Lincoln inspires second career

$50-$75. Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 1025 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. 770-955-1408, nwuuc.org.

There are few success stories more inspiring than the life of Abraham Lincoln, and it’s hard to imagine a better way to hear that tale than listening to the man himself tell it.

That's the theory behind the performances of Gene Griessman. For 20 years, the Atlanta resident has performed around the world as Lincoln to illustrate the principles of success: He brings his one-man show to the Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Sandy Springs on Sunday.

Griessman is a former Georgia Tech sociology professor who, he said, “got interested in what makes people highly successful.”

Griessman hosted a television show on TBS called “Up Close” for which he interviewed celebrities, politicians and other successful people, and he eventually wrote a book called “The Achievement Factors.” He soon started a career speaking at conventions about people’s attitudes that contribute to success.

“I was talking about the subject, but I thought, ‘Why don’t I create a one-man play about some historical figure who embodies the principles of high achievement I’ve been speaking about?’ So I came up with Lincoln,” he said. “Lincoln is a way of illustrating what it takes to be successful.”

“Lots of people defend their lack of success because they don’t have many advantages,” Griessman said. “In the Lincoln story, all of that is set aside. Lincoln was born with no money. He was born with no connections. He only went to school one year; he never went to college. He was not a handsome guy. He was ungainly and awkward. The message of Lincoln is: If he can do it, anybody can. I think that’s the reason he’s our most admired president.”

Though Griessman was already earning thousands of dollars per speech on the lecture circuit, he started doing his Lincoln for free at retirement homes. “I think DeKalb College was the first to pay me to do a Lincoln,” he said. “I was thrilled that I was starting this other track.”

Capturing the look of Lincoln wasn’t difficult: Griessman began by renting a costume from a local theatrical supply store and hiring a wig maker to design a beard. Eventually, he bought his own Lincoln replica suit and grew a beard like Lincoln’s.

But the voice proved to be more of a challenge. “When I first began doing the program, I affected a falsetto, high-pitched voice,” he said. “That turned out to be a distraction. People were paying so much attention to the falsetto voice they were missing the message.”

Now, Griessman speaks in his own baritone voice, with a mention early in the show that Lincoln’s actual speaking voice was very different. Strangely enough, Griessman’s voice tends to be closer to how people imagine Lincoln speaking than what 19th-century accounts describe as a nasally, high tenor voice.

“Once after one of my performances a woman came up to me and said, ‘You sound just like Lincoln,’ ” he said.

Griessman eventually took early retirement to devote himself to his Lincoln performances. “It became a whole new career,” he said.

He’s written three books about Lincoln and recently completed a play, “Lincoln’s Last Debate.” Over the past 20 years, he’s performed at the Lincoln Memorial; the Carter Library; twice at Ford’s Theater in Washington, where Lincoln was shot; and even on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. His largest audience was at a convention at the Georgia Dome in front of 25,000. Griessman now performs as Lincoln about twice a month at fundraisers, conventions and leadership workshops.

“I’ve done it so many times, I actually feel like I’ve become Lincoln,” Griessman said. “It’s sort of uncanny for me.”

For the show, Griessman plays Lincoln returning to Earth to share what he learned about achievement and success during his life. The text is partly fictional and partly composed of quotes from Lincoln’s speeches and letters. During the show, Griessman recites the Gettysburg Address and excerpts from the first and second inaugural addresses.

Griessman has nothing but praise for others who take on the role of Lincoln.

“Daniel Day Lewis is the best movie Lincoln ever,” Griessman said of the actor’s Oscar-winning performance in the recent film by Steven Spielberg. “A buddy of mine contacted me after seeing the Spielberg movie and said, ‘I cannot believe an actor the stature of Daniel Day Lewis would stoop to impersonating you.’ ”