In 1908, when the British Empire was indeed an Empire, there were few entertainers more lively than the manic Will Evans. His delivery combines the British working-class sensibilities of a Benny Hill with the energy of a Jim Carrey. This example, recorded in
January of 1908 on an Edison-Bell 2-minute cylinder, is a short but engrossing portrayal of a racehorse jockey who never quite finishes the race. The routine seems spontaneous even today - for the humor to translate this well over time as well as culture, the man
must have been a genius. There is some mold on this cylinder, which made for a noisy sample toward the end, but with some massaging with noise reduction software the end results are more understandable than they were before. (A short film clip of Will Evans from
1899 can be seen on-line here. Later, in 1914, Evans would help to found the short-lived
Sunny South Film Company and his nephew Fred Evans would become a
major film star during WWI.)
