I heard a story about Tommy Makem when he was first starting out, performing at some festival, I think. He walked out on stage and the audience completely ignored him, kept babbling away. So he sat down and took off his shoe, turned it over, and began to tap imaginary nails into the sole. After a couple of minutes of this, when there was dead silence and every eye was riveted upon him, he started singing "Dick Darby the Cobbler."