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Sure as blossoms sprouting on the trees and birds singing in their branches, another sign of spring is upon us: public broadcasting pledge drives on TV and radio. But there is at least one good reason to endure the constant interruptions and pleas for money this time around.
Victor Borge would have turned 100 this year, had he not been taken from us in 2000 just two weeks prior to his 91st birthday. Victor Borge: 100 Years of Music & Laughter is a new special being run on most of America's PBS stations as part of their semi-annual beg-a-thons, and it is well worth your time if you remember with any fondness the elegant wiseacre who spent the better part of eight decades injecting lowbrow humor into highbrow culture. Narrated by comedienne and Borge fan Rita Rudner, it celebrates his career with clips of his many performances that were televised, and you can watch his hair go from dark to white as he makes audiences laugh their asses off while dazzling them with his virtuosic playing. You have to pity the poor coloratura Marylyn Mulvey attempting to sing a Rigoletto aria alongside him, being upstaged, startled and otherwise abused by the puckish pianist while struggling to maintain that stately Margaret Dumont carriage, her voice and a straight face.
Borge was an immigrant who came to America fleeing the Nazi occupation of his native Denmark in 1940. Being Jewish, he escaped the horrific fate of so many other European Jews only by the incredible luck of just happening to be in Sweden performing a concert at the time. He came to America with just the equivalent of $20.00 in his pocket (three of which he had to pay the customs officer) and not speaking a solitary word of English. He learned the language by watching movies and charmed his way into his adopted country's hearts with his onstage antics while gleefully mutilating some of classical music's most famous pieces and doing spoken routines such as "Phonetic Punctuation" and "Inflationary Language." The special also shows the inspired lunacy that ensued whenever a venue made the mistake of giving Borge a baton and an orchestra to mess with.
Watch this special if it's aired in your town; check your listings. Or if you don't feel like putting up with pledge breaks, you can always order the DVD from your local station or Amazon. If you don't already know why old Vic was affectionately called "The Great Dane," you'll soon learn. And if you've ever been lucky enough to be present in person at a Borge concert (I, alas, was not), fer gossakes tell me about it.
Victor Borge would have turned 100 this year, had he not been taken from us in 2000 just two weeks prior to his 91st birthday. Victor Borge: 100 Years of Music & Laughter is a new special being run on most of America's PBS stations as part of their semi-annual beg-a-thons, and it is well worth your time if you remember with any fondness the elegant wiseacre who spent the better part of eight decades injecting lowbrow humor into highbrow culture. Narrated by comedienne and Borge fan Rita Rudner, it celebrates his career with clips of his many performances that were televised, and you can watch his hair go from dark to white as he makes audiences laugh their asses off while dazzling them with his virtuosic playing. You have to pity the poor coloratura Marylyn Mulvey attempting to sing a Rigoletto aria alongside him, being upstaged, startled and otherwise abused by the puckish pianist while struggling to maintain that stately Margaret Dumont carriage, her voice and a straight face.
Borge was an immigrant who came to America fleeing the Nazi occupation of his native Denmark in 1940. Being Jewish, he escaped the horrific fate of so many other European Jews only by the incredible luck of just happening to be in Sweden performing a concert at the time. He came to America with just the equivalent of $20.00 in his pocket (three of which he had to pay the customs officer) and not speaking a solitary word of English. He learned the language by watching movies and charmed his way into his adopted country's hearts with his onstage antics while gleefully mutilating some of classical music's most famous pieces and doing spoken routines such as "Phonetic Punctuation" and "Inflationary Language." The special also shows the inspired lunacy that ensued whenever a venue made the mistake of giving Borge a baton and an orchestra to mess with.
Watch this special if it's aired in your town; check your listings. Or if you don't feel like putting up with pledge breaks, you can always order the DVD from your local station or Amazon. If you don't already know why old Vic was affectionately called "The Great Dane," you'll soon learn. And if you've ever been lucky enough to be present in person at a Borge concert (I, alas, was not), fer gossakes tell me about it.
