Better timing than any conductor you’ve ever seen

Jeffrey Biegel says:

This is good news indeed. He should be remembered, as he was not only a wonderful pianist with a beautiful sound and fabulous facility, he was an expert comedian fusing music and antics in a way which attracted thousands of fans for every show. Phonetic punctuation, inflationary language, accompanying Marilyn Mulvey, his stagehand son Ron, seatbelt hidden inside the bench, the Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by ‘Fliszt’ and the list goes on. (If I ever come around to penning an autobiography, our three hour meeting was one of the most interesting three hours in my memory when I almost became his ‘next sidekick’. But perhaps the line that sticks out most happened in the airplane the following morning. He sat in row 1, First class–as I walked by, he smiled, and said, ‘I get there before you do!’)

John says:

I liked him, but his schtick pretty much remained the same for fifty years. When those old videos come up on PBS fund-raisers, I tuned out. I do give him a lot of credit for having the good sense to turn what would have been a so-so career as a recitalist into a wildly successful career as a comedian.