Clog dancing is tiring, and it is advisable not to make the dance the central piece of an evening’s entertainment. It makes a good accompaniment or “gag,” but is not suitable for a pièce de résistance. Adroitly performed it will win approval; and what more can the home entertainer desire?
CHAPTER XXXII
SHADOW SHOWS
Hand Shadows
Few of us have not lain in bed by candle-light and with more or less success cast shadows upon the wall. Some may have seen public entertainments in which shadow pictures formed an important part of the programme, and have wondered in a dim kind of way how they were done. From what follows it will be seen how very simple are the arrangements, and how admirably adapted for a drawing-room entertainment a shadow theater can prove.
Shadow shows may be divided into three kinds. They are:—
1. Hand Shadows—in which the performer stands in view of his audience.
2. Figure Shadows—in which he stands behind a screen.
3. Puppet Shadow Shows—in which the shadows of lay figures are exhibited.
Of these three branches of the art, Hand Shadows are distinctly the easiest to do, but they do not give scope for great variety, and although very good in their way, like most good things, are apt to pall upon an audience, who, it must ever be remembered, have an insatiable taste for novelty and change.