"Punch and Judy activist" is how I've always described myself - but "Punch & Judy Rock Star"? Well, if you get a review quote like that you have to put it on your website don't you? It was the heading of a review published in the Puppeteers of America magazine after Mary and I performed at their festival in 2005. Punch and Judy don't often merit the attention of reviewers - but this one just happened to really get inside what it is I'm trying to make an audience feel. I can tell you it's a phrase that is definitely going into my memoirs - and probably on my tombstone!

Doing the best show you can aspire to doesn't really count as 'activism', just professionalism, but as Mr. Punch is more important than any of his 'Profs' they have a duty to promote him at his best. Mary and I have played our part to the best of our ability in bringing Mr. Punch to overseas festivals where it's important to send the message that Punch & Judy are alive and well. We've taken Punch to America several times, he's also been to Dubai, Russia, Japan, Spain, Italy, Greece and France. In England, however, we've done more than just perform the show. We've been active in promoting the entire Punch and Judy tradition with a view to keeping it refreshed, invigourated and bursting with vitality.

The picture above is the official photo of the '325 Celebrations' in Covent Garden in to mark Mr. Punch's 'official' 325th birthday in 1987. Conceiving that project, getting it organised and producing and directing an ITV network TV documentary 'As Pleased as Punch' to go with it were probably the most spectacular events I've done in as an 'activist'. The picture made the 1990 Guinness book of Records as the largest ever gathering of 'Profs'. (I'm the one wearing sunglasses and a hat on 'Samuel Pepys' right hand side in the front row. The Pulcinella performer in white on his left hand side is Bruno Leone from Naples) Maybe we can beat the record in 2012 when the old rogue markes his 350th? Plans are already afoot and ideas welcomed.
This wasn't the first Punch festival I'd organised. That had been the Bankside Globe Festival of 1974 as part of a fund raising initiative to build the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. I'd got hooked on Punch Festivals since being the youngest performer at the Tercentanary of Punch in 1962 when a plaque was unveiled to him in Covent Garden. Over the years I've had the chance to organise various Punch events including the Punch & Judy Jamboree and Slapstick Symposium held as part of the Millennium Festival activities in 2000.
Other activism included being a founder member of the Punch & Judy Fellowship in the 1980s and shortly afterwards (with fellow 'Prof' John Styles) inaugurating The Punch & Judy College of Professors modelled along the lines of the Inner Magic Circle. Not that Punch performers need to belong to any organisations. It's a free and open tradition - but if there ARE going to be organisations they need to reflect the best of the tradition rather than sink to the lowest common denominator. It's Mr. Punch's blessing and his curse that anyone may take hold of him and put on a show. Some are world class and others dreadful beyond description. To the public they are equally 'just a Punch & Judy Show' and so a bad one can lower the image of the whole tradition.
In the 1990s I figured that there was room for a global Punch link-up where fans and enthusiasts could exchange news and information. This became The Worldwide Friends of Punch and Judy and its journal Around the World With Mr. Punch is now a freely available blog. Mr. Punch is more than just an English icon. He's known in many other countries.
During the years of virulent Political Correctness all these organisations were at the front line of defending the tradition in the media with humour and common sense. The web has been good to Mr. Punch - allowing Profs to get their side of the story into the press and on TV. It once seemed feasible that ultra PC attitudes might derail the tradition as a new century dawned.. Fortunately fundamentalist Political Correctness always got a worse press than Mr. Punch and today's 21st Century audiences can't see what all the fuss was about. I did a lot of media interviews during the years when 'Punch & Judy to be banned' stories were a regular silly season tale. I think a radio interview on Radio 4s 'Today' programme was the most nerve-wracking - although on the day my 'opponent' from a local council put up such a poor showing that she virtually needed no rebuttal (and later lost her political role 'for making the council a laughing stock').
A bit of irreverence doesn't come amiss either. I was instrumental in getting the Punch organisations to formally declare the red stripe in the red-and-white canvas around Punch and Judy stages to symbolise henceforth the government red tape that was increasingly wrapping its way round our activities. I caused a few chuckles in the media by introducing a Health & Safety Officer puppet into the show and I founded the Commedia Congregation for Punch performers who wished to offer faith based Punch and Judy shows and thus claim religious exemption from the Licensing Act (2003) which treats Punch and Judy stages as 'premises' within the meaning of the act. No I'm not making this up!
I took to teaching Punch & Judy skills - and then writing abook about it - because I figured if people wanted to do the show they should learn how to do it properly. This bit of my 'activism' has a separate page of its own.
I've always been keen to keep the Punch & Judy tradition on its toes. It's very refreshing to see young performers coming along who aren't just doing poor copies of other poor shows but who are being creative in their thinking within the format of the show. Without a bit of 'activism' any tradition can get self-congratulatory and lazy. It may indeed be 'only a Punch and Judy Show' when all is said and done - but what a world class piece of madcap street theatre it is. And its star is truly an immortal comic archetype.