It was sad to see the sparse turnout for what proved to be a truly professional show – something that Rainer Hersch picked up on and immediately incorporated wittily into his slick intro.

His candour with the audience from the get-go about his inspiration to create a show around Victor Borge – more out of curiosity rather than initial idolising – set the stage beautifully for this personal account. He admits that after repeated comparison to Borge, in response to his own BBC show, he felt compelled to research the Danish musician who ran away from the Nazis to ultimately become the world’s highest-paid entertainer during the 1960s. In addition to taking us on an historic journey, it was this personal journey of discovery that gave the entire show authenticity. [More]

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The moment I saw this production advertised in the Festival programme I was online to the editor for the job of reviewing it.  Like anyone who’s ever experienced his work, I love Victor Borge to the point where the idea of anyone disliking him seems improbable.  And I have a more personal connection too, as related many times to family guests by my mother:

The way she tells it, I was mere moments away from being born in the hospital waiting room because of him.  Just as her contractions reached the point where it was time to drive to hospital, a Victor Borge TV special came on and she refused to leave until it was finished and her laughter had subsided enough that she could walk to the car. 

Even though I’m merely the MacGuffin in that story, I still relish any opportunity to relate it with egocentric pride.  And now here I am, telling my story in a review of possibly the world’s only British-German comedian, Rainer Hersch, telling his own story of how he in turn came to learn of Victor Borge and his story, which he also tells.  Needless to say, enough about me.

Rainer Hersch is himself a classical music comedian, a profession he happened into as Borge himself had some fifty years earlier.  It seems absurd that Hersch had in fact never heard of Borge until he inevitably came to be repeatedly compared to him in the reviews for his own shows.  It took him still longer to actually listen to some of his extensive recorded repertoire, setting a course in motion that patently led to his mounting of this admirably reverent tribute.

Hersch spends forty percent or so as himself, regaling us with his own journey to reach this point, and also throwing in a few tastes of his own independent morsels of musical humour.  The rest of the time he’s Victor, and while his visage isn’t a precise mirror, his grin and the twinkle in his eye along with his accent, tone and metre are pitch perfect, even down to the subtle distinctions between young and old Borge.

So much of Borge’s humour hinges on the other shoe dropping: “My grandfather gave me this watch, just before he died.  For twenty bucks.”  The dulcet solemnity of such a setup intensifies the punchline’s mirth.  Then, in judiciously placed scenes in which Hersch as Borge describes the tragic moments that marked significant turning points in his life, the punchline never comes and the lack of it in turn amplifies the unexpected pathos.

As well as eliciting constant merriment with his timeless routines – I’ve seen much of his material countless times over and still laugh out loud – for many people Borge is their first introduction to the rich world of classical music.  This in spite of the ironic fact that his two most famous pieces are not at all musical: ‘Phonetic Punctuation’ and ‘Inflationary Language’.

Victor Borge was not entirely a Saint, just mostly.  He was successfully sued for plagiarising his phonetic punctuation routine, had an unashamed love for money, and more than his share of the ladies if legend be true. 

But he will always be remembered for bringing joy and light into the minds and hearts of hundreds of millions.  One of Hersch’s primary motivations for this entire hilarious and moving homage is to disprove Borge’s own assertion that as big as he is now (at one time the world’s highest paid entertainer!), in fifty years he’ll be forgotten.

Surely Not!  I’m actually rather baffled that this opening night in the Comedy-nee-Concert Chamber is less than half full.  Sure there’s plenty else on, but this is an internationally acclaimed comedian doing Victor Borge for Heaven’s sakes!

As the actual legendary, one-of-a-kind Great Dane passed away in December 2000 I daresay this is the closest available option on offer for getting to see the man himself.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer