The Best of Victor Borge, Act One & Two, VHS

I stumbled across Victor Borge on Youtube rather by accident. Within a few minutes, I was immediately hooked. Victor Borge's routine is extra impressive when compared to your usual run of the mill comedian because he manages to combine multiple forms of comedy into his act, including visual humor, musical humor and wordplay. And all of them, he does very well.I purchased this as a gift and sat down with both my parents as they watched (neither had heard of him previously). It was a hit - I haven't seen my Dad laugh so hard in such a long time!While most of the DVD is filled with jokes and comedy, the last bit of his act is reserved for just plain piano playing, which was a lovely way to wind down the evening. As evidenced by the multiple references made in the following days, many of his jokes are memorable, in particular those where he makes fun of the English language. Some of his jokes do require having some knowledge of composers (e.g. Fliszt is a reference to Franz Liszt but is often abbreviated as F. Liszt), and some are funnier if you happen to be familiar with the piece of music. I admit that a couple jokes took me a little while before I got the full underlying meaning (e.g. it could just be me, but I didn't initially get the wit behind his "I speak Turkish" joke). But for the most part, anyone, musically informed or not, can appreciate this gem.A documentary I'd seen claimed that one of the biggest criticisms of Mr. Borge was his lack of new material - he spent years perfecting his best acts and didn't experiment as much as people would have liked. This led me to buy just this DVD instead of the boxset. To his credit, he was the longest running one man show in the history of theater, which should give you a sense of just how polished his routines had become.My reason for the 4 star rating is that the video and sound quality are pretty low. We had to increase the volume quite a bit to catch what he was saying. It was also obvious that some parts had been cut and when it did occur, it lacked any proper flow from one scene to the next.All in all, still a good purchase. Mr. Borge really is one of a kind. I've seen a few others do similar acts, but his is the best thus far, and by far!

Okay, first off, kudos must go out to P.Zabokrzycki (the seller) for having a copy of this fine performance available! The disc is in fine shape and played very well, Thank you!!This classic performance was from 1989 or 1990 from Minneapolis, Mn. I watched my mum's copy of this (on VHS) way back when and remembered all the laughs Victor Borge gave to us.My mum passed away in 2011.I remembered this tape and with one search, found the dvd right here on Amazon. Cool!!From his stories of Mozart being "a bust" to Inflationary Language, Victor Borge was one of the greatest performers that ever lived.From his hysterical takes on life to some very sincere classical music performances on piano, this particular dvd covers them all!!Highly recommended.

He is the funnist man who ever lived

Victor Borge is as funny as ever in this 90-minute live performance. He is thoroughly engaged, very lively, and manages to deliver even his most common routines with such energy and humor that you feel as if you're seeing them for the first time.That said, the recording has some flaws. The first you will notice is that the video quality, though not distracting, is nevertheless poor. It's painfully obvious that this DVD was mde from a VHS cassette. The one that most disappointed me most, though, is that "The Best of Victor Borge Acts I and II" is just that--the best of them, not the whole thing. Seven years ago, I purchased a videocassette of this same concert. Since the tape has gotten worn to the point of being unusable, I purchased this DVD expecting to have all of Acts I and II. Sadly, several routines are fully removed, including Borge's birthday sketches and his performance of the Moonlight Sonata. His performance of "Clear the Saloon" and several other pieces have also been cut from the recording. For this reason, although I don't outright regret the purchase, I'm profoundly disappointed with it.

As to be expected, Victor Borge provides absolute joy with his performance of various presentations on this tape. Disgustingly, however, the tape degrades your pleasure. Why? Simply because the tape is recorded at SLP. Never mind that it COULD HAVE BEEN recorded at SP with a quantum leap in quality. No, the bean counters, intent on saving a mere pittance in tape, chose to record at SLP. They didn't, however, lower the price from a rather hefty near-twenty bucks to start with to half that price. You'll still enjoy seeing Borge at his best. However, be prepared for poor video quality at less than closeup shots and exceptionally tinny audio during high notes of his piano playing. It's so sad that great entertainment such as this is nearly ruined by the quest for the almighty dollar. Or, in this case, probably no more than an extra fifty cents worth of tape.

Victor Borge is quite funny & I was very glad when I finally got this-until I began watching it. It seems copied off an old vcr tape in quality-I was surprised by that. What surprised me most was that what was listed on the package as to what was supposed to be on the dvd wasn't all on there-a few of the acts listed were not even in his routine-& I watched it more than once to see if it was part of another act ,but that wasn't the case. I've watched Vicor B. many times on PBS & love his routines, but found this below standard.The only saving grace was his humor.If the quality had been better 7 all the materil had been there I would deffinatly given it 5 stars. Despite this it is still very funny.

Victor Borge's performance was great!The dvd is the worst quality product I've seen.

The quality of the picture is terrible at times. However, it's Victor Borge, so it's still funny. If it were anything that relied on picture quality, it would get zero stars.

Hillarious literal humour. amazing musician and comedian, have seen this dvd many times and still i cry with laughter. Never fails to lift the spirits.

Good, thanx

After scouring shops for any DVD by Victor Borge I was well impressed to find a selection on Amazon. I love this humour, he has us holding our sides. There are some clips on You Tube if you want to preview his style.

same

Very funny