Four Rubes

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15 Mins.; Two (Special Drop). Two views could be taken of the Four Rubes, a comedy quartet. It would depend where they were seen and in a way, exemplify the difference between big time and the smaller small time. The views might run like these:   Small Time. The four Rubes could be called the Rube Ministrels, and it is a minstrel idea, fashioned somehow after the Crane Brothers and Belmont turn. Each of the men is in eccentric rural dress and make-up, going in somewhat for rough comedy, having plenty of jokes, and singing during the turn, which concludes with one of the men yodeling that gets over very big, earning an easy encore. The comedy talk and the characters will please in certain of the smaller houses.   Big Time: The Four Rubes got an idea and then ranaway from it. It’s a rube quartet with “gags,” some of the oldest and the poorest that could be gotten for nothing. When the act thins down at any time and a laugh is needed, slapstick is indulged in by one of the farmerish men jumping at another’s throat. All are grotesquely made up, have little natural humor, sing badly in the barber – shop way, and the finish, a yodel, sounds like a weak imitation of a steam calliope. For big time the turn never had a chance. There is a big time act known as The Three Rubes.

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