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Andy Kaufman

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Andy Kaufman
Andy Kaufman as Latka Gravas
Born
Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman
Other namesTony Clifton
Height6 ft 0 in (183 cm)

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. Though many refer to him as a comedian, Kaufman did not self-identify as one[1]. He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood; instead, he was a practitioner of anti-humor or dada absurdist performance art.

Biography

Kaufman was born in New York City on January 17, 1949 into a Jewish family, the first son of Stanley and Janice Kaufman. He grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, and began performing at the age of 7. He attended the now defunct two-year Grahm Junior College[2] in Boston, graduating in 1971. After leaving college he began performing stand-up comedy at various small clubs along the East coast.

Career highlights

"Foreign Man"

File:156702.kaufman.jpg
Andy Kaufman as Elvis, on a cover of a video tape

Kaufman first caught major attention with a character known as "Foreign Man". Foreign Man, who claimed to be from "Caspiar" (a fictional island in the Caspian Sea), would appear on the stage of comedy clubs and lip-synch one line — "Here I come to save the day" — from the theme from "Mighty Mouse", tell a few lame jokes, and perform a number of bad impersonations (Archie Bunker, Richard Nixon, etc).

For example, he might say in a phony accent, "I would like to imitate Meester Carter, de President of de United States." He would then say in the same voice, "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of de United States. Thenk you veddy much." The audience would be torn between outrage at seeing such a bad act, and sympathy for the hapless entertainer, who would cry on stage once heckled enough. At that point, Foreign Man would announce "And now I would like to imitate the Elvis Presley," turn around, take off his jacket, slick his hair back, and launch into an Elvis Presley impersonation so good that Elvis Presley himself described it as his favorite.[3]

The audience would realize they had been tricked, which became a trademark of Kaufman's comedy.

"Latka"

Main article: Latka Gravas

Kaufman reprised a version of the Foreign Man character, now named Latka[4] Gravas, for ABC's Taxi sitcom, appearing in 114 episodes from 1978 to 1983.[5] The producers of Taxi had seen Andy's Foreign Man act and, according to producer Ed Weinberger, "We weren't considering Andy for the show before we saw him. Then we wrote a part for him." Bob Zmuda confirms this: "They basically were buying Andy's Foreign Man character for the Taxi character Latka."[6] Andy's long-time manager George Shapiro encouraged Andy to take the gig. "My feeling was that it would be a nice boost for his career... and he would be playing a character that he knew very well, the Foreign Man - this particular character speaks no English in Taxi and his name is Latka Gravas."[7]

Kaufman hated sitcoms and was not thrilled with the idea of being on one. In order to allow Kaufman to demonstrate some comedic range, his character was given multiple personality disorder, which allowed Kaufman to randomly portray other characters. In one episode, Kaufman's character came down with a condition which made him act like Alex Reiger, the main character played by Judd Hirsch. Another such recurring character played by Kaufman was the womanizing "Vic Ferrari".

Taxi was an award-winning show with a large audience and Kaufman was widely recognized as Latka. On some occasions, audiences would show up to one of Kaufman's stage performances expecting to see him perform as Latka, and heckling him with demands when he did not. Kaufman would punish these audiences with the announcement that he was going to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to them. The audience would laugh at this, not realizing that he was serious and would proceed to read the book to them, continuing despite audience members' departure.

Latka's wife in the series was named Simka, who was portrayed by comic actress Carol Kane.

"Tony Clifton"

Main article: Tony Clifton
File:Tony clifton.jpg
Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman as "Tony Clifton" in Man on the Moon

Another well-known Kaufman character is Tony Clifton, an abusive lounge singer who began opening for Kaufman at comedy clubs and eventually even performed concerts on his own around the country. Sometimes it was Kaufman performing as Clifton, sometimes it was his brother Michael or his friend Bob Zmuda. For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act, with the mood turning ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up. Kaufman, Clifton insisted, was attempting to ruin Clifton's "good name" in order to make money and get famous.

