In early adulthood, he worked as an accountant for the New York and Philadelphia Telephone and Telegraph Company, where he amused his colleagues with his impressions of older immigrant Jews learning to live in America.

[2] By the mid-1890s, he decided on a career as a comedian, and worked on the Keith-Albee vaudeville theatre circuit,[2] with Yiddish-inflected patter and dialect parodies, spoken at up to two hundred words per minute.

[2] In 1905, he starred in the comedy Fast Times in New York, on Broadway, but the show was heavily criticized for its insensitivity and dependence on outdated stereotypes.

As a result, his act became less popular, and Rose was removed from bookings on the Keith-Albee theatre circuit a few years later.

According to Roger Wilmut, "his act – a character monologue telling a story well interspersed with gags – maintained its American atmosphere.