He had picked up Japanese in part by hanging round his father's publishing company, and began appearing on stage telling entertaining stories about famous European historical figures.

By the early 1890s, English teaching had declined in popularity, and Black took up rakugo in defiance of his mother and brother, who felt it was not only undignified but also unstable work.

John actually burst into one of his performances and succeeded in bringing it to an early end by loudly yelling out insults and calling him an embarrassment to the family.

In 1892, Black played the role of Banzuiin Chōbei at the Haruki Theatre after starting to be tutored by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX.

The man accepts the challenge but drops into a pub on the way over to check that he can manage it (with the obvious result that he was already too inebriated to drink another fifteen before he even got started.)