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Avner the Eccentric | |
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 2012 | |
| Born | Avner Eisenberg 26 August 1948 Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Clown, performance artist, mime, juggler and sleight of hand |
| Website | avnertheeccentric.com |
Avner Eisenberg, also known by his stage name "Avner the Eccentric" (born August 26, 1948) is an American vaudeville performer, clown, mime, juggler, and sleight of hand magician. [1] John Simon described him in 1984 as "A clown for the thinking man and the most exacting child." [2]
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Avner went to four different universities with a variety of tentative majors; he ultimately received a theater degree from the University of Washington in 1971. He then studied mime in Paris under Jacques Lecoq, interrupting those studies to spend some time as a puppeteer. Returning to the U.S., he taught at Carlo Clementi's Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California. [1]
He performed at Renaissance fairs and on stages, before playing the title role in the 1985 film The Jewel of the Nile , [3] [4] a film that also featured his fellow vaudevillians The Flying Karamazov Brothers. [1] In a review of that film, Janet Maslin singled out Avner for praise: "Avner Eisenberg very nearly steals the film…" [4] Roger Ebert, on reviewing the film, also singled Eisenberg out as "a true comic discovery". [5]
Other notable roles have included a self-titled 1984 Broadway show, an appearance in a 1987 Lincoln Center production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors , and the principal role Srulik the ventriloquist in the 1989 Broadway play Ghetto . He has also played both Vladimir and Estragon in productions of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot , costarred with his wife, Julie Goell, in the world premiere of Zoo of Tranquility , and portrayed Robert Crumb in Comix . [1]
He has performed his wordless solo act at numerous festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival, Israel Festival, Festival of American Mime, and the International Festival du Cirque in Monte Carlo. [1] In 2004 he sold out the Theatre Fontaine in Paris for three months. [6]
In addition to his performing, he is certified as an Ericksonian Hypnotist and NLP Master Practitioner, and has taught workshops on silent theater skills as a therapeutic tool for students and professionals in health care, education and counseling, as well as teaching theater workshops. [6] He also sits on the board of directors of the Etz Chaim Synagogue (Portland, Maine). [6] As of 2009, he lives on an island in Maine. [6]
