1.  What a Vaudeville Two-Act Is

The most carefully constructed definition cannot describe even the simplest thing with satisfying exactness.  But the human mind is so formed that it have a definition for a guide to learn anything is new.  Therefore let us set up this dogmatic definition: 

A pure vaudeville two-act is a humorous talking act performed by two persons.  It possesses unity of the characters, is not combined with songs, tricks or any other entertainment form, is marked by compression, follows a definite form of construction, and usually requires from ten to fifteen minutes for delivery.

You have noticed that this definition is merely that of the monologue very slightly changed.  It differs from it only in the number of persons required for its delivery.  But, like many such verbal jugglings, the likeness of the two-act to the monologue is more apparent than real.

2.  How the Two-Act Differs from the Monologue

Turn to the Appendix and read “The Art of Flirtation,” by Aaron Hoffman. [1] It was chosen for publication in this volume as an example of the vaudeville two-act, for two reasons:  First, it is one of the best vaudeville two-acts ever written; second, a careful study of it, in connection with “The German Senator,” will repay the student by giving an insight into the difference in treatment that the same author gives to the monologue and the two-act.

[1] The Art of Flirtation,” by Aaron Hoffman, has been used in vaudeville, on the burlesque stage, and in various musical comedies, for years and has stood the test of time.

Aside from the merely physical facts that two persons deliver the vaudeville two-act and but one “does” the monologue, you will notice in reading “The Art of Flirtation,” that the two-act depends a surprising lot on “business” [1] to punch home its points and win its laughs.  This is the first instance in our study of vaudeville material in which “acting” [2] demands from the writer studied consideration.

[1] Business means any movement an actor makes on the stage.  To walk across the stage, to step on a man’s toes, to pick up a telephone, to drop a handkerchief, or even to grimace—­if done to drive the spoken words home, or to “get over” a meaning without words—­are all, with a thousand other gestures and movements, stage business.

[2] Acting is action.  It comprises everything necessary to the performing of a part in a play and includes business.

So large a part does the element of business play in the success of the two-act that the early examples of this vaudeville form were nearly all built out of bits of business.  And the business was usually of the “slap-stick” kind.

3.  What Slap-Stick Humor Is

Slap-stick humor wins its laughs by the use of physical methods, having received its name from the stick with which one clown hits another.