This caricature is of Sam Mayo (1881-1931) when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 26 September 1904, billed as ‘The Immobile Comedian’. It is one of the many superb caricatures of Edwardian music hall performers that were drawn by the artist George Cooke when he was based at the Grand Theatre. He compiled them in a series of albums. Mayo had appeared at the Grand the previous May, but in September he was on the bill with Harry Taft, also one of Cooke’s subjects.

Born Sam Cowan in Lambeth, London, in 1881, Mayo made his first appearance at a Sunday morning concert at the Victoria Club in the Blackfriars Road. He first appeared in music hall in 1898 at the Alhambra, Sandgate. He often dressed in a dressing gown and motoring cap, and sang comic songs including ‘She Cost Me Seven and Sixpence’ and ‘I’ve Only Come Down for the Day’. He was often billed as ‘The Immobile One’ because of his trick of standing still on stage with a lugubrious expression while singing comic songs. Later he toured his own revues and was popular in pantomime.

Mayo went on to tour with his own revues, and appear in variety and pantomime a review of his act heading the variety bill at the Theatre Royal Aldershot in June 1931 the reviewer called him: 'The inimitable Sam Mayo, one of England's best-known comedians and humorists' [sic] adding: 'Part of Sam's charm is his pained expression while he sings the most funny songs, playing his own accompaniments on a grand piano.'