Victor Borge, Yakov Smirnoff, Tristan Rogers, Rich Little, Rock Aoki and Jean LeClerc bring laughter to their stories of leaving their home and building careers in the U.S.A. July 3rd, 1990.
“What did Arnold Schwarzenegger say about being here in this glorious country?””…I love America, since being here I’ve killed over 12,000 people….”
Victor Borge left Denmark before the Nazis invaded, he describes being popular before he left his home country, and why he decided to leave. He blames the political situation there and how he was on the last boat to leave Northern Europe.
Yakov Smirnoff describes coming from the USSR and being a bartender when he first got to the country, while Tristan Rogers next to him in Las Vegas doesn’t say what he was doing 30 minutes ago…
Rich Little says the humor is more or less the same in Canada as it is in the United States, and the people are very similar — even though many Canadians don’t like to hear that. He doesn’t notice much difference between performing north of the border or south of the border, and brings several funny impersonations to the set including Bing Crosby and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Rocky Aoki describes coming from Japan with the wrestling team, and selling ice cream as Mr. Softy, washing dishes, and the difficulty in Japanese coming to America around that time. He turned the profits from that into opening his first restaurant.
Jean LeClerc came over to play in Dracula on Broadway, and never left. Years later his children came with him. Tristan Rogers describes how the America’s Cup winning really brought Australia on the map.
Audience questions and conversation continue this upbeat and funny episode as the jokes keep on coming.
This day, Geraldo’s Television History.