"While all the other kids
were out playing ball and stuff, I used to stay in my room and
imagine that there was a camera in the wall. And I used to really
believe that I was putting on a television show and that it was
going out to somewhere in the world."-Andy
On January 17, 1949, in New York,
Andy Kaufman was born to Stanley and Janice Kaufman. He wad their
first son. It is said that even when he was in a crib, he would
reach to the knobs of a phonograph. In 1953, Andy began to create
"broadcasts" from his room. He would have a whole lineup
of programs that he would act out himself.
In 1960, Andy discovered Elvis
Presley, who he would later impersonate in his "Foreign Man
act.
TEEN
YEARS:
Andy went through junior high
and high school, as the entertainer he was. However upon leaving
high school, he began to hang around the wrong crowd. Andy began
to drink heavily, and do drugs. Andy had a one was ticket to nowhere,
as most people who experiment with drugs do. But Andy was something
special, and I don't think being a loser was what destiny had
in store for him.
ANDY
BEGINS HIS CAREER:
"I just want real reactions.
I want people to laugh from the gut, be sad from the gut-or get
angry from the gut."-Andy
In 1968, Andy enrolled into Boston's
Graham Junior College, to study television and radio. Also later
on in that year, Andy discovers Transcendental Meditation (TM).
This helps him perform in front of large audiences. He begins
to meditate two time a day, and completely drops his drinking,
and drugs.
In 1969, Andy hitchhiked to Las
Vegas to meet Elvis. He his in the kitchen of the Las Vegas Hilton.
When he finally met Elvis, he showed him a novel he had written
about him. Elvis simply patted his shoulder.
In 1971, Budd Friedman discovered
Andy performing at My Father's Place, a club in Long Island. Budd
invites him to be a part of his show at Improvisation (Improv).
Andy began telling people he wasn't a comedian. Andy begins his
"schtick" of pulling the envelope. He would act as "Foreign
Man" a foreign comedian with VERY bad jokes and imitations.
But after about two bad imitations, he would do "The Elbis
Presley". Andy would blow the audience away with his impersonation.
Elvis later on said it was his favorite. Andy would also sing
songs, read the Great Gatsby aloud, or sleep through the entire
show.
In 1972, he had his first real
"gig". He opened up for the Temptations in a club in
Ft. Lauderdale. The club owners immediately fired him. The following
year, back at the Improv, Andy met Bob Zmuda. Zmuda who had just
seen his act, left the club and saw Andy packing congas, and other
accessories into his car, he looked like he was in pain, so Zmuda
went over and out it all in for him. Andy then stood up and said
"Sucker." Andy had fooled Zmuda. Andy and Bob then began
a lifelong friendship.
ANDY'S
CAREER BEGINS TO RISE:
"What's real? What's not?
That's what I do in my act, test how other people deal with reality."-Andy
In 1974, Andy made his first
television appearance on "The Dean Martin Comedy Hour".
The following year an NBC exec, saw his act and told him to audition
for a new show called "Saturday Night Live". On October
11th 1975, Andy premiered on SNL, and for his act he lip-synched
to the "Mighty Mouse Theme", but not the whole song,
just "Here I come to save the day!". Andy would return
for 13 more episodes throughout the years.
In 1976, Andy met Carl Reiner
and Dick Van Dyke. Andy would return to appear in some of Dick
Van Dyke's shows. Carl Reiner also told Andy he should have his
nephew, George Shapiro be his manager. A couple of month's after,
Shapiro is his new manager.
The following year, Andy stars
in a show called Stck Around. He played a robotic helper. The
show didn't last very long, and was canceled. Between 1976 and
77, Andy meets up with Zmuda, and they begin to create The Andy
Kaufman Special, later named Uncle Andy's Funhouse. Also that
year, Andy manages to get Tony Clifton to open for his show at
the Comedy Store. Tony Clifton was a nasally voiced, fat, Las
Vegas lounge singer. He was rude, obnoxious, and annoying. Now,
the thing is Andy WAS Tony Clifton. Andy of course would always
deny it, and so he actually appeared on stage with Tony once.That
Tony was played by Bob Zmuda, who would also be Tony in some shows.
