@Creativerealms #49916
If it’s a parody, he’s highly dedicated to his parody. Bennett Lee Ross has quite a history of quotes here.
@TheKingOfRhye #49921
Also of note and missed entirely by the quotee, Boothe took the shot at very close range. Maybe the particular bullet used is considered ineffective when compared with other weapons meant for a little distance, but Derringers were the weapon of choice for very close range, such as skin contact and near contact shooting, because they were much easier to maneuver that close. And at that range you also have the muzzle blast adding force. Fired against the skin, even blanks will tear through skin, and can easily rip through bone, too, because of that gas.
As far as your #49963 comment, it probably has already been done, if not by Harry Turtledove whose Civil War alternate histories may be nearly as numerous as his World War II alternate histories, then very likely by someone who can be found checking with large forums with a focus on Turtledove and alternate history.
For Ross himself, #Bastethotep pointed out that the acoustics were meant to make the actors easy to hear throughout the theater, and reduce the noise of the audience, but there’s also the point, how many of these details are apocrypha rising up out of various stories told without any kind of verification of fact? They have testimony from the bodyguard that he didn’t want to see the show, so he went to a bar, as well as quite a bit more testimony from everyone who knew him that he was a drunkard anyway. It’s hard to tell when Mary Todd Lincoln might have actually spoken up, and witnesses had been focused on the speech for some reason (like thinking it might just be part of the show). And I wonder, who was really actually asked about the shot? Were any of the actors on stage questioned, and what did they respond with? They’d after all be the one’s most likely to hear, since Lincoln’s seat was right above the stage.