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Prodcut Description: [More Information ...]
Victor Borge was a master at combining two seemingly disparate elements: comedy and classical music. While the Dane's dapper dignity fit the image of "longhair" music, Borge undercut it with broad physical comedy, clever spoofs, and off-the-cuff wit. A pioneer in the field of live comedy recordings, Borge is nevertheless best appreciated on video, and The Best of Victor Borge Acts One and Two captures a 90-minute concert that includes many of his most famous routines. He chides late-arriving members of the Minneapolis audience ("I come from Copenhagen and was here before you!"), falls off the piano bench, and reads his sheet music upside down. There are a few unwitting guests: a stagehand drafted to turn Borge's pages, soprano Marylyn Mulvey who tries to sing a Verdi aria through Borge's teasing and scolding, and Sahan Arzruni as he and Borge play a two-piano Hungarian rhapsody on a single piano by climbing over and around each other. Borge also presents an opera "written by Mozart but credited to Salieri" ("so you can imagine what kind of opera it is") and proves that he's not merely a clown by skillfully performing a set of waltzes and lullabies. In addition, two of his best-loved sketches are nonmusical: Inflationary Language, in which numbers in language, like the economy, are increased ("I'll go back to Elevenessee.... Three-dleoo."), and Phonetic Punctuation, in which a period is read aloud to sound like fft and an exclamation point fsss fft. Like Anna Russell and PDQ Bach, Victor Borge helped make classical music accessible to a wide audience by showing that it could be laugh-out-loud funny. --David Horiuchi
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Reviews:
time to lighten-up
This DVD was one of the gifts I gave my 13 year old granddaughter. We watched it with her parents on Christmas day. We all laughed so hard that we cried. Victor Borge's humor and charm transcends all generations. Timeless comedy from the amazing and twoderful Victor Borge
I remember listening to Victor Borge as a child on my parents LP player. I just couldn't get over the laughter from things as simple as Phonetic Punctuation. Although there is nothing simple about his comedy. It's well practiced, provoking, and timeless. There's nothing better (to me) about comedy so good that it takes the audience an extra moment to get it.
When I think about the great comics I tend to start with Eddie Izzard. The intelligence behind his routines amazes me, and I thought that I had never seen another comedian before who possessed that level of wit, until I actually saw the video recordings from Victor Borge. It became evident that many comedians have certainly looked to Borge as a mentor of comic delivery.
The Best of Victor Borge is one of those video presentations that contains Act One and Two of his classic routines in a live performance. Although the theatre and clothing of the attendees is dated the material is as fresh then (early 90's) as it was when I watched the DVD a month ago, and again last week.
This DVD contains some of the absolute best routines from Borge: Marylyn Mulvey delivering a stunning Aria, The Timid Page Turner (with a cameo from one of Borge's sons), Phonetic Punctuation, Inflationary Language, 2nd Rhapsody by Fliszt, and many other musical numbers. Borge is able to seamlessly blend comedy and music into a really enjoyable concert experience.
The master of the "strategic pause" (reference: http://www.digitalheath.com/2008/10/speaking-with-the-strategic-pause/) makes us laugh with something as simple as reminding the opera singer to stop touching the piano over and over again, or letting us know that since children are in the audience he won't be able to do the second act in the nude - but instead requests "a tie...the long one."
There are many Borge collections - this one contains what you will probably remember as his greatest. It is appropriate for all ages, and you and your kids will put this one back in the player over and over again, and laugh just as hard the second, third, or fortieth time :-).
Cheers! Best of Victor Borge Act one and two
Very intertaining. I got this video to pass Victor Borge down to my grandkids--- they had never heard of him but enjoyed him immensely. love borge, but not this dvd
I really like Victor Borge, but for a DVD this had really bad video quality. Basically VHS quality, and it was as if they transferred that straight to DVD. Also, it was not at all long enough for a $20 price. This is basically only one of his performances, not a collection of them. phonetically the best!
As a child I enjoyed an LP by Victor Borge, and now as an adult have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the DVD of Mr Borge. My children, who love classical music, found him completely entertaining and loved the Soprano. The highlights for all being the Phonetic Punctuation, Inflationary Language and the piano duet. Highly recommended.  |
Keyword: Video,
Description: The Best of Victor Borge Acts I and II
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