Borge Bringing Classic Comedy Act to Buena Park Benefit

At 83, Victor Borge, classical music’s classy comedian, has mainly one word to explain his professional longevity: “Genes!” he says.

“Along with good ancestry, stamina and good health,” he adds. “I have no complaints on that score.”

Borge was speaking in a phone interview from Omaha, Neb., where he was appearing as part a tour that brings him to Knott’s Berry Farm today. The program is a benefit to help raise money to build a cultural arts center in Buena Park.

The story goes that Borge shifted from serious classical piano-playing to comedy when he turned a potential concert disaster to his advantage. He was playing a concerto in his native Denmark in the 1920s when the conductor actually lost his place. Borge got up from the piano bench, walked over to the podium and flipped the conductor’s score to the right page.

The audience roared with approval, and a light went on in Borge’s mind about a new direction for his career.

In 1940, Borge fled Denmark after the Nazis marched in. He had managed to get on Hitler’s Black List for inserting anti-Nazi jokes into his comedy routine.

Borge settled in the United States, which became his adopted home, and went on to become a great success in radio and later on television, not to mention his many concert appearances.

His show in the early ‘50s earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for being “the longest running one-man show on Broadway.” The record of 849 performances still stands.

Keeping up with technology, he has released a home video, “The Best of Victor Borge,” which, he says, has sold more than 1 million copies. Even more impressive: The video is sold only through direct marketing television advertisements.

He has made other videos and cassette tapes, as well.

But perhaps illustrating the old saw that every clown wants to play Hamlet, Borge embarked on a more serious straight role in 1987, when he conducted his own concert version of Bizet’s “Carmen” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, among other venues.

That venture received mixed reviews, and although Borge continues to conduct some of the major orchestras around the world, he remains best known--and appreciated--for his comedy routines.

With all this experience, Borge is faced with the problem of keeping his material new and fresh--if only to him.

How does he do it?

“The audience helps with the performance,” he said. “Each performance is unique and each performance contains favorite bits. Those who know and appreciate classical music are happy because I am good. People without this kind of background come to be entertained, and I can do that too. There is no reason for anyone to be bored.”

His system to keep himself young on tour is “to stay away from social activities when I tour.

“I get in and out with as little fuss as possible,” he said. “In some cities, of course, I have close friends and I do spend some time with them. But they are close friends and understand that the time I do spend at these kinds of gatherings will be short.”

Borge finds some of his burdens lifted by thinking of contributing to building a new arts center in Buena Park.

“Traveling is the hardest part of my schedule. It is a 2 1/2-hour show, which is nothing. It’s the getting to and from airports and then flying out to the the next performance that is demanding and takes a lot of time and planning. So, yes, helping to build an arts center makes the effort more worthwhile.”

The proposed center, which is only in the planning stages now, will serve the city’s schools, Civic Theater and Children’s Theatre, as well as providing a venue for touring professionals such as Borge. The cost of the proposed facility, to be built at Buena Park Junior High School, is estimated to be $2.5-$3 million. Last week, the City Council agreed to pay for a feasibility study on the project, to be conducted over the summer.

* Pianist Victor Borge will play today at 8 p.m. at Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, as a fund-raiser for the Buena Park Cultural Arts Foundation. $20 to $100. (714) 562-3861.