40-520: Clyde C. Newkirk (August 29, 1870 - May 15, 1938), who published under the pseudonym, Newton "Newt" Newkirk was an American humorist . He produced a comic strip and various humorous publications. Newkirk was hired by the Boston Post in 1901. His Bingville Bugle comic strip inspired Bing Crosby 's nickname during Crosby's childhood. In the comic strip, Bingo was pear-shaped with protruding ears. This article about an American comedian
80-655: A violist in the Royal Danish Orchestra , and his mother a pianist. Borge began piano lessons at the age of two, and it was soon apparent that he was a prodigy. He gave his first piano recital when he was eight years old, and in 1918 was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Academy of Music , studying under Olivo Krause . Later on, he was taught by Victor Schiøler , Liszt 's student Frederic Lamond , and Busoni 's pupil Egon Petri . Borge played his first major concert in 1926 at
120-426: A Doctorate of Humane Letters from Luther College in 1985. When the Royal Danish Orchestra celebrated its 550th anniversary in 1998, Borge was appointed an honorary member — at that time one of only ten in the orchestra's history. Victor Borge received numerous awards and honors during the course of his career. Borge received Kennedy Center Honors in 1999. He was decorated with badges of chivalric orders by
160-588: A comedian and filmmaker, early in his career worked as a staff writer for humorist Herb Shriner . He also wrote short stories and cartoon captions for magazines such as The New Yorker . Steve Martin (born 1945), comedian and actor, wrote Cruel Shoes , a book of humorous essays and short stories, in 1977 (published 1979). He wrote his first humorous play Picasso at the Lapin Agile in 1993, and wrote various pieces in The New Yorker magazine in
200-814: A distinction that garnered wide agreement, as William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature ". The United States national cultural center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , has chosen to award a Mark Twain Prize for American Humor annually since 1998 to individuals who have "had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain". Victor Borge Børge Rosenbaum ( Yiddish : בורגע ראזענבוים ; 3 January 1909 – 23 December 2000), known professionally as Victor Borge ( / ˈ b ɔːr ɡ ə / BOR -gə ),
240-433: A filmed sketch. He would also use this sketch on The Electric Company ' s subsequent LP record, during its "Punctuation" song. In addition, he appeared several times on Sesame Street , and he was a guest star during the fourth season of The Muppet Show . Victor Borge continued to tour until his last days, performing up to 60 times per year when he was 90 years old. His microphone of choice since circa 1982
280-480: A musical-comedic classic. Borge performed a version of the routine with Rowlf the Dog on Season 4 of The Muppet Show . He also enjoyed interacting with the audience. Seeing an interested person in the front row, he would ask them, "Do you like good music?" or "Do you care for piano music?" After an affirmative answer, Borge would take a piece of sheet music from his piano and say, "Here is some", and hand it over. After
320-446: A piece but getting "distracted" by something or other, making comments about the audience, or discussing the usefulness of Chopin 's " Minute Waltz " as an egg timer. He would also start out with some well-known classical piece like Beethoven 's " Moonlight Sonata " and suddenly move into a harmonically similar pop or jazz tune, such as Cole Porter 's " Night and Day " or " Happy Birthday to You ". One of Borge's other famous routines
360-526: A poetic coincidence, when asked where he would be spending his Christmas and New Year's, Borge responded "somewhere completely different". In accordance with Borge's wishes, his connection to both the United States and Denmark was marked by having part of his ashes interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, with a replica of the iconic Danish statue The Little Mermaid sitting on a large rock at
400-551: A sailor, Borge returned to Denmark once during the occupation to visit his dying mother. Even though Borge did not speak a word of English upon arrival, he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience, learning English by watching movies. He took the name of Victor Borge and, in 1941, he started on Rudy Vallee 's radio show. He was hired soon after by Bing Crosby for his Kraft Music Hall programme. Borge quickly rose to fame, winning Best New Radio Performer of
440-424: A tenderloin with my fork, and so on and so forth" becomes "I nined an elevenderloin with my fivek, and so on and so fifth". Borge used physical and visual elements in his live and televised performances. He would play a strange-sounding piano tune from sheet music, looking increasingly confused; turning the sheet upside down or sideways, he would then play the actual tune, flashing a joyful smile of accomplishment to
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#1732793900966480-443: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor , or wit , in writing or public speaking . A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society. The term comedian is generally applied to one who is performing to an audience for laughter. Humor
520-475: Is primarily a writer of books, newspaper or magazine articles or columns , stage or screen plays, and may occasionally appear before an audience to deliver a lecture or narrate a written work. The comedian always performs for an audience, either in live performance, audio recording, radio, television, or film. Phil Austin , of the comedy group the Firesign Theatre , expressed his thoughts about
560-483: Is the quality which makes experiences provoke laughter or amusement, while comedy is a performing art . The nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer lamented the misuse of humor (a German loanword from English) to mean any type of comedy. A humorist is adept at seeing the humor in a situation or aspect of life and relating it, usually through a story; the comedian generally concentrates on jokes designed to invoke instantaneous laughter. The humorist
