Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Borge

To be honest, today’s blog would fit equally well for either Funny Friday or Tuesday Tunes. My subject today is the inimitable Victor Borge, also known as “The Clown Prince of Denmark” and “The Unmelancholy Dane”.

I remember crowding around the television to watch him on The Ed Sullivan Show whenever he was scheduled to appear. His routine, that of a bumbling and confused musician of limited talent, always brought plenty of laughs as he fumbled his way through whatever song he had decided to play that evening. So convincing was his act that, as a child and even into my teenage years, I thought his act was real!

It turns out, though, that he was actually a child prodigy, who began taking piano lessons at the age of two. He played his first major concert in 1926 to an audience in the Danish Odd Fellows Lodge Building at the age of seventeen. After a few years as a classical pianist, he began blending jokes with his music. He married an American, Elsie Chilton in 1933, the same year he debuted his comedic act. He started touring Europe and telling anti Nazi jokes.

He was in neutral Sweden when Germany occupied Denmark, so he decided to go to Finland, sailing on the last neutral ship to make it out of the country. He arrived in The USA with twenty dollars in his pocket, three of which went to pay the customs fee.

Through the years he perfected his routine and gained fans. Of his various performances, one of my favorites was “Phonetic Punctuation”, in which he read a passage from a book, adding various sound effects for the punctuation marks:

This second clip showcases his understated comedic talent, but also showcases the man’s immense talent and proficiency with the piano. Until I watched this, I had honestly forgotten just how good he was:

My wife and I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live and he didn’t disappoint. He kept us laughing through the entire performance and awed us with his skill when he put the jokes aside and played for us.

He passed away in December 2000 and, in my opinion, the world lost a great musician and a truly funny man.