VICTOR BORGE – Musician and Humorist
"Without music I couldn't exist."

Victor Borge's unique combination as musician and humorist has made him a legend in his own time.

Borge Rosenbaum was born in Copenhagen almost 90 years ago. He started playing the piano when he was only three years old. He was hailed as a prodigy and given a scholarship to the Royal Danish Music Conservatory.

Victor Borge's incredible sense of humour combined with his musical ability established him already in his early twenties as one of the leading film and stage personalities in Scandinavia.
On Broadway Victor Borge made theatrical history with his Comedy in Music which, according to Guiness, still holds the record for the longest running one-man show, 849 performances.

In recent years he has added opera and symphony "guest" conducting engagements to his heavy stage and television commitments. Among others, the New York Philharmonic, London , Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Detroit and the Royal Copenhagen Symphony Orchestras have fallen under his baton.

He has been knighted by the five Nordic countries and honored by both the U.S. Congress and the United Nations.

Mr Borge spends his treasured free time on his yacht or in his Connecticut mansion with his wife, Sanna, their five children and nine grandchildren.

This interview was done in September 1998.

Interview.

Scandinavian Press: When and why did you choose comedy over a serious musical career?

Victor Borge: I didn't choose. It came automatically because ever since I was a child I did humorous things with music, as music happened to be my chosen occupation, that is serious music. I was starting to be a concert pianist and I did not ever do any jokes during my piano recitals but I did it privately in school and in clubs, gatherings and family gatherings. Whenever there was a party I was attending and there was a piano I was always pushed to it because I had to entertain with Chopin, Bach or Beethoven and then afterwards I would always do some comedy with the music I had just played or something about that. I used to be sent to family members when they were ill or bed-ridden and I would usually say they either got well or died laughing. Then when I started performing I took some serious music in my comedy routine for the variation because people want to hear me play. They still seem to want to do that and I constantly hear please play some more. People like to hear me play because they know that actually I am a pianist. But they also like to laugh so the combination was simple and natural.

SP: Is there a conflict between comedy and the serious music?

VB: My career has been an uphill fight because the many people who decide to come and see me are not always musically inclined. But even though a large part of my audience are not classical music educated, they still like music and they still enjoy what they hear as long as it is decent music and they also know that I play the thing they like to hear. And that is the case with all kinds of music, jazz, folk, dance, so long as you play what people like to hear and if you can present a program with things people like to hear you are ahead My pride and my personal delight is if the classical musicians like conductors and the great pianists appreciate what I play and this is what has happened and that is why I stick to it and that is my big pride that they recognize me as a pianist. I thrive on that even though I make fun of many things. Mostly I make fun of musician's behaviour, anything pertaining to a musician's life and my own.

SP: Could you envisage a life without music?

VB: It is not that I love music but music loves me and I am for music. Without music I couldn't exist. Both my parents were musical and it could have been a catastrophe for them if I weren't musical. It is possible but what I don't know I can't evaluate. I know that my father was very proud of the fact that I was in music and my mother liked music. But in those days serious music was a serious matter and even though it still of course is a serious matter you hear all kinds of music, spectacular and nonsense music.

SP: Is there a big difference between your performance in North America and in Scandinavia?

VB: There is so much spontaneity when I go to Europe, for instance in Denmark or Sweden or Norway. They understand Danish and they understand some English and I have somehow managed to mix it all up and make something pleasant out of it. In Denmark I perform in Danish, in Sweden I use as many Swedish words as I know, otherwise in English but in a way everything I do is understood because it is musical. Basically there is no difference between Scandinavian humour and American humour because when you play a thing upside down you don't have to have a language to do that. You play variations on the theme and as long as they know the theme you don't need any language. I base my performance on the understanding that the audience understands it otherwise I don't know how to perform.

SP: Tell us about your experience in WWII.

