around the world with mr. punch

The Big Grin website launched

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:28:41 +0100

Two years in the planning and now down to three months of waiting. The Big Grin funding application to help celebrate Mr. Punch's 350th birthday in style is now in the hands of the funding body who'll make their ruling in January.

Meanwhile you can see the UK's plans at the new site (with a new logo) at www.thebiggrin350.com

Fingers crossed.

Puppet Cinema

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:44:19 +0100

Puppet Cinema
Have you ever wondered what puppets do on their day off? They go to the movies! Last month Punch and Judy and 120 other puppet residents of Minneapolis/St. Paul spent their leisure time at a special film festival created just for them. The Walker Art Center, in cooperation with Bedlam Theatre, designed this unique installation in The Walker's McGuire Theater as a wacky accompaniment to Improbable Theater UK's new production, The Devil and Mr. Punch.

Over 30 professional puppeteers from the Twin Cities area contributed puppets for the display. Local puppetmongers Alison Heimstead and John Bueche put together the installation with help from Duane Tougas, Julian McFaul, Mark Safford, and Chris Lutter. A special film montage was created by filmmaker Ragnar Freidank, an Improbable Theater collaborator.

Prof. Freshwater's Joey
Prof. Freshwater's Joey

And thus it was that an impressive group of holiday-deserving puppets enjoyed a wacky production of film scenes ranging from Gone With the Wind to Godzilla. They appeared to enjoy the production immensely (though some complained about the lack of popcorn.) Eat your heart out, Cannes!

Puppet Cinema
(Photos by Bruce Silcox)

The Devil and Mr. Punch

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:04:09 +0100

Improbable's Punch

At 6:01 PM on May 21, 2011, I was bit disappointed. The world had been scheduled to end at 6:00 pm local time, and I was quite looking forward to aerial acrobatics of the faithful being raptured skyward. Would have been a great show. But by about 8:30 pm, whilst sitting in a delighted audience on the stage of the Walker Art Center's McGuire Theater, I had to think that perhaps the Apocalypse had arrived after all. Before me blustered the nasty, nightmarish, prickly pyrotechnics of Hell. And Mr. Punch was in charge.

The Devil and Mr. Punch, a production of UK's Improbable Theatre, gleefully portrays a chapter in the lives of two Victorian era Music Hall proprietors, Messrs. Harvey and Hovey. With song and dance, a Punch Show, and such diverse variety acts as Orlando Furioso puppet battles and acrobatic piglets, we are invited to wallow deliciously in the pandemonious pace of the showman's life. Punch bits of business anchor Improbable's production, revealing tragicomic parallels between a puppet morality play and the deepest motives of slightly desperate men.

Set

The set of The Devil and Mr. Punch is a lovely, lush 19th century building facade resembling a hybrid of Victorian haunted house and "find the object" game. A metronome, baseball, and Victrola-like contraption all find roles in the course of the show. The puppets, based on the figures of 19th century New York Prof. Gus White, are beautifully rendered and expressive. Mr. Punch lacks an obvious hump, but otherwise elegantly embodies the style of the period.

Masterful puppet manipulation breathes life into every character and keeps the fast-paced show moving along. Two of the production's performers are British and have been with Improbable Theatre for many years. But the rest of the cast was assembled in the US and had only 8 days to rehearse together! Clearly these folks are all comfortably endowed with the skills necessary for effective puppetry. Two excellent singer/musicians, John Foti and Saskia Lane and, provide sparkly and sympathetic accompaniment.

Human acting is equally essential in this piece, and its two lead actors truly shine. Nick Haverson and Rob Thirtle are long-time Improbable members. Haverson delivers a standout performance as the fiery and complex Mr. Harvey. He propels the audience on a roller coaster ride through the showman's psyche, from hidden valleys of murderous impulse to stomach-fluttering peaks of comic banter. Rob Thirtle's long-suffering Mr. Hovey is the perfect, sombre counterpoint to the bombastic Mr. Harvey. Haverson gives voice to Mr. Punch, as well, while Jessica Scott provides puppet manipulation for Old Red Nose. Scott and Haverson animate Punch with all of the silliness and carefree abandon so essential to our favorite anti-hero's nature.

