Nervous Cures

Nervous Cures is a Ethiopian skit probably created by Joe Brown and Wash Norton of a Christy Minstrels tgroupe that visited South Africa and Australia in 1863.

According to an Australian website about Circus History Society, in its section covering the Barlow Minstrel Troupe[1], they had been shipwrecked on the coast of South Africa and then continued on to Australia, where they went on to perform.

There is a record Brown and Norton performing this particular skit at the School of Arts in Sydney Australia on 5 May, 1863 as part in their final season.

1868: A burlesque called The Nervous Cures was apparently performed in Cape Town by Young Men’s Institute Amateur Christy’s. It was done, along with Charles White's Negro farce United States Mail, as a benefit for the Oddfellows Library and Reading Room.

Sydney Morning Herald, 5 May, 1863[2]

The Australian Circus History Society Website[3]