One look at John Travolta strutting his stuff in “Grease,” and 11-year-old Eddie Burga knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up. That guy up on the screen — an entertainer you couldn’t take your eyes off, someone who made you smile and laugh and have a good time.
That was his dream. His reality, at 50, was working for a plumbing company digging ditches to empty septic tanks. Nobody had any “Saturday Night Fever” dreams for that guy.
He was losing faith, but he never gave up, even at his lowest. He just needed a break. He never realized it would arrive in his own car. Eddie the plumber became Disco Uber Eddie, the rock star of local Uber drivers.
He appears nightly all over the city in his black, pinstriped 2021 Toyota Corolla with a disco ball and light show inside, and all the karaoke you can handle. His customer ratings are 5-Star, and he’s in demand.
“I always wanted to be a rock star,” he said Wednesday night, April 19, on his way to Hollywood with his audience of four singing disco songs with him. “In this car, I am a rock star.”
It’s good to see her older brother smiling again, said Veronica Moskowitz. It’s been awhile.
“Of the six of us, Eddie was the funny one who would never grow up,” she said. “His whole goal in life has been to make people smile and be happy. That’s his thing. He doesn’t do well with mean people.”
It’s been tough on him all these years watching his siblings become successful in their careers, and buy new homes and cars while he was just getting by in odd jobs.
“He was so unhappy,” Veronica said. “We told him, ‘While you’re trying to figure out what you really want to do, why not do Uber? Everybody else does.’”
So, after digging ditches during the day, Eddie became an Uber driver at night. He didn’t like the job his first few weeks. Driving people around in silence wasn’t entertaining. He had more to offer than just getting them to the airport or the Hollywood…
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