Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman (actually Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ; born January 17, 1949 in New York City , † May 16, 1984 in Los Angeles ) was an American entertainer and performance artist . He didn't see himself as a traditional comedian , but instead entertained with “anti-humor” and “absurd performance art”.

Short biography

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman was born on January 17, 1949 in New York City. At the age of 7 he started performing on a small scale. He attended Graham Junior College in Boston and graduated in 1971. Then he devoted himself to his career. He initially appeared in smaller clubs and bars along the east coast as a stand-up comedian.

Kaufman's roles (selection)

Kaufman as "The Foreign Man"

For his appearances, Kaufman invented the character of the "Foreign Man", a fictional person from the island "Caspia", another fictional island in the Caspian Sea, which, according to Kaufman, sank into the sea. The character of the "Foreign Man" was a bit unintelligent and spoke very poor English. To do this, Kaufman moved his eyes like a doll and spoke in a very high-pitched voice with a heavy accent. He began by deliberately performing bad parodies (e.g. by Richard Nixon and Archie Bunker). Another part of his show was the Mighty Mouse song, which he played on a record player and only synchronized a single line with his lips ("Here I come to save the day").

Another example is his parody of US President Jimmy Carter . He told the audience that he was going to parody Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States. Then he said in exactly the same voice: "Hello, I am Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States." ("Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of the United States. Thenk you veddy much.")

Following this parody, Kaufman announced that he would next do a parody of Elvis Presley . Kaufman turned away from the audience, took off his jacket, under which an Elvis costume was hidden, did his hair and let an Elvis medley play. Kaufman imitated Elvis so well that even Elvis loved it.

At one of his shows he was discovered by George Shapiro , who managed Andy from that point on.

Talent scouts from the television station ABC saw Kaufman's appearance as "Foreign Man" and wanted to bring this role into one of their shows.

Latka Gravas

ABC invented the role of Latka Gravas for Kaufman, which corresponded to Kaufman's "Foreign Man". ABC gave Kaufman a multi-year contract and included the role in the sitcom Taxi . The "Foreign Man" became Latka Gravas, conceived as a somewhat unintelligent foreign auto mechanic. It took Shapiro some persuasion to get Kaufman excited about the role, because Kaufman himself didn't like the series or the role itself. He eventually reluctantly agreed to the contract, on condition that Tony Clifton got some guest appearances on the series. The role of Latka made Kaufman popular across the country. Another requirement of Kaufman was that Latka should have a dissociative identity disorder , so that he could represent different identities within the role in order to develop his acting potential. Latka went through almost every phase, from the unintelligent mechanic to the heartthrob.

The role of the latka also brought some disadvantages for Kaufman. During his performances, the audience suddenly only wanted to see Latka. Kaufman was very upset about this and returned the favor to the audience by reading from the novel The Great Gatsby . After a few lines he asked his audience: “Do you want me to read on, or would you prefer to listen to a record?” Of course, the audience called for the record, as they were expecting the Mighty Mouse song. Instead, the record recorded a version of The Great Gatsby spoken by Kaufman . Kaufman's readings - he often read the entire novel - often lasted until dawn and were stressful not only for his audience but also for himself.

Kaufman did not describe himself as a comedian , but tried to make his appearances against the expectations of the audience.

Tony Clifton

In order to really let off steam, Kaufman invented the role of nightclub singer Tony Clifton. Clifton has often appeared in support of Andy Kaufman's show, but has also made his own appearances across the United States. Clifton bullied and insulted his audience and often sang in the wrong notes. Clifton usually picked one bystander whom he insulted and humiliated. None of the rest of the audience knew that this viewer was Kaufman's friend and co-author Bob Zmuda and that all of this was only staged. For a long time, the media did not know that Tony Clifton was played by Kaufman. Clifton was interviewed by the media over and over again on the Kaufman shows when they mentioned Andy's name, Clifton began to rant and denigrate him, and also claimed that he was the real star and Kaufman only used him to get rich become.

Rumors piled up that Kaufman and Clifton were the same person. After that, many promoters only booked Clifton for their shows, as it was much cheaper to get than Kaufman and they thought they would get Kaufman anyway. From this point on, Kaufman no longer slipped into the role of Tony Clifton, but rather Bob Zmuda or Kaufman's younger brother Michael. Kaufman mostly appeared as a guest on Clifton's show and the audience reacted in amazement because they thought Kaufman was on stage as Tony Clifton. Most of the time the show ended with Tony chasing Andy off the stage claiming he was destroying the show.

