Expect humor, not equations, when actor Ed Metzger brings his one-man show, “Einstein: The Practical Bohemian,” to Wartburg College Thursday, March 14.
Metzger said Einstein’s son told him, “My father thought of himself as a Jewish comedian,” which will be evident in Metzger’s Artist Series performance at 7:30 p.m. in Neumann Auditorium.
“Look at the way he dressed,” said Hans Albert Einstein, a hydraulics professor at the University of California. “You don’t think that was an image he created? No socks, baggy pants, a sweatshirt or sweaters with holes in them. He wanted to be one of the people. He didn’t want to be thought of as anything special.”
Metzger said students at Princeton University, where Einstein taught from 1933 to 1955, nicknamed him “the practical Bohemian.”
“They looked at him as a very practical man and as a Bohemian because of the way he dressed,” Metzger said. “He talked about buying things we don’t need — two radios, three televisions, or two cars. As a Bohemian, he was asked, ‘Why don’t you wear socks with your sneakers or sandals?’ He replied, ‘Why? They only produce holes.’ They asked, ‘Why don’t you get a haircut?’ He replied, ‘Why? It will only grow back again.’”
Metzger had a background in science before turning to acting. He was a premed student at the University of Alabama and attended medical school at the University of Florida. But he assures audiences, “The show is not a science lecture. If I had a blackboard on the stage, I’d never have a performance.”
Instead, he reflects on Einstein’s attitude toward E=MC2.
“In the late 1930s, they had a tickertape parade for him in New York City,” Metzger recounted. “Millions of people lined the streets and were throwing confetti out windows. He’s in a convertible with Mayor Jimmy Walker, when he turned to him and said, “I never thought so many people understood the Theory of Relativity.”
Metzger’s performance does have a serious side, beginning with Einstein’s escape from Berlin in 1933 as Hitler took power. At Princeton, Metzger said, “The faculty was not kind to him. Because he was a German and a Jew, he had two strikes against him, but the students loved him.”
Einstein wrestled with being a pacifist, while unlocking the secrets of the nuclear age.
“He was a relative pacifist,” Metzger said, “meaning that if you’re going to take away the freedom of the country I’m living in — a Hitler or a Tojo — I’m not going to let you do it if I can stop you somehow.”
He even helped the Navy solve a problem with dud torpedoes during World War II — working at $25 per day. He provided a solution after a half-day, received a check for $25 and sent it back, saying his effort was worth only $12.50.
A Brooklyn native, Metzger has been portraying Einstein since 1978, when he opened in a small Los Angeles theater not long after appearing with Al Pacino in “Dog Day Afternoon.” Pacino was so impressed that he helped bankroll Metzger’s move to off-Broadway, where the New York Times described his Einstein characterization as “strong and genius.” New York-area universities urged him to take the show on the nationwide college circuit.
Metzger has become the go-to-guy for Einstein portrayals in movies and on TV, including “Watchmen,” “A Conversation with Einstein,” “Joe’s Rotten World,” “Everybody Hates Chris” with Chris Rock, “The Super Mario Brothers,” “Newton’s Apple” and “Movie Magic.”
He also has done one-man shows of Ernest Hemingway and Theodore Roosevelt, playing Roosevelt in the Oscar-nominated, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
While in Waverly, Metzger also will entertain and educate students at Waverly-Shell Rock Middle School Wednesday, March 13, with a separate performance of “Close Encounters with Einstein.”
Tickets are $24-$35 and can be purchased at the ticket office in Saemann Student Center, Monday-Friday, noon-4 p.m., online at www.wartburg.edu/artist/ or by calling 319-352-8691. Student tickets (K-12) are $10 per show. Wartburg students can get a free ticket by presenting their ID at the ticket office.
Dinner will be available before the performance at 6 p.m. in the Heritage Room of Saemann Student Center for $18.75 per person. The menu is online at https://www.wartburg.edu/artist/dinners.html. Reservations are required and can be made online or through the ticket office.