After having The Assasssination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford for over 5 months The boy and I realized that we are the reason Netflix is profitable.  Since this wake-up call we have actually been pretty good about keeping the films moving and attempting to get our money’s worth.

At this point in our relationship (with each other and with Netflix) everyone is so new that we end up watching things that one of us has already seen- fallout from conversations like “OMG you’ve never seen XYZ? Put it on the list. the top. The TOP!”

The most recent gem from my past that I was able to share with him is a live recording of Pianist-Comedian Victor Borge  (his humble fansite here, and wikipedia here).   I love this dude.  I have very fond memories at my grandma’s house watching him on video and TV.  Yeah… he’s totally someone your grandma likes, but when grandmas like something that you like it means the comedian is doing something right.  I’m not a fan of humor that is crude, meanspirited, or just existing by means of shock value.  Dane Cook? No thanks.

Victor treats language playfully. His two most famous routines are Phonetic Punctuation – in which punctuation that would exist written are inserted to speech verbally as a cascade of clicks and whistles-  and, my favorite, Inflationary Language.

In this routine he inflates the hidden numbers in speech, SO…  “wonderful” becomes “twoderful”, “forehead” becomes “fivehead”, clocks strike “thirteen”, “I ate a tenderloin with my fork” becomes “‘I nined an elevenderloin with my five’k. And so on and so fifth”

But what consistently wins me over is his undeniable skill on the piano. In the following clip he and a friend share the play the every challenging Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2.  This is four-hand piano at it’s best.  Simultaneously playful and and amazing.