VB: I was in Sweden when the Nazis occupied Denmark, I was playing a whole season with Karl Gerhard and I also stayed in his home in Saltjsöbaden. When that season was finished I went back to Denmark. Actually I had already played with Karl Gerhard in Stockholm and G6teborg a couple of years earlier. When there was a threat of an invasion and everybody said it could not happen in Denmark I was not convinced. I say now that Churchill and I were the only ones who thought it could happen in Denmark and it did. Because I had lived in Berlin for a year and a half to study music and there I saw the horror that had already began. Anyway before it happened I called Karl Gerhard and said I was available and I could come again if he wanted me. And he wanted me to come and play in another revue that he was putting up. I had just started the revue in Stockholm when my wife who was in Denmark called me up and said this morning at 6 o'clock the Germans have occupied Denmark. And then a week later as I am entering the stage I got a telegram from my brother that my mother had only three weeks to live because she had cancer and she was in a clinic. So the first night I had off I sneaked into Denmark and that was the last time I saw my mother and then I came back to Stockholm and continued In Denmark I became known for mocking the Nazis and that was not difficult. I performed in musical revues and in clubs. I would talk about the things that happened daily in a satirical way. For instance when Denmark made a pact with Germany, a non-aggression pact, I would say that the 70 million Germans could now sleep safely, they did not have to worry about an invasion from Denmark. And then I asked what the difference was between a Nazi and a dog. The Nazi lifts his arm! I was scared also. In the beginning they would yell something up to me on the stage but I would always have an answer ready. But I was always on the front cover of the Danish sympathizers' Nazi newspaper that came out every month. The paper always had a warning for me. So the last year and a half I never walked in the evening alone. I always had a friend or somebody with me because I was attacked once. I was walking alone in Copenhagen when two fellows came from behind and grabbed my arm. It was at the edge of the water and I was pretty strong physically and my arms were very strong from the piano playing. I managed to push one of the men into the water and while the other one was trying to get him I ran away. From then on I thought it was necessary to protect myself. And then I was lucky to be able to escape to the USA through Finland.

SP: When did yo change your name?

VB: I changed my name because I had a German-sounding name. At least it sounded German in America. I started a whole new life so I chose Victor because I had a great affection for my piano teacher who was called Victor and it balanced well with Borge and Borge was my first name. There is only one person who still calls me Borge and that is an old friend of mine in Denmark.

SP: Tell us about Thanks to Scandinavia.

VB: It was first Thanks to Denmark for their heroic stand in the war and because they stood up for the Jews and it was miraculous because it was from the crown, the state and the church and the people. They were all behind that thing. It was actually a friend of mine, a prominent lawyer in New York, who decided to start a Thanks to Denmark organization to bring our thanks and the thanks of the Jewish people in America by giving them scholarships for students to come here, instead of giving them a monument in stone. And that developed into Thanks to Scandinavia because the Swedes, the Norwegians and the Finnish all became part of the recipients of the scholarship. We have now 6 million dollars and we have thousands of students, doctors, nurses and all kinds of scientists that come to universities and colleges in America. There were of course a lot of ugly things that happened among the sympathizers in Denmark in the same way as in Norway. In Norway it was more prominent because of Quisling. In Denmark there were also quislings. But the Danish people, and the Scandinavian people on the whole, were defendants of the humanitarian principle. Many of them lost their lives and many put their life on stake. Many have shown enormous sympathy with the victims.

SP: Is your busy schedule the key to not aging?

VB: It is not that I will or want to: It is just that I can't help it. It is a natural thing just like you breathe and you play and so long as you can do it and this is not an unpleasant thing to do - sit at a piano and fantasize and improvise and play Chopin. I am nervous only when I have to play serious music. That has always been my problem. I was extremely excited when I was conducting the Magic Flute in Copenhagen, not nervous, because then I could not make a mistake playing. This was a thing I had looked forward to all my life. This is a special year for me as I celebrate my 90th birthday soon but unfortunately my wife is not well and I don't participate in celebrations. I have cancelled the birthday concert in Carnegie Hall on January third. I do concerts but I don't celebrate.

Scandinavian Press, Issue 4, 1998