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| Although virtually unknown today,
David Ross Locke was one of the most popular and influential performers of his
day. Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln numbered among his thousands of loyal fans. Locke is said to have almost single-handedly invented stand-up
comedy. |
Nasby
by R. Lorenz |
|
Nasby
by Thomas Nast |
Rather than sticking to safe,
crowd-pleasing jokes, Locke plunged head-first into the most explosive issue of
his day -- slavery. Locke created the character of Petroleum Vesuvius
Nasby, an ignorant, bigoted post master (a precursor to Norman Lear's Archie
Bunker). Nasby's outrageous diatribes were delivered to the public first
in the form of letters printed in a Toledo, Ohio newspaper, then as monologues
performed on the Redpath lecture circuit by Locke appearing as Nasby. |
| Nasby's vehement but often
self-contradictory rants had nineteenth century audiences rolling in the
aisles. The monologues also shocked Locke/Nasby's listeners into
re-thinking their own positions on race and other controversial issues of the
day. |
"Nasby Predicts the Effect of Emancipation
Proclamation in Kentucky"
by Thomas Nast |
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