Julian Crouch, co-founder and co-artistic director of Improbable Theatre UK, is the lead designer and director of The Devil and Mr. Punch. I had the pleasure of conversing with Julian at length about Punch and Judy. It's clear he entered into this project with a true respect for the Punch tradition. He conducted quite a bit of research and unearthed some very interesting information about the history of Punch in both the UK and the United States. Attention to tradition informs his production of The Devil and Mr. Punch. The script borrows heavily from Collier/Cruikshank but never sinks into the rampant wordiness of that controversial document. Instead, the best use of its puns and plot are made. (Whatever your opinion about the Collier's script's authenticity, you have to admit there are some very funny lines in there.)

The Devil and Mr. Punch departs in a few details from the traditional techniques practiced by most Punch Profs. Punch's voice is not swazzled. But if it were, an audience would have difficulty understanding extended dialogue between Punch and his puppeteer. That dialogue is pivotal to insights at the heart of this show. Interestingly, swazzling had been considered. As I chatted with Nick Haverson after the performance, he produced a rather mangled swazzle from his pocket. Clearly it hadn't worked for him. But Haverson's vocal chords very effectively give voice to Punch with a rich, reedy timbre far superior to the flat falsetto usually employed by non-swazzlers.

I felt the absence of a slapstick a bit more keenly. I don't think one can really punctuate the action of a Punch show properly without it. Using a plain stick or bat instead of a slapstick is a bit like asking a period to impersonate an exclamation mark; it doesn't really convey the same percussive snap! The Devil and Mr. Punch is still a work in progress, and Julian told me that he might consider adding the slapstick.

But nit-picking Punch technique really is unimportant in a fair assessment of The Devil and Mr. Punch. Where the production really shines in its depiction of relationships: between Mr. Punch and his animator, between the two showmen, and in the warring qualities of comedy and pathos that lie in all human and puppet souls.

Most Punch and Judy-inspired theatre pieces make errors of balance; they lean too much into the light, or tumble too deeply into darkness. Punch is the comical embodiment of yin yang.

YinYang

The light and dark of his persona perpetually chase each other in a race that neither side ever wins. (I prefer to view the fish-to-fish yin yang symbol as Punch nose-to-Punch nose.) Within Mr. Punch, anarchy and murder are counterweighed by laughter and joy. But artists working outside of the core Punch tradition tend to either strip his character of its ominous underpinnings, removing essential tension and depth, or they portray a grossly malevolent Punch, robbing us of his comic egocentricity. Improbable Theatre makes neither mistake.

The relationship of Mr. Punch with his Prof, mirrored in the bond between Hovey and Harvey, resonated deeply with me. Trapped now in hell together with Mr. Punch, the showmen reminisce wistfully about the golden gigs of their careers. They come to realize how dependent they are upon each other. It's the bond between them � and with Mr. Punch � that gives their lives meaning.

Just now I am recovering from hand surgery made necessary by 24 years of Mr. Punch's abuse, and I had been toying with the idea of letting my Punch Show ride gracefully into the sunset. But Improbable's production held up a mirror and revealed the depths of my carnival soul. As I watched, I began to have my own internal dialogue with Old Red Nose: Oh, yes, you've hurt me, Mr. P, but we've had some glorious days together, eh. Remember the gig we did in a barn occupied by two huge Percheron horses, and how we got to chuckle about performing for some horses' patooties? And the time when Joey's finger broke off, flew into the audience, and he quipped, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to give you the finger!"? Good times, good times.

If my battle-weary hand were never again up to the task of making Mr. Punch's world manifest, I would miss the particular gratification of audience laughter and admiration that only Punch can induce. Certainly I would. But that's not what frightens me. My deepest fear is simply this: Mr. Punch might leave me. I cannot imagine my world without him.

But that won't happen, will it, Mr. P? You're not quite done with me yet, eh, you silly old squasage? I've hoisted your weight and your moods for over two decades, and willingly. So, keep me in your footlights and never let me go.

