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A Legend Returns To The Streets Of Norwich, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

A legend returns.......

The famous Norwich puppeteer whose act consists of waving soft toys in the faces of passers by while his cassette recorder plays 'hits' of the 1970s. This is my first sighting of him in two years. He has been doing this since the seventies.

I will allow no derogatory comments about this individual and will delete any that are written. Even our local paper The Eastern Evening News allowed local humourist and ex-Niven Twin Karl Minns devote half a page to denegrating this man in his imitatable back-of-the-classroom way that allows the stronger to pick on the weaker. One can only presume that unlike the management teams of Jarrolds or of John Lewis our puppet master does not advertise in the paper and is thus a felt a suitable target for the searing satirical wit for which The Minge is so famous.

This is some of what he said to me. (in a Norridge accent that I will not even try to reproduce.)

"I was down there but the Scottish bag piper wanted my pitch so I said I would move. Well you've got to show respect to other buskers don't you? And he gave me three pounds for my pitch which mean't I only have to take two more pounds for to have ten pounds and when I have ten pounds I take it in and bank it. Thats not bad is it? Ten pounds."

(Nods at the market) "When I was a young puppetryeer and played my tapes if the fruit and veg people didn't like my music the stallholders would throw tomatoes at me. And I would pick them up, take them home and wash them and fry them up for my tea - lessen they hit me when I would leave them"

Almost without exception the face of everyone who passed him showed astonishment if they had not seen him and his act before or a smile of recognition if they had. In a short time he had made his ten pounds and trotted off to the bank.

(Hopefully some drone at the Eastern Evening News does a google search every day to find out what people think of their paper and will find out the contempt I hold for their rag. (Not such a far fetched idea I know for a fact that someone from the Norwich Union press office has this function for that insurance group) To help them with their search terms I will spell it out. I HATE THE EASTERN EVENING NEWS.)