Victor Borge: The Great Dane Borge was showered with awards throughout his life. Victor Borge built a career by delighting audiences with virtuoso piano-playing and paralysing them with laughter at his irreverence towards the pomposity of classical music. He began has career at the age of 17 as a concert pianist in his native Denmark, becoming one of the country's most popular cabaret performers in the 1930s. At his 80th birthday concert at Copenhagen's Tivoli gardens, Borge played variations on the theme of Happy Birthday to You in the styles of Mozart, Brahms, Wagner and Beethoven. These were executed with such wit that the orchestra was convulsed with laughter - and a woman performing a piccolo solo was unable to draw breath to play.