600-626: The Comedy in Music show at John Golden Theatre in New York City on 2 October 1953. Comedy in Music became the longest running one-man show in the history of theater with 849 performances when it closed on 21 January 1956, a feat which placed it in the Guinness Book of World Records . Continuing his success with tours and shows, Borge played with and conducted orchestras including
640-981: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra , the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic . He appeared with the Cleveland Opera Company in Mozart's The Magic Flute in 1979 and at London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden in Bizet's Carmen in 1986. Always modest, he felt honored when he was invited to conduct the Royal Danish Orchestra at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1992. His later television appearances included his "Phonetic Punctuation" routine on The Electric Company in
680-513: The 1990s. He later wrote more humorous plays and two novellas. Hugh Laurie (born 1959) is an English comic actor who worked for many years in partnership with Stephen Fry . He is a fan of the English humorist P. G. Wodehouse , and has written a Wodehouse-style novel. Mark Twain (pen name of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, 1835–1910) was widely considered the "greatest humorist" the U.S. ever produced, as noted in his New York Times obituary. It's
720-1024: The Beethoven Foundation) with Julius Bloom and Anthony P. Habig. American Piano Awards now produces two major biennial piano competitions: the Classical Fellowship Awards and the Jazz Fellowship Awards. He married his first wife, Elsie Chilton, in 1933. After divorcing Elsie, he married Sarabel Sanna Scraper in 1953, and they stayed married until her death at the age of 83 in September 2000. Borge had five children (who occasionally performed with him): Ronald Borge and Janet Crowle (adopted) with Elsie Chilton, and Sanna Feirstein, Victor Bernhard (Vebe) Jr., and Frederikke (Rikke) Borge with Sarabel. On 23 December 2000, Borge died in Greenwich, Connecticut , at
760-614: The Danish Odd Fellow Palæet ( The Odd Fellow's Lodge building ) concert hall. After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his now-famous stand-up act with the signature blend of piano music and jokes. He married the American Elsie Chilton in 1933, the same year he debuted with his revue acts. Borge started touring extensively in Europe, where he began telling anti- Nazi jokes. When
800-532: The German armed forces occupied Denmark on 9 April 1940, during World War II , Borge was playing a concert in neutral Sweden and decided to go to Finland. He traveled to America on the United States Army transport American Legion , the last neutral ship to make it out of Petsamo , Finland, and arrived 28 August 1940, with only $ 20 (about $ 435 today), with $ 3 going to the customs fee. Disguised as
840-503: The Year in 1942 and earning favorable reviews for his performances at New York City's Roxy Theater and Capitol Theatre in 1943. Soon after the award, he was offered film roles with stars such as Frank Sinatra (in Higher and Higher ). While hosting The Victor Borge Show on NBC beginning in 1946, he developed many of his trademarks, including repeatedly announcing his intent to play
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#1732793900966880-465: The age of 91, after 75 years of entertaining. He died peacefully in his sleep a day after returning from a concert in Denmark. "It was just his time to go," Frederikke Borge said. "He's been missing my mother terribly." (His wife had died only three months earlier.) Barely a week earlier he had recorded what would be his final televised interview with Danish television, later aired on New Year's Eve. In
920-406: The audience (he had, at first, been literally playing the tune upside down or sideways). When his energetic playing of another song would cause him to fall off the piano bench, he would open the seat lid, take out the two ends of an automotive seat belt, and buckle himself onto the bench, "for safety". Conducting an orchestra, he might stop and order a violinist who had played a sour note to get off
960-438: The audience's laughter died down, he would say, "That'll be $ 1.95" (or whatever the current price might be). He would then ask whether the audience member could read music; if the member said yes, he would ask a higher price. If he got no response from the audience after a joke, he would often add "… when this ovation has died down, of course." The delayed punchline to handing the person the sheet music would come when he would reach
1000-466: The difference in 1993 liner notes to the Fighting Clowns album: To me, there is a great difference between a humorist and a clown, and I had hoped that life for the Firesign Theatre would have led more toward the world of Mark Twain than the world of Beepo. The humorist is a happy soul; he comments from the sidelines of life, safe behind the keyboard or pen; not forced to mold his thinking to
1040-448: The direct response of an audience, he has indirection on his side. He has time to think. Beepo, on the other hand, takes his chances directly facing—or mooning—the audience; a buffoon, a patsy, a performer, he is out in the open and his audience, unlike a humorist's, becomes necessarily half-friend and half-enemy. Sometimes a comedian will adopt a writing career and gain notability as a humorist. Some examples are: Will Rogers (1879–1935)
1080-576: The early 1980s. Victor Borge (1909–2000) was a Danish-American comedian known for bringing humor to classical music . He wrote three books, My Favorite Intermissions and My Favorite Comedies in Music (both with Robert Sherman ), and the autobiography Smilet er den korteste afstand ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser. Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) was an English comic actor who wrote several humorous plays and film scripts. Woody Allen (born 1935), known as
