Dilverd was around three feet tall. He quickly developed talents to entertain people because this was the most promising plan to support himself. He could sing, dance, act, and play violin. Diverd went on to perform in blackface minstrelsy, which was considered a low form of entertainment, even in the mid-19th century. Most of these shows featured white people using "blackface" to imitate African-Americans and consisted of comic skits, dancing, and music, but for most of the time relied on humor was at the expense of African Americans. Frederick Douglass, who was a contemporary social reformer, said of these minstrel shows that they comprised "filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money and pander to the corrupt taste of their fellow citizens."(Kuntz).