ABC had given Kaufman a guarantee that Clifton would be allowed to make a guest appearance on the television series "Taxi". However, since Clifton began to riot during the filming, he had to be removed from the studio premises by several security guards.

Wrestling

Kaufman wrestling for a while . However, he did not play against men, only against women. His fights always took place in Memphis . Kaufman followed the same pattern over and over again. He got into the ring and insulted the women in the audience with misogynistic sayings. He wanted to fire up the audience with it, as he himself said. He then offered the woman who would be able to defeat him $ 1,000. Not losing a fight, he called himself the world champion of intersex wrestling. In order to further upset the audience, after a few fights he began to insult all the southerners , which got him even more anger and made him quite unpopular. In another fight, he offered to marry the woman who could defeat him. Lynne Margulies answered from the audience and wanted to fight him. Then professional wrestler Jerry Lawler confronted her, who claimed that Margulies was Kaufman's friend and that this fight was only staged - which was actually true. Lawler wanted to fight Kaufman himself because he had insulted Memphis, the southern states and the entire sport of wrestling. Kaufman then accepted the fight, which took place on April 5, 1982. Lawler injured Kaufman so badly that he had to be taken unconscious to a hospital. Newspaper reports even spoke of a broken neck.

On Andy's friend David Letterman's show (in which Andy appeared with a ruff), Andy apologized to Lawler and said that he was just playing the "bad wrestler". Lawler and Andy started arguing again in front of the camera, and Lawler put Kaufman to the ground. Thereupon Kaufman ran out of the studio, came back a short time later cursing and threw the roughest swear words at Lawler. Finally, he poured hot coffee over Lawler and ran away.

It was not until 1995 that it turned out that Andy and Jerry Lawler's performances were only staged and that the two were good friends. Andy hadn't done anything back then. The dispute at Letterman was also only staged. Jerry Lawler confirmed this in his 2002 biography "It's good to be the king ... sometimes". Lawler and Kaufman had duped the public for many years. The injury Kaufman sustained in the fight against Lawler turned out to be real, according to the doctors in charge at St. Francis Hospital.

Well-known shows from Kaufman

Milk and cookies

Kaufman's greatest dream was to perform at Carnegie Hall . He realized this dream in 1979. At the beginning of the show, he introduced the audience to his grandmother, who was also watching the show. It wasn't until the end of the show that the grandmother got up, tore the mask off her face and turned out to be comedian Robin Williams . The appearance of Eleanor Cody Gould, who faked a heart attack and died on stage, also caused a stir. A doctor in the audience couldn't help her. Kaufman came on stage disguised as an Indian, performed a dance and Gould came back to life. The show had numerous guest stars, even Santa Claus made an appearance there.

Towards the end of the show, Kaufman invited his guests out for milk and cookies. He had specially set up buses to supply visitors with them.

Andy's funhouse

Included in the deal with ABC was a show for Kaufman. Andy's Funhouse was unpopular with ABC. Because Kaufmann allowed himself jokes such as B. to change the vertical image stability of the television picture so that a flicker could be seen on the screens. So many viewers thought that their television was broken.

Although the special was produced in 1977, it didn't go on air until 1979. The best performances by Latka and his Elvis imitation were also included. He also appeared as Howdie Doody .

Andy's Funhouse was a co-production by Kaufman, Bob Zmuda, and Mel Shearer. There were also numerous pieces of music that Kaufman had composed.

The Andy Kaufman Show

In the early 1980s, after his wrestling appearances, Andy received his own television show. Kaufman tried to use technology and innovation on this show; The main components were activities that had to do with his "magic wall" (the BlueWall). So he ran up and down stairs for minutes (which you couldn't see because the whole room was black) and he instructed his audience to fetch certain items from the kitchen so that they could have fun together. Tony Clifton also appeared as a puppet.

Like many of his appearances, he always ended this show with a song he composed and sung himself ("Friendly World" or "One more Song for you").

Appearances on television shows

Kaufman first appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1975 . A total of 16 appearances over the years, until he was voted out of the audience because of his wrestling appearances.

