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‘Eccentric’ comedy: moving away from the center for laughs
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BY: RONNA A. NOVELLO Special Sections Editor
Avner Eisenberg is a comedian.
Yet, during his one-man show, “Avner the Eccentric: Exceptions to Gravity” at Playhouse Square Jan. 12, he will never speak a word.
Avner was the umbrella-toting holy-man, the “jewel,” from the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner film “The Jewel of the Nile.” Eisenberg stole the show. His physical antics in the movie were only a preview of his present one-man act. Eisenberg comes to Cleveland as part of The J Arts & Culture season.
Eisenberg’s comedy is physical, the stuff of Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Lucille Ball and Red Skelton. “For me, comedy is a dialogue,” Eisenberg explains. “It’s not a comedian who does things and people laugh. It’s constant dialogue on a non-verbal level between the performer and the audience.” Part of that dialogue means knowing who needs the sense of humor. Eisenberg maintains that’s the audience’s job, because they do the laughing; the comedian needs to recognize funny things when he sees them.
For Eisenberg, physical comedy happens, and the words are the soundtrack accompanying it. The body tells the story, he explains, and the words enhance that story. “For example, when we watch Laurel and Hardy, we see both of them react to a situation and we know what they are going to say. The story is told before the words come out.”
The creation of Eccentric comedy takes things one-step further. In physics, eccentric means something away from the center. “It’s a method of teaching acting,” he says. “But with a sub-specialty on silent acting and an even more sub-specialty on silent comedic acting. The techniques are utilizable by actors in every medium.”
So, what is Eisenberg, exactly? He’s a clown and a mime and a magician, all, according to him, four letter words in the arts community. Eisenberg maintains our culture has relegated these art forms to children’s birthday parties and the circus. “But that’s what we’re teaching, clowning. The real deal. No big nose or big hair.”
Eisenberg asserts the elephant in the room for comedic performers is the fear of not being interesting. “If you go out trying to get laughs, you can’t. Have the emotional experience yourself and allow the audience to join in. Never tell the audience what to do or think.”
Growing up in Atlanta, Ga., Avner had what he terms a “generic childhood,” enlivened by a love of juggling and snakes. At one time, he thought of becoming a doctor, but a rainstorm derailed that aspiration.
“I was a freshman in college, walking home with my books, and it began to rain,” he begins. “So I went into the closest building to get out of the rain.” A pause. I rise to the bait and inquire,
“What building did you go into?”
“The theater building,” Eisenberg says, finishing off the story. “I got a part in a play.”
A B.A. degree in theater from the University of Washington in 1971 was followed by two years of study in Paris with Jacques Lecoq, famous for methods used in physical theater, movement and mime. Following his return to the U.S, Eisenberg taught at the Carlo Mazzone Clementi Dell’Arte School of Physical Comedy in California.
“Avner the Eccentric: Exceptions to Gravity” is based on action/reaction/action. The show centers around one man who wants to accomplish some very simple tasks. Of course, nothing runs smoothly and any accident that can happen does.
I ask Avner if being Jewish has influenced his work. “ There are themes that repeat in Jewish humor, and they very much fit with my idea of comedy,” he responds. Then he tells a story:
Two men are walking together and one has an umbrella. It starts to drizzle. The friend looks longingly at the umbrella, but the man keeps walking, using it as a walking stick. It starts to rain. The friend says “Max, open the umbrella already.” Max says, “It wouldn’t do any good.” The friend responds, “Why not?” “It has a hole in it.” ‘Then why did you bring it?”
“I didn’t think it would rain.”
Eisenberg teaches workshops on Eccentric performing and clowning in addition to performing in his one-man show. Although he still acts in theater, he’s not out pounding the boards for parts. The nature of the acting business means you’re tethered to the phone and that’s not part of his agenda.
“To do acting on that level, you have to live in L.A. or New York City and it’s a frustrating part of the business to live by your cell phone,” he explains. “They do casting on Tuesday for a film that starts shooting on Friday.”
A few years ago, he and the director of the equity theater in Portland, Maine cooked up a production of “Waiting for Godot.” He went down to the casting call to read with prospective Vladimirs (one of the characters). “For two-and-a-half days, every ten minutes, another professional actor walked through the door who was good enough to do the part,” Eisenberg notes. ruefully. “That’s what professional theater’s about. So, unless I get offered a part in a movie, or it’s something where there’s a real connection, it’s like buying a lottery ticket.”
Eisenberg, his wife, actress, comedienne and musician Julie Goell and son Zev, a student filmmaker, live on an island off the coast of Maine. Eisenberg is artistic director of Phyzgig, an annual festival of physical comedy and on the Board of Directors of Acorn Productions and Etz Chaim Synagogue.
Europe, more than the States, has provided a venue for his style of comedy, although his show, “Avner the Eccentric” was a Broadway hit in the 1984-85 season.
“Just about everywhere in Europe they have festivals where they book original shows. Do you know how many alternative theater festivals or physical comedy festivals there are in the US? None.”
Still Eisenberg thinks American audiences crave live entertainment. “They thought they were getting it on television,” he notes wryly. “I think our kind of entertainment is coming back.”
rnovello@cjn.org
WHAT:
JCC Arts & Culture presents Avner
the Eccentric
WHERE:
Playhouse Square’s Ohio Theatre
WHEN:
Sat., Jan. 12,
at 7:30
TICKETS:
216-241-6000 or
playhousesquare.org
Yet, during his one-man show, “Avner the Eccentric: Exceptions to Gravity” at Playhouse Square Jan. 12, he will never speak a word.
