was seated right next to the prettiest of the very young ladies
present. He did his best to make the conversation agreeable,
and she worked hard to make him understand what she said. But
finally she gave it up in despair and relapsed into a pained
silence until the fruit was passed. Then she leaned over and
said:

"Do you like bananas?"

A smile of comprehension crept over the deaf old man's face and
he exclaimed:

"No, I like the old-fashioned night-gowns best."

And so, from story to story the entertainer goes, telling his funny
anecdotes for the simple reason that they are funny and create
laughter. But funny as they are, they are disconnected and,
therefore, do not meet the requirement of unity of character, which
is one of the elements of the pure monologue.

4. Not a Connected Series of Stories Interspersed With Songs and
the Like

If the entertainer had told the stories of the Chinaman and the
deaf old gentleman as though they had happened to a single character
about whom all the stories he tells revolve, his act and his
material would more nearly approach the pure monologue form. For
instance:

Casey's a great fellow for butting into queer places to get a