The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-08
THE PEOPLE DEMAND FUN,
Says Comedian Dixey, Because the
Stage is for Relaxation,
NOT FOR EDUCATION, As SOME SAY.

Tragedians Have an Easy Time of It,
But Comedians Must BE Funny or
the Public WOn't Have Them.
Not only on the stage is Henry E.
Dixey a comedian, but in his every day
self, stripped of the wigs and paint and
puffs of his makeup, he can make you
laugh. He says funny things. and he
knows how to say them.
The "Adonis'' of the stage is a Boston
ian. He was born and raised in Boston,
and now he has a wife and two children
living in the classical old town. He has
the accent
II began playing in Boston," said Mr..
Dixey to a JOURNAL reporter. 81 am 50
years old, and l have been Oh the stage
for % years. None of my family were
theatrical people, but l was considered
the champion dancer of our street
learned to dance on church steps, and it
was colored church, too. When went
TO dancing on tho stage / was Master
Dixsy, the Child Wonder" and the COM
edian laughed as he repeated it two or
three times.
because 1 have been on the stage SO
long people think 1 am about 106 years
old, l should think. 1 overheard a young
lady discussing me with her escort in
St. Joseph. "She said, He's SO young;
he can't be more than %? Nonsense,
replied her companion. who was an old
timer; iii have seen him too long to be-
lieve that He is over so years old, and
has married children
Not long ago "Herrmann the Great" as
the king Of necromancers, made
Dixey an offer which is attracting
q great deaf of attention from
theatrical papers and newspapers gen.
inf 70 in a
few years. as he is a very rich man in
honors and In coin, and he has made
Dixey an offer to become his successor.
If the actor will give himself up to Herr
mann's tutelage for three years, he will
guarantee him an income for years of
$4,000 year.
Dixey does some sleight of hand work
now called IAN Evening With Dixey."
He is to have until June to decide.
$40 you think you will accept the
offer?" was asked of Mr.. Dixey.
81 don't know yet" he replied. 81 re-
ceived az telegram from Hermann Mon
day asking where an important letter
would reach me, but / have not received
it yet"
"WhY, do you wish to be a magician
rather than an actor?'
why, confound it, the people don't
want acting. They patronize ranters and
saw mills, rather than those who try to
please by their art 1 do not mean that
the very best plays and actors go unno-
ticed, but take a half way comedy or
play with nothing startling or sensa-
Sional in it and the people will stay away
where they will go to see these farces
with men falling through houses and
10 en-.
Take it in New York. There are Nat
Goodwin and Richard Mansfield, two of
the finest players you could imagine, and
yet New York wouldn't have them. But
the people there will go to see such peo-
pie as Henry Irving, who has neither the
face of man, nor the accent of Chris
tiau, nor the gait of a Christian, pagan
nor mau; and if he we're a young Amer
lean actor striving for recognition with
no better art than he has, would starve.
"Of course, each branch will always
have proper exponents, comedy, m in
strelsy, tragedy, aud so on, and l think if
q man is to be magician he might as
we'll learn under the best one there is"
(which do you like best, comedy or
tragedy"
s'Oh, comedy. 1 would rather be a
good commedian for one minute than
Ehree or four good tragedians all rolled
into one for life time. l would advise
a person to go into comedy, although it
is twice as hard to succeed.
"See what an easy time the tragedia
has. He comes on the stage in black.
liz OICACSbAo plays du0 DOAOE0
he says a word, the audience knows he is
going to say something about a murder
and prepares to feel bad. He waits a min
ute and says, Me mother died last nigh, >
and the audience begins crying. Poor
fellow, his mothers dead, how sad. And
am left alone says the tragedian, and
they cry again; his mothers dead and
he's all alone, poor man.
Now the comedian. He says My
mothers dead or My fathers got the
yellow fever but if he don't say it in a
funny way the audience says He's rocky.
let's get out They criticise him. 1t
Isn't what he says that helps him out SO
much as the tragedian.
''The only two things an actor can do
Is to make people laugh or cry and a
good comedian can do both, but have
never seen a tragedian who N ade people
laugh part of the time. In fact never
saw any real tragedian but Edwin Booth.
81 think people enjoy comedy more.
Take a man who has to work from
o'clock in the morning to at night, He
comes home to dinner and his wife says:
Let's go to the play; Dixey. or Jones OF
Smith is going to be here Who's he;
is he funny? asks the husband. tAll
right, let's CO. he says, if she replies that
be is. He has too much work to do dur
ing the day 10 attend play that makes
him feel like crying at night"
When Dixey was on the Pacific coast
recently he lectured before the students