I wonder about the body language of Vaudeville acts.  I bet there were subtleties that didn’t play well in larger venues.  There were probably little cues and tells that the performers themselves were hardly able to control, seen only by those in the front rows who were willing to watch for them.

Having said that, who spotted Clem Twang (who I’m more willing to call “Mark” when he’s in conjunction with this other Mark character) easing up closer to Mark Troll in the last panel?