Another fixture on his television appearances was his friend David Letterman's show . There he first appeared more often on the David Letterman Show , followed by a total of eleven appearances in Late Night with David Letterman from 1981 . He was also a welcome guest on the Tonight Show and he appeared on many other US shows.

Kaufman made his actor debut in 1976 in the film God told me to , in which he played a police officer.

Kaufman on Fridays

Kaufman was hired by ABC for their live show Fridays , a show that played live skits. Kaufman's sketch was set in a restaurant with three fellow actors. The plan was for Kaufman to retire to the toilet after a few minutes to smoke marijuana and come back “high” (of course, just played). Kaufman did this, really coming back from the toilets with a slightly fogged look and starting to play his part - until suddenly he broke off and said he couldn't. He couldn't play someone who's smoked a joint. Kaufman's fellow actor Michael Richards (who later played "Kramer" from the Seinfeld television series ) then snatched the text boards that said which text the actors had to read and threw them on Kaufman's table. Richards then doused him with water. As a result, several ABC employees stormed onto the stage to prevent a brawl, which later turned out to be staged.

Kaufman made two other appearances on Fridays - one solo and the other time he hosted the show. Here he again referred to the sketch of his first appearance and spoke to the audience about drug use and its consequences. During the broadcast he also spoke about the fact that he had found his Christian faith and sang the gospel song By and By . This, too, was deliberately misleading the audience.

Early death

Kaufman was a non-smoker and did not drink his life. In addition, his diet was mainly vegetarian. Kaufman practiced transcendental meditation . As their supporter, he always paid attention to a healthy lifestyle.

At the end of 1983 a relatively rare form of lung cancer ( large cell lung cancer ) was diagnosed. Andy had only gone to the doctor as his family expressed concern about his constant coughing fits. From that point until his death, he fought the disease. He trusted conventional medicine and submitted to chemotherapy , but also consulted alternative healers and received an audience with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi . Kaufman's last hope in early 1984 was a clinic in the Philippines that promised patients a miracle cure with the help of psychic surgery. Kaufman spent six weeks in this clinic. His "healer," said Kaufman, allegedly removed much of his illness. Still, Kaufman died of cancer just a few weeks later.

Since he had never informed his audience about his illness, many did not believe the news of death. Many thought it was Kaufman's joke. Numerous callers to radio broadcasts also described his death as staged.

Ironically, Kaufman spoke to Bob Zmuda several times about faking his own death. Before finding out about his illness, he was working on a script in which the main character developed lung cancer and faked her death.

Kaufman himself said that if he faked his death, he would come back 20 years later. On May 16, 2004, friends of his organized a party under the motto: "Welcome Home, Andy". However, Kaufman did not show up.

After Kaufman's death, it was discovered that he had an illegitimate daughter named Maria. She was given up for adoption after she was born and never met her biological father.

Theories about Kaufman's death

With Tony Clifton continuing to perform, it has been speculated that Kaufman was just faking his death. It is said, however, that only Bob Zmuda appears as Tony Clifton. Theories go so far as to claim that Jim Carrey was Andy Kaufman, who faked his death and had plastic surgery. Carrey played the role of Andy Kaufman in The Moon Man. Fans are also amazed that there is no entry in the US Social Security Death Index about Kaufman's death. The moon man leaves the question open: He ends with an appearance by Tony Clifton, where everyone has to believe that Bob Zmuda embodies Tony Clifton. Before the end credits, however, the audience pans in which Bob Zmuda is.

reception

REM processed Kaufman's life in the 1992 song Man on the Moon .

The 1999 film The Moon Man, starring Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, was a monument to Kaufman. This was a failure commercially. Many of Kaufman's friends had guest appearances, but other people did not play themselves. For example, George Shapiro plays a bartender, while the role of George Shapiro is taken on by Danny DeVito , who in turn stood in front of the camera with Kaufman in the sitcom Taxi . In addition to the title song Man on the Moon , the soundtrack includes the specially composed song The Great Beyond by REM

In 2016, German director Maren Ade named Kaufman's Tony Clifton as a role model for her film character Toni Erdmann .

Web links

• Andy Kaufman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Goofing on Elvis - detailed page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manohla Dargismay: The Director of 'Toni Erdmann' Savors Her Moment at Cannes. In: The New York Times , May 22, 2016, accessed December 12, 2016.