Diversity In Punch & Judy

‘The last refuge for a drop-out’ is how American Punchman Mike McKormack described, in the 80s, the average punch worker. There are hippies, there’s school teachers, there’s actors, tv producers, builders, puppeteers, all sorts of people working Punch but it is fair to say the majority do tend to be fairly and squarely, white, notionally middle class, reasonably educated, probably left-wing, Englishmen. Punch has made it to Scotland and Ireland but again, he tends to be worked by the English.
Let’s consider a little bit of social history. Back in the very early 1800s the characters usually shown included a negro servant. He wasn’t lampooned for being either black or a servant. Servants tended to be well-treated, fed and cared for when sick. They may have originated from slavery but the character portrayed was a free man. Free that is, to choose to stick with his ‘master’ or to leave and if luck didn’t shine on him, to starve to death on the street. There was the real threat of meeting a further untimely end, if ‘he’ got caught stealing property of relatively low value being sentenced to hang as a consequence.

‘Tradition’ (was all bad)

The traditional black man character has evolved to represent singers or boxers – reflecting popular culture or ‘his’ apparent strengths. In the late Victorian / Edwardian era, Chinese magicians displaying oriental magic were all the rage. The most famous: ‘Chung Ling Soo’ failed to catch a bullet adequately and died prematurely having been shot while performing the famous bullet-catch trick. Chung ling Soo was in fact an American: Alfred Robinson who stayed in character whether on stage or not. Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery.
Making a positive decision to leave out a black boxer for the fear of being labelled racist is discriminatory viewed positively and negatively and the Punch show is the poorer for not being ‘allowed’ to carry a coloured doctor, boxer or a s Chinese magician (who’s chair balancing routine, was a sight to behold). We seem free to parody Donald Trump or even our own King Charles but put anything other than what outsiders may consider ‘traditional’ and the performer runs the very real risk of being pilloried and harangued.
Punch ‘man’ have and do include women. Shows tend to be different. Sometime past Di-Seanny presented: ‘Judy and Punch’ but this wasn’t the show the audience expects to see, drifting too far from the accepted norm.
Prof Patel presents ‘Punjeet & Judy-Gee’. Punch has a wicked Indian accent and is accompanied by brown puppets. Racist? No. Prof Patel is Indian. The fact that in real life he speaks better English, with no discernible accent, than most Londoners, is something that often wrong foots do-gooders who are quick to criticise.

Acting – The Role Change

‘English’ Judy is presented as a pantomime dame because the ‘average-’ 50-year-old can do no more than to ham it up this way. This is a one-‘man’ show whether it’s a boy, girl or anyone from the LGBTQ community inside providing the voices, actions, theatrics etc.,