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While mimes, clowns, jugglers, magicians and acrobats abound, very few possess that touch of comic genius that has propelled Avner the Eccentric's enchanting show around the world. His debut at the Bermuda Festival was a highly popular one with Thursday's capacity audience.

This multi-talented artist, clad in baggy pants and braces, follows in the physicality of the commedia dell'arte tradition where every part of the body is used to tell a story or to suggest a mood. His obsession with the minutia of everyday life has a Chaplinesque quality -- except that he's often much funnier.

His act is an exploration of the ridiculous, of everyday misadventures, of physical quirks (a tongue that seems to have a life of its own, obstinately popping out under every exertion) and, most of all, a sense of genuine and delighted surprise that his antics cause such merriment.

Whether he's a janitor sweeping the floor in readiness for the performance, meanwhile losing his hat -- and his pants -- nonchalantly juggling baseball bats, spilling cigarettes, and miraculously turning tiny pieces of paper into a sign heralding the start of the show, Avner keeps the audience laughing. No matter that one couple is late: after pointedly tapping a large alarm clock, he obligingly repeats everything that has gone before -- in double-quick time.

His wonderfully expressive face heightens the humour and, like the best of clowns, can also wring a touch of pathos, as when he brings a napkin doll eerily and dancingly alive, only to produce an audible `wince' when it falls limp and `dies'. Balancing a chair on his chin, he progresses, with a diffident sense of wonder at his own cleverness, to a ladder and then, an even bigger, 12-foot high ladder.

When he does the splits he pulls himself back up by his braces and he invests the old trick of `lengthening' his arms and legs with a new patina of disbelief; he gets a special laugh from the kids in the audience as he expertly catches popcorn with his mouth and then spits it back in the box.

Even when he walks across a tightrope, he cannot resist the urge to pause awhile, mid-air in the spotlight, for a quick game of hand-shadows. The finale finds Avner in decidedly eccentric mood as he makes a meal out of a pancake-stack of paper, cramming piece after piece into his mouth -- and, of course, regurgitating the lot back in the form of a loop-chain ending with a bouquet of coloured paper flowers.

Georgia-born Avner Eisenberg won the New Faces of 1991 Award at the Edinburgh Festival and also received a special award at The International Festival du Cirque in Monte Carlo. Popular also on international TV shows, he is best known for his scene-stealing portrayal of The Jewel in `The Jewel of the Nile' with Michael Douglas.

Avner's show, which was also performed at a children's matinee, actually has very wide appeal, delivered as it is with warmth and a timely reminder that his humour crosses all language and cultural barriers.

PATRICIA CALNAN AVNER EISENBERG THEATRE REVIEW THR REV