As a requirement for Kaufman accepting the offer to star on Taxi, he insisted that "Clifton" be hired for a guest role on the show as if he were a real person, not a character. After throwing a tantrum on the set, Clifton was fired and escorted off of the studio lot by security guards. Much to Kaufman's delight, this incident was reported in the local newspapers.

Carnegie Hall "milk and cookies" show

At the beginning of an April 1979 performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, Kaufman invited his "grandmother" to watch the show from a chair he had placed at the side of the stage. At the end of the show, she stood up, took her mask off and revealed to the audience that she was actually comedian Robin Williams in disguise. Kaufman also had an elderly woman (named Eleanor Cody Gould) appearing to have a heart attack and dying on stage, after which he reappeared on stage wearing a Native American headdress and performed a dance over her body, seeming to revive her.

The performance is most famous for Kaufman ending the show by actually taking the entire audience, in 35 buses, out for milk and cookies. He invited anyone interested to meet him on the Staten Island Ferry the next morning, where the show continued.

This kind of performance art—not stand-up comedy—is a hallmark of Kaufman's career.

Andy's Funhouse

Also part of the Taxi deal with ABC was to give Kaufman a television "special". He came up with Andy's Funhouse, based on an old routine he had developed while in college. The special was taped in 1977 but did not air until August 1979, on ABC.[8] It featured most of Andy's famous gags, including Foreign Man/Latka and his Elvis Presley impersonation, as well as a host of unique segments (including a special appearance by children's television character Howdy Doody and the "Has-been Corner"). There also was a segment that included fake television screen static as part of the gag, which ABC executives were not comfortable with as they thought viewers would think that ABC was having broadcast trouble and would change the channel - which was the comic element Kaufman wanted to present.

Andy's Funhouse was written by Kaufman, Zmuda, and Mel Sherer, with music by Kaufman. Andy considered this perhaps his greatest work.[citation needed]

The Fridays incident

In 1981, Kaufman made three appearances[9] on Fridays, a variety show on ABC that was similar to SNL. Kaufman's first appearance on the show proved to be memorable. During a sketch about four people out on a dinner date who excuse themselves to the restroom to smoke marijuana, Kaufman broke character and refused to say his lines.

The other comedians were embarrassed by the position that Kaufman had put them in on a live television show. In response, Michael Richards walked off camera and returned with a set of cue cards and dumped them on the table in front of Kaufman. Andy responded by splashing Richards with water. Show emcee, comedian Jack Burns stormed onto the stage, leading to a brawl on camera before the show finally cut away to commercial. It was later revealed that this incident was a practical joke, and not all the actors were aware of this, although Kaufman added to the confusion by denying this.

Regardless, Kaufman appeared the following week in a videotaped apology to the home viewers. Later that year, Kaufman returned to host Fridays. At one point in the show, he invited a Lawrence Welk Show gospel and standards singer, Kathie Sullivan, on stage to sing a few gospel songs with him and announced that the two were engaged to be married, then talked to the audience about his newfound faith in Jesus. It was also a hoax.

"Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion"

Kaufman grew up admiring professional wrestlers and the world that they perform in. For a brief time, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World". He offered $1,000 reward to any woman who could pin him.

Later, after a challenge from professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kaufman would step into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit) with a man - Lawler himself. Lawler's ongoing feud with Kaufman included an apparent broken neck for Kaufman as a result of a piledriver by Lawler, and a famous on-air fight on a 1982 episode of the Late Night with David Letterman television show. After that, for some time Kaufman appeared everywhere wearing a neck brace, insisting that his injuries were real. Kaufman would continue to defend the intergender championship in the Mid-South Coliseum, and offered an extra prize, other than the $1,000.00, that if he was pinned, the woman who pinned him would get to marry him and that he (Kaufman) would shave his head bald as well.

Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were later revealed to have been staged, or a "work", as the two were actually friends. The truth about it being a work was kept secret for more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, until the Emmy nominated documentary A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman aired on NBC in 1995. Coincidentally, Jim Carrey (who also shares Kaufman´s birthday) is the one who reveals the secret, and would later go on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon. In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer, Lawler claimed he had improvised during their first match and the Letterman incident. Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography "It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes," Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet. He also said that Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was the comedian's own idea.

