Entertainers

This page used to be entitled 'Puppets, Ventriloquists, etc.' Then I added a section on magicians, and so the page became a kind of bucket shop for entertainers that didn't fit in anywhere else. And then I was reminded about ... (see Other).

Punch & Judy

Original name of Mr. Punch's wife Judy		Joan
Punch & Judy's dog		Toby
Hangman in Punch & Judy		Jack Ketch
Title traditionally adopted by Punch & Judy operators		Professor
Device used to make Punch's voice		Swazzle swozzle

Puppeteers

Unless otherwise stated or implied, the question in this category is "Who is (or was) associated with ... ?"

Spit the Dog		Bob Carolgees
Wore an ostrich costume called Oswald (Crackerjack, 1970s)		Bernie Clifton
Sooty, Sweep, etc. (later succeeded by his son Matthew)		Harry Corbett
Introduced George, Zippy and Bungle in Rainbow (most famously)		Geoffrey
Creator of the Muppets (previously worked on Sesame Street)		Jim Henson
Emu		Rod Hull
Lambchop		Shari Lewis
Introduced Muffin the Mule		Annette Mills
First introduced Basil Brush (on his magic / light entertainment show)		David Nixon
Jim Henson's principal collaborator on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and the 1982 film The Dark Crystal: voiced and "characterised" Cookie Monster, Bert and Grover (Sesame St.) and Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal and Sam Eagle (Muppets)		Frank Oz

Magicians

US illusionist and "endurance artist": stood on a pillar in New York for 35 hours, in 2002; was sealed inside a plexiglass cube in London for 44 days, in 2003		David Blaine
American illusionist (born David Seth Kotkin, 1956): famously made a Learjet disappear (1981), made the Statue of Liberty vanish and reappear (1983), levitated over the Grand Canyon (1984), walked through the Great Wall of China (1986), escaped from Alcatraz prison (1987), made an Orient Express dining car disappear (1991) and flew on stage for several minutes (1992)		David Copperfield
The UK's best known magician, and a staple of BBC TV entertainment, from (say) 1954 to 1973: Basil Brush first appeared in support of; presented This Is Your Life when Eamonn Andrews was the subject (1974)		David Nixon

Ventriloquists

Q: Which ventriloquist is associated with ...		A:
Lord Charles, Tich and Quackers		Ray Alan
Archie Andrews		Peter Brough
Nookie Bear		Roger de Courcey
Lenny the Lion		Terry Hall
Orville the Duck, Cuddles the Monkey ("I hate that duck!")		Keith Harris
Charlie Brown (Manchester–born ventriloquist, popular on television in the 1950s)		Arthur Worsley

Popular radio comedian (1900–82), performed a comedy ventriloquist act

Sandy Powell

Puppets

First appeared in 1962, in The Three Scampies, an ITV series about an out–of–work circus act, along with a very aggressive Scottish hedgehog named Spike McPike		Basil Brush
Later (1967) appeared with magician David Nixon in his BBC series
Animated and voiced by Ivan Owen (d. 2000); also appeared with Derek Fowlds and Rodney Bewes
Puppet companion of Andy Crane and Andi Peters in the Children's BBC 'Broom Cupboard', 1988–93: famous for his green 'mohawk' hairstyle		Edd the Duck
Created by Czech immigrants Jan and Vlasta Dalibor; first appeared on BBC TV 1957; made their fifth appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, together with The Beatles and Morecambe & Wise, Feb 1964; theme song We Belong Together; wore red and blue respectively, but to help viewers tell them apart on black and white TV, the latter sometimes wore a hat		Pinky & Perky
Credited with saving TV–am from bankruptcy, on being introduced shortly after its launch in 1983; lived in a "cave", underneath King's Cross station		Roland Rat
Italian mouse puppet (1960s), popularised in the USA on the Ed Sullivan Show; also appeared in the UK on the Pinky & Perky show		Topo Gigio
Puppet squirrel, introduced in 1953 to teach road safety to children in the UK – inspired a club that had over 2 million members at its peak in the 1980s		Tufty

Other

Born in Penge, South London, in 1926: appeared on various light entertainment shows in the 1970s, including Tiswas and Tommy Cooper's Just Like That, performing his novelty act which involved singing the well–known cowboy song Mule Train, while repeatedly hitting himself over the head with a tin tray

Bob Blackman

Everybody has surely seen this act at some time or other, and once seen it's never forgotten; but I doubt if anybody remembers the bloke's name. One way to ask the question would be to introduce the performer, mention the shows, and ask for a description of the act in as few words as possible. (An acceptable answer should probably include the words "mule train", or "song", and "tray".) I've recorded it this way round simply because I wanted to do the act full justice, and there is nowhere near enough room in my 'answer' section to do so.

© Haydn Thompson 2017–22