With a plethora of gaggles and a hat full of tricks, Avner Eisenberg excites many college crowds with his abstract humor while relieving the stresses of everyday life as magical, slack-rope walking Avner the Eccentric.

I suffer on stage for [the audience’s] stress, Eisenberg said. My character is a kind of Waiting for Godot’ with tricks. It is a warm and very funny show.

People will go away with a better feeling than what they came in with.

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Avner the Eccentric will perform 3 p.m. Saturday in Shryock Auditorium. Eisenberg’s act includes slack-rope walking, juggling, magic tricks and mystical allusions of the body.

Eisenberg’s comic career has been a gradual climb, which he said eventually rolled into success.

I started working the streets juggling, and one thing lead to another, he said. It was like a snowball that got bigger and bigger. You just have to see it.

The interesting flow Eisenberg’s career began to take for him as a comedian came about in an unusual way, but the comic said every experience he has encountered is priceless to him.

You can’t learn this stuff in books, Eisenberg said. I ran away from college and worked in the circus for a couple of weeks. I learned the [arm extension] from an old circus prop boss. He used to do an act with old carnies called the Amazing Stretching Man’ and he taught me how to do this thing.

Eisenberg incorporates numerous talents into his performance, which is a silent showcase, a talent he has been polishing for nearly 25 years. The only vocal cues Eisenberg reveals to his audience is the playing of the kazoo and sporadic noises.

Yet, Eisenberg’s love for tricks and humorous gags was not his original quest in his life. Eisenberg intended to become a doctor or a veterinarian before forming his newly found interest in the theatrical arts.

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I wasn’t really interested in comedy. I was interested in chemistry and biology, he said. One day I wandered into the theater building in 1966 to get out of the rain and I ran into friends when I was a freshman in college. They were auditioning for a play, I got a part and my friend didn’t. From there, I got interested in theater.

Theater is not the only fine art Eisenberg has extended his talents toward. He starred in Jewel of the Nile alongside Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. Eisenberg played the Jewel that nearly every character in the movie was after, but thought they were chasing a priceless stone.

Eisenberg found the transition from theater to film rather oblique. Because the character was from the Middle East, he had to take on the dialect, which required a great deal of preparation.

First thing was that I had to learn how to do an Arabic accent, so I hired a dialogue coach, he said. I had to grow my beard and my hair out as well.

It was only when people started talking to me in Arabic that I knew I had caught on to what I was suppose to be doing.

Despite his trail to stardom, Eisenberg finds several opportunities to give back to audiences that have supported his styles of humor from the beginning.

I’ve started teaching a lot lately, Eisenberg said. It is just a wonderful way for me to be able to give back and help younger performers with some of the experience I’ve had and with some of my tricks.

Eisenberg credits the audience for contributing to his abundant amount of accomplishments.

The audience is a big part of the show. Their reactions count. It’s not the kind of show that could exist without an audience, and the things that they do change the course of the show, he said.

Eisenberg said he has a great deal of appreciation for his successful journey and is sitting back to enjoy it.

It’s been a wonderful sleigh ride, he said. I have gone way beyond any expectations I ever had.

Factoid:Avner the Eccentric will begin his performance at 3 p.m. Saturday at Shryock Auditorium. Tickets are $14.50 and $10.50 for ages 15 and under.

Avner Eisenberg will also conduct a workshop at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in Shryock Auditorium.

For information, call 453-ARTS.