Avner Eisenberg

Avner Eisenberg Avner the Eccentric born August 26 1948 is an American vaudeville performer clown mime juggler and sleight of hand magician John Simon described him in 1984 as A clown for the thinking man and the most exacting child 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 US he taught at Carlo Clementis DellArte International School of Physical Theatre in California He performed at Renaissance fairs and on stages before playing the title role in the 1985 film The Jewel of the Nile a film that also featured his fellow vaudevillians The Flying Karamazov Brothers In a review of that film Janet Maslin singled out Avner for praise Avner Eisenberg very nearly steals the film Roger Ebert on reviewing the film also singled Eisenberg out as a true comic discovery