Appearances

Kaufman made a name for himself as a guest on NBC's Saturday Night Live, starting with the inaugural 11 October 1975 show, and making 15 appearances in all.[10] He would do routines from his comedy act, such as the Mighty Mouse Foreign Man character, the Elvis impersonation, etc. After he angered the audience with his female wrestling routine, the SNL audience voted to ban Kaufman from the show for good, though it was never made clear whether or not this was a gag. Kaufman did however make one last pre-taped appearance on the show in January 1983 to acknowledge the vote, during which he said that he would honor the audience's decision and stay off the show.

Kaufman made a number of appearances on the daytime The David Letterman Show in 1980, and eleven appearances on Late Night with David Letterman in 1982-1983[11], including one where he claimed to be homeless and begged the audience for money and one where he talked about his adopted children, who turned out to be three full grown African American men.

He also appeared four times on the Tonight Show[12] from 1976-1978, twice on The Midnight Special (in 1972 and 1981)[13], twice on The Merv Griffin Show (1979-1980)[14], and once, in 1978 as a participant, on The Dating Game[15]. He also made numerous guest spots on other television programs hosted by or starring celebrities like Dick Van Dyke, Dinah Shore, Rodney Dangerfield, Cher, Dean Martin, Redd Foxx, Mike Douglas, Dick Clark, and Joe Franklin.[16]

He appeared in his first theatrical film God Told Me To in 1976, where he portrayed a murderous policeman. He also appeared in several others, including as a televangelist in the 1980 film In God We Tru$t.

Laurie Anderson worked alongside Andy Kaufman for a time in the 1970s, acting as a sort of straight woman in a number of his Manhattan and Coney Island performances. One of these performances included getting on a ride that people stand in and get spun around. After everyone was strapped in Kaufman would start saying how he did not want to be on the ride in a panicked tone and eventually cry. Anderson later described these performances in her 1995 album The Ugly One with the Jewels.

Death

Kaufman died in Los Angeles on May 16, 1984 of renal failure, caused by metastasized large-cell carcinoma, a rare kind of lung cancer, and was interred in the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York (Long Island). He was initially diagnosed with the disease in December 1983, after several family members at a Thanksgiving dinner that year were growing concerned over his persistent coughing for the past month. Despite his doctor's diagnosis that there was no hope for him to recover, he was committed to fighting the disease from his diagnosis until his death. Despite massive amounts of emergency radiotherapy, the cancer had by then rapidly spread. His last stand for medical therapy was "psychic surgery", performed in Baguio, Philippines in March, 1984.

Because he kept the true nature of his health a secret—almost until the day he died—fans have, over the years, doubted Kaufman's death, thinking that he staged it as the ultimate Andy Kaufman stunt. Rumors that Kaufman was still alive go as far back as May 17, 1984 (the day after he died), when a caller phoned the Howard Stern radio show on WNBC in New York to announce that Kaufman's death was a hoax. Friends and family said that Andy almost never smoked, didn't drink regularly, and was also a vegetarian. At the time, lung cancer was considered very rare for non-smokers to contract, and it is also rare in people under the age of 50. Kaufman himself even said that if he were to fake his death, he would return 20 years later. On May 16, 2004, his surviving friends threw a 'Welcome Home Andy' party for him. But Andy Kaufman was not personally in attendance.

It was only after Kaufman's death that it was revealed he had a daughter, Maria, who was given up for adoption. She never knew her biological father.

Claims of resurfacing

Andy Kaufman allegedly told many people—including Bob Zmuda—that he wished to fake his own death prior to his actual death. This has caused some fans to believe Kaufman is still alive. A screenplay Kaufman was working on at the time of his death was about a character who claimed to have lung cancer and faked his death.