And keep Improbable Theatre UK there, as well. They deserve your company.

George Speaight - Still Insightful

Tue, 9 Nov 2010 17:11:00 +0000

The late Punch scholar George Speaight is still arguing his case for Punch's origins — from beyond the grave! A Speaight essay entitled "Petrushka and Punch: National traditions and new developments" is available for free download on the web.

Thanks to Trev Hill for the link.

2012

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:12:10 +0100

An application for close on �250,000 was submitted last week to the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund on behalf of the various individuals and groups who came forward to be a part of The Big Grin project looking to celebrate a certain anniversary in 2012. These range from individual performers through to the Victoria & Albert Museum, a couple of universities and many local authorities. A decision will be handed down in January as to whether the application gets through to the next level (thus triggering the next stage of the application process). It's a very long haul and �like all funding applications �an optimistic shot in the dark.

Meanwhile, the recent award to The Fedora Group for its South Coast Punch & Judy project "Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" - which includes the city of Brighton & Hove as chronicled elsewhere in this blog - has been accepted for the �Inspire Mark� which brands it within the Cultural Olympiad: the cultural arm of the London 2012 Olympics.

So Mr. Punch can say he's got his nose into the the Olympic cultural celebrations (and confounded some detractors) whatever the final Big Grin outcome. And if no money is forthcoming for his 350th birthday festivities he'll still have the biggest paupers' party he can throw in Covent Garden in May 2012. Fun is still free. And the whole world is welcome to come and join it. (Having done the various funding applications and nearly drowned in the paperwork, I can make this invitation without having to ask anyone else's permission!)

Red Tape, Red Stripes, Red Nose

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:46:59 +0100

The Red Tape Tsar watches a Health & Safety Officer inspect the sausage machine.

A recent item in the BBC's flagship political programme Newsnight brought the UK government's new 'Red Tape Tsar' face to face with Mr. Punch. The programme brought Lord Hodgson - the man charged with advising the Prime Minister on how to prune the excessive bureaucracy spawned by the previous government - to Hastings beach to see a version of my Mr. Punch's encounter with a Health & Safety Officer and to discuss red tape with the programme's roving journalist.

The picture above shows the bureaucracy-busting Lord watching Mr. Punch having a site inspection of his sausage machine. And we all know where that will lead.

His Lordship invited me to ring him afterwards at the Houses of Parliament to give him 'the view from the Prof' on red tape lunacy. Did I do so? You betcha!

The BBC site has a clip here

Victoria, Albert, George and Mr. Punch

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:18:43 +0100

The Victoria and Albert Museum recently acquired the George Speaight Archive in lieu of inheritance tax due on his estate. The museum's press release was timed in order to make an August Bank Holiday story and was duly picked up - with masses of colour images of Punch and Judy - by most UK newspapers and by TV. An edition of the BBC's big rating The One Show featured the story along with some good publicity for Old Red Nose and cameo appearances by Martin Reeve, Brian Davey and Jackie Codman.

You can find details of the acquisition - which will become available digitised online - here.

The Theatre Museum of the V&A now becomes the gold standard archive for all Punch and Judy studies and - you read it here first! - has enthusiastically agreed to partner the funding application being prepared on behalf of the 350 Committee (see earlier postings) in order to celebrate that special anniversary in 2012.

Punchy Monkey Business

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:29:09 +0100

Mr. Punch has infiltrated popular culture in many forms over the years and inspired some of the greatest comedic talents. The Marx Brothers certainly were well acquainted with Punch, as this excerpt from their film, "Monkey Business," illustrates:

I love the layers of homage in this routine! Vaudeville, which regurgitated the Marx Brothers whole, owed a huge debt to the comic traditions of Punch and Judy. Another layer: In my own Professor Freshwater's Punch and Judy Show, the Crocodile pretends to be several critters other than a Croc to fool Mr. Punch. At one point the clever reptile quacks. When Punch says "It's a duck!", Mr. Bottles (my bottler) quotes the famous Marx line "A duck? Why a duck!" Only the most devout Marxophiles in the audience ever get that joke!

