Stanford University, 1972

[Beginning of video]

Interviewer: Thank you for joining me, Mr...um, Emcee.

Emcee: I suppose the pleasure is mine, being invited to such a prestigious American university to be interviewed by such an accomplished graduate student. I must warn you, I won't be as interesting as Elie Wiesel or Coco Shumann.

Interviewer: Oh don't be silly, any story from such a dark, turbulent time in history is interesting.

Emcee: Ah, but you see, my story begins before everything was dark and turbulent. It was all quite mundane, actually, until about 1933. My life was not a unique one; I was simply a middle-class entertainer. The club I worked at and the people I worked with meant the world to me, especially...

Interviewer: Especially what?

Emcee: Never mind, I'll talk about him later.

Interviewer: ...Ok, shall we begin?

Emcee: [chuckles] I thought we already had.

Interviewer: Well, I have a some, uh, questions that I'd like you to answer, if you don't mind [unfolding paper]...The first is your name, unless it is "Emcee."

Emcee: My name is one of the many things that could have gotten me killed back in Germany, but not for any good reasons. It's a very Jewish name, but I haven't considered myself Jewish since I was a child. I was, however, an Emcee for about ten years. I bet I still would be if Hitler hadn't become Chancellor. I feel as if I'm more of an Emcee than a Jew, so I take the title "Emcee" wherever I go.

Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if everybody stopped identifying themselves by their names once they begin working and just used their job title.

Interviewer: It would be much less personal, wouldn't it?

Emcee: I'd say more so. For the most part, we choose what we do for a living. Our work is much more representative of us than the names we are given before anyone even knows who we are.

I much preferred the people who attempted to close my Cabaret because they disliked the content than those who threw bricks at my window because of my name.