show for the third time that day at the Heights of Abraham...Kids love repetition.
My best guess is that this shot of the Pier and Punch Show was taken in the late forties. Colin Bennet worked that pitch for well over twenty years.
Interestingly, here the booth is facing a different direction.
This is a very well known photograph, and luckily it is dated: 1953.
Metal railings have replaced the concrete balustrades, and the theatre is now facing the right way (for me).
The audience still have deckchairs. In my childhood these had been replaced with rows of green fold-up metal seats. I never sat on those, if you did you had to pay. I stood at the railings mostly for free.
Although sometimes my Grandparents in the Arcade would give me money to 'give to the man'. Being there so long, I am sure they must have been acquainted with him.
Even today, a big print of this photo hangs framed on the wall behind the tills in the Herne Bay Morrissons.
It's only ten years before I was born. Yet when I look at it, it seems like a totally different world.
The pier was being refurbished and the Pavilion redecorated when it caught fire in 1970 . An accident with one of those hand held gas bottles that were common back then to burn old gloss paint off skirting boards.
I was home from school with a bad cold. But from my bedroom window we could see the Pier - and when it was there, the Punch show.
I remember going outside wrapped in a couple of blankets and watching the big flames and thick smoke. I was seven years old.
This photo of the fire trucks shows the trampolines on the beach that had replaced Mr. Punch that year.
So Uncle Colin must have retired when I was only six. Being so young, it's amazing, the lasting impression his show made on me.
This is Peter Buchard who did his show on Broadstairs beach.
This is the show that I watched until I was much older, eleven or twelve.
But not as often as I'd seen the Herne Bay show.
Broadstairs was where my other Grandparents lived. We only went to visit on the train two or three times each Summer.
The Broadstairs show was different in every way to what I had experienced at Herne Bay.
Peter had a canvas booth, not a wooden theatre.
And he never did the same show twice.
Looking back with hindsight, I know now, he had a modular show, with different chapters, he just shuffled up the order, leaving different ones out of the repertoire and inserting others instead.
But to child it seemed astounding, if you went back, then the next show was different. At some venues I work this way too. While at Heights of Abraham, it's the same show three times a day like at Herne Bay.
Peter Buchards
Beach Puppets
I'm probably somewhere between 12 and 13 years old in this photo.
By then I had built my own puppet and made my own theatre.
Mum and I went shopping at Debenhams in Canterbury with my Christmas money for the fabric, and a friend of hers sewed the Theatre cover and the scalloped pelmet.
Back then, as now, I've been encouraged and helped every step of the way by my wonderful family. Dad got a bloke he worked with at the Amusement Arcades to paint my Proscenium.
His name was Les Nottle. I only recently discovered that Les was not only a signwriter : he was also a punch man.
It's safe to say that my puppet making has improved since a was a little child.
They get better every year.
And I still love the whole process of making puppets.
Over the years I have done a few shows at the seaside (Proms and Piers). Just not actually on the pebbles or sand.
I think it's too much hard work to get all the gear onto the actual beach.
I leave that valiant effort to others. Beach-work is very arduous work.
Next time you see a show actually on a beach please leave a very generous tip in the collecting box!
Sadly I've never performed on the Prom or Pier of my home town of Herne Bay - well not yet !
There have only been a few years of my adult life when I wasn't actively performing a Punch show - My years at Drama School in Bristol, and my first couple of years being a young actor.
Even so, in a bizarre twist I walked past this glorious ROSELIA Proscenium and puppets several times a day in my first theatre job.
They were on display in the museum section of Polka Children's Theatre. I loved staring at it. It was like Mr. Punch wouldn't loosen his grip on me.
Just a few years ago my good friend and fellow 'Clubster' Chris Drewitt built himself this glorious reproduction Roselia Proscenium.
And this is the great, great grandson of that very same Roselia.
Sadly he didn't come up and say 'Hello' at the Heights of Abraham until after I had taken my own Prosecenium off for the night.
Performing Punch remains a true joy. Making people happy through laughter, and creating memories that whole families share together is a huge privilege.
