It's a daring performance; Joe plays a barely surviving vaudevillian who partners in a terrible act. The joke is the theater is so low that they seem to be the only performers on the bill, so they have to keep doing their crummy song and dance every few minutes. Of course they deteriorate, but here's the thing: Joe Frisco mixes good moves with bad, as if to give us our money's worth by playing a poor entertainer with great verve, sneaking in legitimate grace notes. So he's playing "Joe Frisco", well-regarded entertainer, playing Joe Blow at the bottom of the vaudeville ladder. Billy Gilbert steals all his (brief) scenes. They get a lot of comedic mileage out of repetitious walks.
Review of The Happy Hottentots