Andy lost his hair around the time of his death. This was believed to be due to cancer treatment; however, and according to the website AndykaufmanLives.com, Andy's girlfriend at the time later claimed to have shaved his head with a razor. Andy's sister also commented after his death that she found it odd that the doctor who diagnosed Andy with cancer had been wearing tennis shoes, sparking debate amongst fans as to whether Andy had paid off an actor friend to pose as a doctor.

There are many such rumors involving Andy's "hoax" death, and the 1999 Jim Carrey film Man on the Moon even references these rumors by including an open ending in which Andy may or may not still be alive. Bob Zmuda has acknowledged "death hoax" rumors over the years quite tongue-in-cheek, admitting that Andy and he had discussed faking his death at times and that Andy seemed "obsessed with the idea," but he maintains the opinion that Andy truly did die and his death was not faked. Zmuda claims he doesn't think Andy would be cruel enough to go this long without making contact with his family if he were still alive. But he also acknowledged the idea that Kaufman could have faked his death in 1984 and died later of some other cause.

An example of the kind of hoax or joke that has been perpetuated regarding Andy Kaufman's death is a blog that surfaced in 2004, supposedly chronicling Kaufman's return[17]. The blog's author was revealed to be Steve Rocco (previously suggested by the OC Weekly to be Kaufman himself[18]) when a press release claiming to have been issued by Andy's friends and family—among them, Bob Zmuda—was apparently issued by Rocco. Rocco, who manages numerous websites affiliated with Kaufman, and uses numerous aliases on these sites, claims to be in possession of evidence proving once and for all that Kaufman is alive. He has posted some of this evidence—including personal photographs from Kaufman's family album—online. This has led some fans to believe that Rocco is working for Bob Zmuda (who could have some of Kaufman's personal items) and that the website AndyKaufmanLives.com is a "game" of sorts set up to honor Andy and provide his fans with a source of entertainment and as an elaborate gag in honor of the practical jokes he used to play. There are many other clues and "in-jokes" on AndyKaufmanLives.com, some of which are detailed on the OC Weekly website.[19]

Trivia

Filmography

File:GodToldMeToKaufman.JPG
Andy Kaufman (right) in the film God Told Me To

Acting

Writing

Composing

Producing

Playing himself

Notable TV guest appearances

Notes and references

  1. ^ He is quoted in The New York Times as saying:

    "I am not a comic, I have never told a joke....The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him....My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can. I can manipulate people's reactions. There are different kinds of laughter. Gut laughter is where you don't have a choice, you've got to laugh. Gut laughter doesn't come from the intellect. And it's much harder for me to evoke now, because I'm known. They say, 'Oh wow, Andy Kaufman, he's a really funny guy.' But I'm not trying to be funny. I just want to play with their heads."
  2. ^ See their web page.
  3. ^ Elvis bio on IMDB
  4. ^ The name "Latka" derives from "latkas" which are fried potato pancakes, commonly eaten in celebration of the Jewish holiday Chanukah.
  5. ^ Taxi
  6. ^ "Andy Kaufman Oral History", interviews with Don Steinberg, originally published in short form in GQ Magazine, December 1999.
  7. ^ Quoted in Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman by Bill Zehme (2001), p. 6.
  8. ^ Andy's Funhouse
  9. ^ Kaufman on Fridays.
  10. ^ Kaufman on SNL
  11. ^ Late Night with David Letterman
  12. ^ Tonight Show
  13. ^ Midnight Special
  14. ^ Merv Griffin Show
  15. ^ The Dating Game
  16. ^ guest appearances.
  17. ^ Andy Kaufman Returns blog
  18. ^ The OC Weekly has claimed that Rocco, currently a reclusive school board trustee on the Orange Unified School District, is Andy Kaufman. See OC Weekly, "Will The Real Steve Rocco Please Stand Up?"
  19. ^ OC Weekly website discussing the in-jokes on andykaufmanlives.com
  20. ^ IMDB poll on celebrities faking their own deaths

Further reading

  • Bill Zehme (2001), Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman, Delta Books. ISBN 0385333722

External links

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