That year he also began to challenge
women to wrestle him, that would lead to a whole other career,
which we'll get to later.
ANDY
IS ON TOP OF THE WORLD:
"I try to please people,
to give them a good time, but I refuse to make my act conform
to traditional show-biz standards of entertainment. There's a
little voice that says, 'Oh, no, you can't do that, that's breaking
all the rules.' That's the voice of show business. Then this other
little voice says, 'Try it.' And most of the time, when the voice
comes on and says, 'No,' that's the time it works."-Andy
In 1978, producers for a new
show "Taxi" saw Andy and Tony at the Comedy Store. They
enjoyed "Foreign Man" and invited him to join the cast.
Andy however believed sitcoms were the lowest form of entertainment.
He truly didn't want to join. But promises of fame and money lured
him in. But not without his own terms. ABC would have to bankroll
his Andy Kaufman Special, have two guest spots for Tony Clifton,
and a parking space for Tony. ABC knew Andy would be a hot commodity
to the show, so they agreed. Andy was now Latka Gravas, a mechanic
based on "Foreign Man". However, things didn't go so
smoothly. Andy's special was rejected by ABC for not following
technical requirements, Andy had fake technical difficulties in
the show, that looked like the viewer's television was going bad.
ABC wouldn't air it until 1979. Another problem was Andy's constant
talk of quitting Taxi, he didn't enjoy it at all.
While Andy was on "vacation"
in San Fransisco, Tony showed up for his guest spot with two hookers.
However Tony refused to read the script or play by the rules.
Tony would sing and tap dance, and not rehearse at all. The cast
got fed up and so did the director. So Tony was fired. Tony began
to cuss and throw things about. Security was then brought in and
Tony was kicked of the studio lot.
Andy had now gained popularity
and had tons of fan mail. He would actually respond to every single
fan of his. Especially, if they were an attractive female with
a picture. Andy would actually go and visit those lovely ladies,
or give them a backstage pass to his dressing room. Let's just
say Andy was a "ladies man."
Andy was later nominated the
following year for a Golden Globe. That same year he began a career
that would make people hate him and get him less jobs.
ANDY'S
HIGH POINT AND WRESTLING DAYS:
"Whenever I play a role,
whether it's good or bad, an evil person or nice person, I believe
in being a purist and going all the way with the role. If I'm
going to be a villainous wrestler, I believe in going all the
way with it and not breaking character and not giving away to
the audience that I'm playing a role. I believe in playing it
straight to the hilt."-Andy
Andy began his career as Inter
Gender Wrestling Champion of the World. He challenged women in
the Comedy Store to pin his shoulders down and they would receive
1,000 dollars. Andy stated that it wasn't a comedy act, but that
he was serious. Andy would get the women to hate him by playing
the bad guy, and insulting females. Andy never wrestled men though,
his reason :I would lose. Andy never got pinned by a female.
In April of 79, Andy played Carnegie
Hall, a dream of his for awhile. In the show he did all of his
usual routines and brought an old woman back from the dead. Robin
Williams also made an appearance playing Andy's grandmother. At
the end of the concert Andy took the entire audience out for milk
and cookies. That year ABC finally aired his special.
In 1980 Andy starred in the movie
"In God We Tru$t". He played a televangelist. Andy actually
went out and became one, babbling on and on, on street corners.
The following year he began to work as a bus boy at Jerry's Famous
Deli in Studio City, California. Andy said his reasons for doing
it were so that he would never lose touch that he was an ordinary
person.
In 1981, Tony Clifton made his
first television debut on The Midnight Special. That same year
Andy was invited to host a new show "Fridays", an imitation
of SNL. Andy did it, only because it was live. On the skit he
starred in, the different actors were at a restaurant, and each
would go into the bathroom and get high. Andy had pointed out
that he didn't do drug humor or make light of them. When it was
Andy's turn to return to the table after getting high, he began
his line and then stopped. The actors were puzzled. But they kept
on acting. Andy then just said he couldn't do it. Mind you this
was going out live. Michael Richards (AKA Kramer on Seinfeld)
stood up and grabbed the cue cards, he walked back to the table
and dropped them right in front of Andy. Andy then replied "You
didn't have to do that." He took his glass of water and threw
it in Richard's face. Then all hell broke loose on national television,
Jack Burns the director walked out and begins to brawl with Kaufman.
