Avner the Eccentric presented his show to a capacity crowd. His skills in magic, juggling, balancing objects, mime and slapstick are fantastic, together with the fact he is a superb theatre clown. Most of the tricks have been seen before, but it is Avner's ease and gentle character that endear him to the audience.
There is a lot of dropping objects, picking them up and dropping them again – as one problem is solved another arises. There is also much juggling of popcorn and baseball bats, and balancing of a sheet of newspaper, a stack of paper cups and a peacock feather – then out of nowhere an incredible feat of acrobatics.
The show starts with Avner sweeping the stage. He then, after messing about with cigarettes and matches, communicates ‘Five minutes until the show begins.' Thus the waiting – and a long series of nonsense – commences. The show only ‘begins’ ten minutes before its end, when Avner sits down at a table and starts eating serviettes and performing magic with a glass of wine.
The way Avner works with the audience is astounding – all with silence and gestures. At one point he conducts the whole audience in three sections in whistling and noise-making. When he drops a baseball bat he asks a woman in the audience for a kiss to make it better, and then deliberately hurts himself to get another!
The physical predicaments are imaginative and simplistic but develop logically and organically. There is so much joy from such ridiculous party tricks so skilfully presented. It is this lightening of the heart that you take with you out of the theatre.