Many companies with less faith in home talent staged simple contests which depended for their success on placing a group of locals in some ludicrous situation, say a pie-eating contest using a dozen small boys from the audience. In one version the boys' hands were tied behind their backs as they attacked pies, smeared with molasses, which dangled from the ceiling by strings, biting away pieces until the first boy to demolish an entire pie was declared the winner. For the most part, medicine show comedy made few claims to subtlety or refinement. A song popular with medicine shows. Interspersed with the songs were jokes and quips of ancient vintage.
Some bits are nearly full-scale acts, and the line between the two types is often unclearly drawn.
These depended less clearly on a single joke, and contained some semblance of plot. There were dozens of them. Probably all three had their origins in the afterpieces that closed the 19th century minstrel show. Thus, in defiance of all apparent logic, a so-called afterpiece might appear anywhere in the show. For most spectators the afterpiece was the best part of the performance, and the announcement that one of the three traditional acts would be performed was almost guaranteed to hold an audience through all the lectures and sales to the very end of the medicine show.