1120-520: The end of a number and begin playing the penultimate notes over and over, with a puzzled look. He would then go back to the person in the audience, retrieve the sheet music, tear off a piece of it, stick it on the piano, and play the last couple of notes from it. Making fun of modern theater, he would sometimes begin a performance by asking if there were any children in the audience. There always were, of course. He would sternly order them out, then say, "We do have some children in here; that means I can't do
1160-405: The first comedian to make sound recordings , on Edison Records . Garry Moore (1915–1993), known as a television comedian who hosted several variety and game shows , after his 1977 retirement became a regular humor columnist for the newspaper The Island Packet of Northeast Harbor, Maine , with a column titled "Mumble, Mumble". He later released a book of his columns under the same name in
1200-953: The five Nordic countries, receiving the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark), Order of Vasa (Sweden), in 1973 the Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav (Norway), Order of the White Rose of Finland , and the Order of the Falcon (Iceland). In 1986, he was a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of his contributions to the improvement of American society. Victor Borge Hall, located in Scandinavia House in New York City,
1240-591: The grave site, and the other part in Western Jewish Cemetery ( Mosaisk Vestre Begravelsesplads ), in Copenhagen . Borge received an honorary degree from Trinity College Connecticut in 1997. Over the years, he was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Butler University in 1970, Dana College in 1976 and the University of Connecticut in 1983. In addition, he was awarded
Newton Newkirk - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-460: The piano, telling her that if she got used to it, "and one day a piano was not there – Fffftttt! " After the routine, the spotlight would rest on Mulvey, and she would sing a serious number with Borge accompanying in the background. Borge appeared on Toast of the Town hosted by Ed Sullivan several times during 1948. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States the same year. He started
1320-409: The second half in the nude. I'll wear the tie (pause). The long one (pause). The very long one, yes." In his stage shows in later years, he would include a segment with opera singer Marylyn Mulvey. She would try to sing an aria, and he would react and interrupt, with such antics as falling off the bench in "surprise" when she hit a high note. He would also remind her repeatedly not to rest her hand on
1360-456: The stage, then resume the performance and have the other members of the section move up to fill the empty seat while they were still playing: from off stage would come the sound of a gunshot. His musical sidekick in the 1960s, Leonid Hambro , was also a well-known concert pianist. In 1968, classical pianist Şahan Arzruni joined him as his straight man, performing together on one piano a version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody , considered
1400-515: Was "Phonetic Punctuation," in which he read a passage from a book and added exaggerated sound effects to stand for most of the main punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, and exclamation marks. Another is his "Inflationary Language", in which he added one to every number or homophone of a number in the words he spoke. For example: "once upon a time" becomes "twice upon a time", "wonderful" becomes "twoderful", "forehead" becomes "fivehead", "anyone for tennis" becomes "anytwo five elevennis", "I ate
1440-534: Was a vaudeville comedian who started doing humorous political and social commentary, and became a famous newspaper columnist and radio personality during the Great Depression . He is an exception to the education rule, as he only completed a tenth grade education. Cal Stewart (1856–1919) was a vaudeville comedian who created the character Uncle Josh Weathersby and toured circuses and medicine shows . He befriended Twain and Rogers, and in 1898 became
1480-494: Was a Danish and American actor, comedian, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in both North America and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nicknames "The Clown Prince of Denmark," "The Unmelancholy Dane," and "The Great Dane." Victor Borge was born Børge Rosenbaum on 3 January 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark , into an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His parents, Bernhard and Frederikke (née Lichtinger) Rosenbaum, were both musicians: his father
1520-474: Was named in Borge's honor in 2000, as was Victor Borges Plads ("Victor Borge Square") in Copenhagen in 2002. In 2009, a statue celebrating Borge's centennial was erected on the square. Asteroid (5634) Victorborge is named in his honor. From 23 January to 9 May 2009, the life of Borge was celebrated by The American-Scandinavian Foundation with Victor Borge: A Centennial Celebration. On 14 March 2009,
1560-562: Was started in dedication to those who helped the Jews escape the German persecution during the war. Aside from his musical work, Borge wrote three books: My Favorite Intermissions and My Favorite Comedies in Music (both with Robert Sherman ), and the autobiography Smilet er den korteste afstand ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser. In 1979 Borge founded the American Piano Awards (then called
1600-567: Was the Shure SM59. Borge made several appearances on the TV show What's My Line? , both as a celebrity panelist and as a contestant with the occupation "poultry farmer". (The latter was not a comedy routine: as a business venture, Borge raised and popularized Rock Cornish game hens , starting in the 1950s.) Borge helped start several trust funds, including the Thanks to Scandinavia Fund, which
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