ENTERTAINMENTS.

Mataura Ensign, 30 January 1912, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS.

e PATHE PICTURES. .The programme to be screened tomorrow night by the Path© Picture Company at the Dominion Hall promises to be fall of interest and of the usual high order of merit. It will comprise subjects calculated to stimulate the tastes of everyone. "La Tosca" (a beautiful colored film) is the star drama, while "A Squaw's Love" and "The General's Daughter" are two intensely interesting stories of more than ordinary merit. The' comic section is particularly strong and the remainder of the bill is well chosen, and patrons are assured of a first-class evening's entertainment. MR JOSEPH BLASCHECK. Mr Joseph Blascheck, the famous humorist and elocutionist, who will appear at the Dominion Hall, Gore, next Thursday in his entertainment, "Society Snapshots," has recently been interviewed by Mr \Y. A. Somerset in the columns of 'Everybody's Journal,' and he was asked during the course of the interview if he approved of the competition idea. "Oh, yes; but it has its perils. As an educative force both upon the public and the competitors, I should say a well-conducted series of competitions is invaluable, but it is necessary to have good judges and a high -standard not merely of performance but of pieces. I have never had the pleasure of attending a Ballarat Eisteddfod, but in some of the competitions I have witnessed elsewhere there has been a tendency to devote an enormous amount of time to trivial things to the neglect of subjects of literary and artistic worth. Further, I have noticed a trend in the direction of producing "pot hunters" which go out simply for the prize money. But no one need doubt the value of healthy competition." "Perhaps some of our readers who are interested in these contests will be glad of advice on performing in public from one who has been through the mill," said the interviewer. "Um—yes," remarked Mr Blascheck, "but first of all, performing in a competition and appearing in public are different things, and it does not follow that a reciter who carries off the competition medals would make a success in the—well, on the line we are discussing ; that is, the kind of entertainment I give." "Why?" "Oh, there is a common law governing these matters. You take a class of students, and the man who passes the most brilliant examinations is not always the man who succeeds in his profession. The boy or girl who wins the painting and drawing prizes in the Art School does not necessarily get on the line at the Academy. At. the competition stage one has merely learnt to use the tools." "As far as elocutionary and musical, competitions go the competitors have been trained to appear not so much before the public as before the judge. If they afterwards aspire to professional life, they will find that some things that pleased the judge will not please the public, and vice versa." "In other words, they meet, a different kind of judge?" "Exactly, and on their range of ability and versatility will depend thensuccess."