My early choice in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.

The quip is a piece of Truman’s earthy, self-deprecating humor that also functions as a cynical jab at political life. By pairing “piano player in a whorehouse” with “politician,” he implies that both roles involve performing for an audience, navigating vice and money, and compromising one’s dignity to keep patrons satisfied. The punchline—“there’s hardly any difference”—suggests that politics can be as transactional and morally compromised as the underworld. Read more broadly, it reflects a populist suspicion of political hypocrisy and the idea that public service can become show business, where survival depends on pleasing powerful interests rather than pursuing principle.