You ever wondered how that Punch and Judy show in Weymouth still attracts the kiddies, even in this day and age? Well, here is what I have heard…

The old guy who used to run the show before his son took over was an avatar of the Harlequin, and he used the puppets in much the same was as other avatars of the Harlequin use masks – a puppet is only a mask once removed, after all. When he channelled that Avatar he caught his young audience in a spell where certain things could be discussed without taboos getting in the way. Many of his young audience later reported fathers for domestic abuse or family friends for molestation to the police, and I guess that was his mission in life – to give kids space to confront whatever is fucked up about their lives at that moment in time, and change it.

Thing is, he got too old to carry on sometime around the mid-eighties, so he passed his mantle over to his eldest son, and now he runs the Punch and Judy show on Weymouth beach in his father’s stead. Kinda like Elijah and Elisha, I guess…

The kiddies still go to see the show because they know it is a safe place for them to be, despite the politically correct councillors who want the show shut down for good. Methinks some in Weymouth Council have guilty consciences, and it is only a matter of time before the mighty fall. They invariably do.

Anyway, the same family who run the Punch and Judy shows on Weymouth beach also do those coloured sand carvings there. You know the ones – giant mermaids and ships in storms coloured with poster paints. Yeah, those ones. Anyway, next time you’re down that way drop some pound coins in their tin. Anyone who looks after the kiddies like that deserve all the good stuff that can come their way. Karma, man. You dig? Yeah, I thought you did…