Boredom

As "Salient" talked to Lehrer it was possible to detect a little air of detachment, a slight savour of boredom. It was as if Mr Lehrer knew all there was to know and had grown tired of watching others of the human kind striving for the self-same knowledge.

Tom Lehrer soon made it obvious that he was in the entertainment game for the money alone. He has not been dazzled by bright lights, by the feel of vast audiences straining for his every word. "It's just a job," he claims in much the same way that an insurance salesman might claim the same thing.

This may surprise those who have seen Lehrer perform. On stage he is sophisticated, charming and cruelly amusing ... in other words a complete entertainer. Off stage you could almost call him homely. Perhaps Lehrer can affect such indifference to performing simply because his stage personality is a complete mask.