The show then went to a commercial break and was revealed to be
planned to the audience. Andy had pulled one over us again, on
national TV.
Fridays then aired an apology
tape by Andy, in which he talks about his wife and kids leaving
him and how his life sucked. Of course Andy didn't have any wife
or kids.
In 1981, Andy began filming of
My Breakfast With Blassie. It was a spoof of My Dinner With Andre.
Classy Fred Blassie was an old time wrestling idol of Andy's and
he gladly starred in the film. There he met Lynne Margulies, the
woman Andy fell in love with.
That same year Andy starred with
Bernadette Peters in "Heartbeeps" a story of two robots
in love. The movie failed miserably in the box office.
In 1982 Andy made his first appearance
on the David Letterman Morning Show. He challenged an author of
an Elvis biography to a wrestling match, for his non complimentary
views on "The King".
In April of that year Jerry Lawler
challenged Andy to a wrestling match. Andy had continuously ridiculed
the residents of Memphis, Tennessee. Andy wrestles Lawler, and
ends up pile driving him to the ground. Andy is severely injured
and forced to wear a neck brace, or so we thought. A few weeks
later they both appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. Lawler
ended up getting out of his seat and smacking Andy out of it.
Andy began to yell and cuss at Lawler and he threw Letterman's
coffee on him. Andy then ran out. Turns out Andy and Jerry were
in it all the time, and actually got along. However, Andy's wrestling
career cost him, he was voted off SNL by viewers.
The following year Lynne Marguiles
began to make I'm From Hollywood, a documentary look at Andy's
wrestling and his hatred for Lawler. It can be seen on Comedy
Central quite a bit.
ANDY'S
FINAL DAYS:
"I never told a joke in
my life."-Andy
On Thanksgiving of 83, Andy's
family noticed Andy was coughing profusely and getting very sick.
After many medical tests Andy was told he had lung cancer. Andy
hadn't smoked since high school. But the doctor's said it was
possible to contract it through second hand smoke. Andy only had
months to live. Andy told his friends and at first they couldn't
believe it. Andy had joked around about faking his death before.
But it was very true. He didn't tell his parents until February.
The family was very distraught. Andy went through chemotherapy
and showed up at the premiere of My Breakfast With Blassie with
a mohawk, results of the chemo. Andy searched for ways of healing
even though the cancer was incurable. Andy tried crystals and
he even went to the Philippines for a miracle cure. While he was
there his condition got better, but when he returned to America
it all started to go very bad again.
Andy was forced to be in a wheelchair,
and people who saw him would tell him he had gone too far this
time.
On May 16, 1984, Andy Kaufman
was pronounced dead at Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
AFTERMATH:
A funeral for Andy's close friends
and relatives was held. Fred Blassie sat in the front pew, a request
by Andy. Mourners actually poked his body in the casket, thinking
he might be pulling one again.
The Comedy Store also had a memorial
ceremony in which they played Andy singing "This Friendly
World".
Tony Clifton returned a year
after his death, everyone expected Andy, but they got Tony. Tony
continues to circuit the clubs and recently attacked Jim Carrey.
In 1995, A Comedy Salute to Andy
Kaufman aired and was nominated for an Emmy.
Man on the Moon, a biographical
account of Andy's life, was recently released starring Jim Carrey,
in an amazing portrayal of Andy.
CONCLUSION:
Some believe Andy is still alive,
hiding somewhere, waiting to surprise us when we don't know it.
I don't believe it's true, but only one man would be able to pull
it off, Andy Kaufman.
Andy was said to have died with
one last gasp and with his eyes open. When the nurse closed his
eyes the opened themselves again. Andy even in death, never gave
up.