Sean Keohane contributes additional information about this video: "The Punchman from "Monkey Business" (unseen, surreally, even in backstage shots), was Al Flosso... He was a friend of the Marx Brothers-- Bud Abbott had worked as his bottler at Coney Island-- and ran a magic shop in Manhattan that had once belonged to Houdini. Edgar Bergen was known to stop in, and so was my brother, when Al's son took over."

Right on in Brighton plus more news

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:05:00 +0100

Posts on the blog came to a temporary halt for a couple of months whilst events on the ground in the UK for Mr. Punch and me whirled at a wilder pace than normal. Not least was my taking on the editor's chair of The Swazzle - newsletter of the Punch & Judy Fellowship (now working in partnership with the Punch & Judy College of Professors).

Additionally came news that a project for which I'd applied for funding got the green light from Britain's Heritage Lottery Fund. This involves a number of South Coast museums, municipal authorities and schoools in a Punch & Judy 'seaside footsteps heritage trail' celebrating Old Red Nose.

On top of that came news that the same funding body would approve an initial application for The Big Grin - the national project for Punch's 350th birthday bash in 2012.

Postings on each of these will follow - but for now here's a catch-up on how the tale of Mr. Punch versus the Town Hall finally played out in Brighton (as trailed in previous postings.)

The city of Brighton and Hove is a vibrant mixture of cultures, sub-cultures and lifestyles. Surprisingly it is not very culturally diverse in ethnicity; however, should you find yourself in need of a vegan pub, a lesbian T-Shirt shop, or a green funeral parlour then a short stroll from Harry Ramsdens chippy opposite the Pier should find you one. It�s also a resort where Mr. Punch had a long and enjoyable stay on the beach until the spectacular bust-up between Sgnt. Stone and the council in 2000.

Mike Stone was a performer perhaps best described as �edgy� and who will forever be remembered as the man who coined the phrase �Punch and Judy no more encourages domestic violence than Goldilocks and the Three Bears encourages squatting�. Several years after his premature death from alcohol related issues he remains a figure of legend in certain Brighton circles. Many of these involve tales of his performing stark naked in his booth and swearing at the puppets having swigged copiously from a bottle of spirits. Not a natural for the childrens party circuit and probably just as well that he didn�t follow it. He styled himself �Brighton�s Punch & Judy man� for some thirty years, but when the council redeveloped the seafront at the turn of the Millenium some decisions were taken about the right ambiance required for the locals and the tourists. (This is the seafront stretch always pictured when Brighton features in the news: the Pier in the background, the beach covered in deckchairs and the Prom awash with trippers.) An artists quarter was developed there out of the old fish market on the foreshore and busking was regulated by license. Mike Stone had blotted his copybook with the then Mayor once too often and as councils cannot use their powers to �ban� individuals, they banned the activity the individual practised. In this case the proscribed activity was �Punch and Judy�

All this has gradually emerged during the course of a year in which Katey Wilde (my daughter) and I have been trying to get Mr. Punch back on a site he�d been since Victorian times and where I�d first seen Punch and Judy as a child. It is a tale of Alice in Wonderland bureaucracy, hidden agendas and arbitrary prejudice. Disregarding the seven jolly jobsworths who passed the buck round and round by phone in the early stages, it subsequently escalated to include the Mayor, a former Mayor, the Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for the Arts and Leisure, several ward councillors, the parliamentary candidates of the key constituencies plus the Arts Development Officer (in favour) and the Seafront Office (against). A Freedom of Information enquiry as to some of the hidden agenda is still pending. Four times we�ve been formally refused, with reasons ranging from � We don�t want that kind of thing here�, and �The council has a duty to safeguard the vulnerable� to �It will encourage children to hit each other with sticks� Never mind that we perform in local schools and are booked by Brighton Pier, the council� (acting through its bureaucrats) was playing Nanny in so far as what it would allow people to see. Each refusal was countered by our equally firm refusal to accept the decision and to request written clarification of the relevant council policies and reasons. Their council website was full of promises of transparency and openness and we intended to hold them to their words. Finally - to cut a very, very long story as short as possible - they finally conceded. It was agreed that an exhibition of Punch and Judy heritage could be mounted in the seafront Fishing Museum with accompanying Punch shows - after which a license would be negotiated for a schedule of seafront performances. This would run from next year (as the museum was fully scheduled for this year) and would be subject to a pilot performance being successfully held at the 2010 Annual Mackerel Fayre. This latter is a sort of fish-based May Fayre celebrating Brighton�s early fame as the home of the South Coast�s most celebrated fishing fleet and Mr. Punch passed the test with flying colours. There was many a moist eye from old timers who remembered Punch from their youth and the younger generations whooped it up with no need for nostalgia.

