In Boston during the late 70's early 80's at the Old Village Coach House sessions I remember this happening. An accordian player Joe Joyce used to do this with the Hey-Ho's & all, that wasn't his only stick either. He was quite a comic & did alot of the MCing at many local Irish music events, he was a very well liked & loved area musician. Joe comes from the old Dudley St (Roxbury area of Boston) dance hall erea of the 40' & 50's. I stopped going to sessions for almost 15 yrs while raisning a family & in the past yr started attending them again (singing sessions I tried with more sucess to make) after running into Joe & his daughter at a party local to me. Joe died recently, I was at a session not long after he died & his 16 yr old daughter, an All-Ireland champion fiddler, & a great whistle player & a great singer was playing there. When the Dingle Regatta was played in her father's honor the rather unusually large seesion of maybe 25-30 musicians all did this standing up & sitting down routine with all the Hey-Ho's, I forgot about this until that night. It was pretty moving knowing that everyone there knew it as Joe's routine, his daughter' eyes were dripping wet but she had the warmest smile on her face like someone had lifted her out of a hell.
I don't know if this originated with Joe, I've never seen anyone one else do this that wasn't encouraged by Joe. Joe stopped playing as a pro & leader of his own band back before I 1st knew him in the late 70's but he was loved, respected & known by many of the great musicians who'd spent anytime in Boston. Joe Joyce the People's Choice was how many in jest loving introduced him, on & off stage.
There was a recent thread here about Joe's passing.

Barry