Dispatches from the East: All Hail the Puppet Man!

Every city has its local flavor, the eccentrics and the oddballs who give the place it’s unique feel. Back in Kansas, Lawrence had quite a few–the Tan Man, a guy who used to spend every day working on his tan on the college campus hill with no other occupation. Then there was ‘That’s My Dillons Guy’, who wore socks on his hands, a blanket as a coat, and wore a tattered red shirt on which was hand printied the cryptic phrase ‘That’s My Dillons’ (Dillon being a local supermarket that had apparently done him wrong at some point). So I was much relieved, when I came to Norwich, that despite a whole new culture, the proud and few town eccentrics remain. And probably the most famous of all of them is–The Puppet Man.

Puppet Man is at first glance a busker, however, there is much more to him than that. A frail looking septuagenarian, he pushes a cart containing a number of battered old puppets, a cassette player with attached microphone, and a dream into the City Centre on a regular basis, puts some music on (occasionally, the radio), applys a puppet to each hand, and proceeds to bounce the puppets up and down, sort of but not really in rhythm to the music, occasionally shouting a word or phrase from the song, with a small tray that’s usually sadly short on spare change. He never directly asks for change, in fact, never seems to see his audience at all once he’s started his performance, and doesn’t really talk, interact, or otherwise acknowledge the crowd. He simply arrives, turns the music up, throws a battered puppy on each hand, and rocks away.

As is mandatory with local characters, there are many stories as to how Puppet Man came to take on his role as Norwich’s most eccentric street performer. Some say he was once a professor who flipped out, some say he is only allowed by the Police to make £20 a month in busking money, some say he has a family hidden away somewhere on the Broads. But the facts of his past remain firmly shrouded in mystery. What’s true is that he’s spawned something of a Norwich phenomenon, with a website dedicated to him, an expose by the BBC, Facebook fan page, and he appears regularly on local greeting cards and posters. There was actually a protest when he threatened to retire in 2008, leading to a ‘Save the Puppet Man’ campaign, and he returned with gusto to popular Norwich nightclub ‘Mercy’, where he was greeted with affection by hundreds of club kids. He’s quickly moving in to the realm of local legend.

He deals with his share of ridicule and scorn, so I write not to scorn, but praise him. For I think the Puppet Man is more than just an oddity, I think he’s an artist of sorts. The art world has a dedicated section to those who don’t fit the mainstream mold, called, appropriately, ‘Outsider Art’. I believe this is the catagory that Puppet Man falls into, only in his case, it would be more of ‘Outsider Performance Art’. For the Puppet Man is an innovator as well as a performer–when I first saw him in 2004, he was working with just one puppet and contemporary music. He has since branched out in a number of different periods–the two-handed period, the Elvis impersonation period, and the Christmas Winnie-the-Pooh movement. To me, this constant development seems to validate the artistry of his endeavour. This is an artist continually altering, experimenting, developing, and honing his craft. The fact that his craft is inherently a goofy one–making puppets bounce up and down to music–shouldn’t discount that. And while his popularity is more than bought into with a healthy dose of irony, there is something about him, if only the tenacity, that inspires, and builds his reputation.

There is also a certain hint of violence about him, necessary in any great artist, the feeling that he could burst out of those puppets in a one-two punch at any moment. Children seem to sense this, and tend to avoid him, which means despite the childish medium of puppetry, his work is adult themed, particularly true in his Elvis period when all puppets were dropped. This may have been an effort at a more mainstream appeal, and was most likely ultimately unsuccessful, for he has returned to the standard collection of dogs on hands. On more than one occasion I have tried to anticpate the next phase of the Puppet Man, but despite my best guesses, his mind and his work remain his own.

Therefore, he will remain an artist, an enigma, and a local legend. But should you find yourself in Norwich, on Gentleman’s Walk, and you see an older guy bouncing puppets on his hands to ‘Bright Sunshiny Day’, you’ll know that you’ve found…The Puppet Man.

Author Info - Will Averill was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, which is not his fault. After mostly attending the University of Kansas, he worked a variety of jobs to support his theatre habit, including taxi driving, bookstore retailing, sandwich frying, and occasionaly gigs as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He moved to Norwich in early 2003 and has never looked back. Will currently works with two actor/reprobates in the sketch comedy company Axis of Evil Productions, doing sit-coms and dirty puppet shows. His wife is much awesomer than him, and has runs online jewellery site Eclectic Eccentricity. Will loves bacon rolls. Read more from this author