Avner was the umbrella-toting holy-man, the “jewel,” from the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner film “The Jewel of the Nile.” Eisenberg stole the show. His physical antics in the movie were only a preview of his present one-man act. Eisenberg comes to Cleveland as part of The J Arts & Culture season.
Eisenberg’s comedy is physical, the stuff of Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Lucille Ball and Red Skelton. “For me, comedy is a dialogue,” Eisenberg explains. “It’s not a comedian who does things and people laugh. It’s constant dialogue on a non-verbal level between the performer and the audience.” Part of that dialogue means knowing who needs the sense of humor. Eisenberg maintains that’s the audience’s job, because they do the laughing; the comedian needs to recognize funny things when he sees them.
For Eisenberg, physical comedy happens, and the words are the soundtrack accompanying it. The body tells the story, he explains, and the words enhance that story. “For example, when we watch Laurel and Hardy, we see both of them react to a situation and we know what they are going to say. The story is told before the words come out.”
The creation of Eccentric comedy takes things one-step further. In physics, eccentric means something away from the center. “It’s a method of teaching acting,” he says. “But with a sub-specialty on silent acting and an even more sub-specialty on silent comedic acting. The techniques are utilizable by actors in every medium.”
So, what is Eisenberg, exactly? He’s a clown and a mime and a magician, all, according to him, four letter words in the arts community. Eisenberg maintains our culture has relegated these art forms to children’s birthday parties and the circus. “But that’s what we’re teaching, clowning. The real deal. No big nose or big hair.”
Eisenberg asserts the elephant in the room for comedic performers is the fear of not being interesting. “If you go out trying to get laughs, you can’t. Have the emotional experience yourself and allow the audience to join in. Never tell the audience what to do or think.”
Growing up in Atlanta, Ga., Avner had what he terms a “generic childhood,” enlivened by a love of juggling and snakes. At one time, he thought of becoming a doctor, but a rainstorm derailed that aspiration.
“I was a freshman in college, walking home with my books, and it began to rain,” he begins. “So I went into the closest building to get out of the rain.” A pause. I rise to the bait and inquire,
“What building did you go into?”
“The theater building,” Eisenberg says, finishing off the story. “I got a part in a play.”
A B.A. degree in theater from the University of Washington in 1971 was followed by two years of study in Paris with Jacques Lecoq, famous for methods used in physical theater, movement and mime. Following his return to the U.S, Eisenberg taught at the Carlo Mazzone Clementi Dell’Arte School of Physical Comedy in California.
“Avner the Eccentric: Exceptions to Gravity” is based on action/reaction/action. The show centers around one man who wants to accomplish some very simple tasks. Of course, nothing runs smoothly and any accident that can happen does.
I ask Avner if being Jewish has influenced his work. “ There are themes that repeat in Jewish humor, and they very much fit with my idea of comedy,” he responds. Then he tells a story:
Two men are walking together and one has an umbrella. It starts to drizzle. The friend looks longingly at the umbrella, but the man keeps walking, using it as a walking stick. It starts to rain. The friend says “Max, open the umbrella already.” Max says, “It wouldn’t do any good.” The friend responds, “Why not?” “It has a hole in it.” ‘Then why did you bring it?”
“I didn’t think it would rain.”
Eisenberg teaches workshops on Eccentric performing and clowning in addition to performing in his one-man show. Although he still acts in theater, he’s not out pounding the boards for parts. The nature of the acting business means you’re tethered to the phone and that’s not part of his agenda.
“To do acting on that level, you have to live in L.A. or New York City and it’s a frustrating part of the business to live by your cell phone,” he explains. “They do casting on Tuesday for a film that starts shooting on Friday.”
A few years ago, he and the director of the equity theater in Portland, Maine cooked up a production of “Waiting for Godot.” He went down to the casting call to read with prospective Vladimirs (one of the characters). “For two-and-a-half days, every ten minutes, another professional actor walked through the door who was good enough to do the part,” Eisenberg notes. ruefully. “That’s what professional theater’s about. So, unless I get offered a part in a movie, or it’s something where there’s a real connection, it’s like buying a lottery ticket.”
Eisenberg, his wife, actress, comedienne and musician Julie Goell and son Zev, a student filmmaker, live on an island off the coast of Maine. Eisenberg is artistic director of Phyzgig, an annual festival of physical comedy and on the Board of Directors of Acorn Productions and Etz Chaim Synagogue.
Europe, more than the States, has provided a venue for his style of comedy, although his show, “Avner the Eccentric” was a Broadway hit in the 1984-85 season.
“Just about everywhere in Europe they have festivals where they book original shows. Do you know how many alternative theater festivals or physical comedy festivals there are in the US? None.”
Still Eisenberg thinks American audiences crave live entertainment. “They thought they were getting it on television,” he notes wryly. “I think our kind of entertainment is coming back.”
rnovello@cjn.org
WHAT:
JCC Arts & Culture presents Avner
the Eccentric
WHERE:
Playhouse Square’s Ohio Theatre
WHEN:
Sat., Jan. 12,
at 7:30
TICKETS:
216-241-6000 or
playhousesquare.org
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