Thanks are due not only to those councillors and officers who supported the move but also to fellow Profs who lent their expertise in making Punch�s case: Geoff Felix provided the factual history of Brighton�s Punch heritage, David Wilde provided additional archive photographs and Mark Andrews advised on politics. Mr. Punch is thus primed for a return to a spot where he�d been for over a century. And to the veteran Prof (not a member of the Punch societies) who told me at the May Fayre that it was wasted effort trying to push Mr. Punch where he wasn�t wanted: may the shades of Prof. Carcass and family (see below) rise up in their clanking chains and drown out your swazzle. Mr. Punch has a long and proud heritage and it�s up to Profs to defend it.

For info: Geoffs brief chronology of Punch in Brighton said: The earliest images I have are postcards both showing the show on the beach. I judge that these would be of the late Victorian or early Edwardian period. The pier is visible in the background but judging by the number of small boats on the shore and the lack of bathing machines, I suggest that this was a period before the beach was used solely by holidaymakers. It may be that Punch and Judy were one of the first attractions there. The Carcass family has the longest association with Brighton. I have found a number of variations in spelling this name and some members went under the name of Coleman. There is a link too with the Staddon family of Punch performers. In 1881 I have Walter Carcass (Born 1832) living in Marine Gardens Brighton. His son John Philip Carcass (1865-1938) also went on to become a Punch Man as did several of his sons. In 1938 Professor Carcass was reported to have "an elaborate fit-up at the bottom of Ship Street". There is a photograph of the Carcass show entertaining troops during the Second World War and he appears in the 'Round the Resorts' survey carried out by Gerald Morice in 1939. I have an obituary for John Philip Carcass dated 28-10-38 from the Morice archive. He performed for Queen Victoria and Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) in Osborne House. In a B.B.C. programme he claimed to be the third generation of his family to perform on Brighton beach with a son Percy to continue after him. He also claimed that the Carcass family was one of the oldest established in the business. I also have a reference to a Professor Barnard in 1906. Professor Tom Kemp and his brother Len Foote took over in 1947 and ran in tandem with Clown Smokey who was performing in the Aquarium in 1952-3. Lesley Press replaced Tom Kemp in 1956 and Piet Tovenaar was there in 1957. Professor Chad (Bernard Hastings) was near the Palace Pier in 1960 and Gordon Hamilton was there in 1962. Glyn Edwards performed there in 1968. I also understand that Michael Byrom performed there in the 1960s but I do not have exact dates. Between 1974 until he died in 2005 Brighton's Punch and Judy man was Mike Stone. Finally one significant event of interest was the Brighton Festival in 1985. The theme was 'Commedia dell Arte' and the local museum held an exhibition 'Harlequin, Punch and Pierrot in England'. There were Punch and Judy shows by Chris Harris, Barry Smith, Sergeant Stone, Theo C. Cupier and John Styles. Punch and Judy was also the main theme of 'Punch's Pantomime' performed by the Lindsay Kemp Company. (Glyn says: I posted some of these images on my site at www.punch-and-judy.com )

Codman's Punch at 150

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:17:16 +0100

The Daily Mail online has just published a nice story about the Codman Family's Punch and Judy Show. The Codmans' Punch tradition has passed from generation to generation within their family for 150 years. That's their way to do it!