Arrow-right Camera
Subscribe now

This column reflects the opinion of the writer. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.

Doug Clark: GU’s Eric ‘Big Ed’ Edelstein making it in Hollywood

Eric Edelstein, aka “Big Ed,” attended Gonzaga University from 1997 to 2001, augmenting his studies by performing standup comedy and doing play-by-play for Zags men’s basketball. Since then, he’s been building an acting career, bit part by bit part. Most recently, he appears in a horror movie, “Green Room.” (A24 Films)

It had been several years since I last saw Big Ed. Then a few days ago I turned the Sony on to HBO just in time to watch my friend being munched by a dinosaur.

“Just saw ‘Jurassic World,’ ” I wrote to Big Ed in a text. “Best death EVER!!!”

And the saga of Eric Edelstein continues.

That’s his real name. Big Ed? That’s the sobriquet he assumed as a Gonzaga University student from 1997 to 2001.

Edelstein augmented his studies performing standup comedy in clubs with pals Mike Nilson and Tony Hazel, making hilarious FM radio appearances for 93.7 “The Cat,” and doing play-by-play for the mighty Zags men’s basketball.

Anyone with eyes could see that there was something special about this large, rubber-lipped goofball who could do spot-on impressions of celebrities like the Crocodile Hunter and basketball great Bill Walton.

As one of his inner circle of fans, I’m proud to say that I encouraged Edelstein to head for Hollywood after graduation.

“You know your fingerprints are all over this,” he told me. “But if I was cleaning bathrooms at a peep show that would be on you as well.”

As corny as it sounds, Edelstein is living proof about the power of following your dreams.

With an important footnote: You also have to work like hell, persevere through the bleakest of times and have an enormous belief in yourself.

Edelstein landed in Hollywood just like any other pie-eyed dreamer. His first apartment was so cramped that the kitchen was a George Foreman grill perched atop his toilet.

Freshly fired from a job at Starbucks in 2003, Edelstein was suddenly offered a good job at a Spokane radio station. Before deciding to bail he decided to call home. To their credit his parents, Dan and Mary Ann, told him to stick and fight.

Edelstein, now 39, followed their advice.

He made connections with other talented people, found an agent and an acting coach and attends auditions two to five times a week.

Slowly, all the effort started paying off with better and better parts in TV shows and movies.

Today he does regular voice-over work for not one, but two animated Cartoon Network shows.

Edelstein is the voice of Grizzly in “We Bare Bears,” which also features comedian Patton Oswald. He also plays Chad in the “Clarence” series.

Edelstein just finished filming a part in the upcoming “Twin Peaks” television series.

But if you want current proof head to the nearest theater and buy a ticket to “Green Room,” a horror/thriller flick that opened in Spokane last week.

The tale of a hapless punk band that accidentally finds itself in a bloody war with racists is admittedly not for the weak of heart. Even so, the movie is a brilliant frightfest.

And there’s Edelstein, acting his butt off. He has a pivotal plot-turning part as Big Justin, the main security thug for the head neo-Nazi, played by the great Patrick Stewart.

Edelstein performs his part with perfect glowering menace, waving around a revolver about the size of a toaster.

“It was heavy,” he said of the handgun. “You don’t want your hand to shake. I had to show I was comfortable with it.”

What he loved about the part was that it came with juicy dialogue. Usually the heavy doesn’t say much, he said, adding, “I never went to acting school. But I try to get better each time.”

Working alongside industry legends like Stewart and Don Cheadle and Larry David, he said, has been a blast.

“The coolest part of the job has been finding out that the really great people I’ve met are really great.”

Another benefit to acting, he added, is getting paid to see the globe.

Edelstein, for example, traveled to Morocco where he spent six weeks filming “The Hills Have Eyes 2,” admittedly a stinker but good fun all the same.

Filming in Puerto Rico not long ago, Edelstein said he brought home a puppy, Chupie, that he found wandering along a beach.

Edelstein proudly notes that he has also appeared in episodes of Comedy Central’s “Drunk History,” perhaps the wackiest show on cable. The series describes itself as a “liquored-up narration of our nation’s history.”

“It’s so, so funny,” Edelstein said. “You wake up the next morning wondering, ‘Did I do that?’ ”

Edelstein said his real highlight came last October when he married Jess Rona. Someday, he said, he’d love to live half the year in the city that encouraged him.

“Spokane, there’s nothing like it. It’s so special to me.”

Ever humble and gracious, Edelstein finished our conversation by sharing the credit for his success.

“So many people in Spokane gave me wings and the confidence to move down here.

“My friends on the basketball team, their parents, my parents … and a town where I felt accepted and loved.

“It really is a win for the team.”

Doug Clark can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by email at dougc@spokesman.com.

More from this author