Tony Clifton was an annoying,
obnoxious, and rude Vegas lounge singer. While Andy was a loveable
guy, Tony was his opposite. A way for Andy to be a bad guy once
in a while. Andy said he met Tony in Vegas in 1969 and decided
to imitate him. Though Andy really made up Tony and acted as him,
his best friend Bob Zmuda would be Tony in the majority of acts.
Tony was obsessed with hookers, bikers, and choppers. Tony would
usually get booed off the stage, and have things thrown at him.
He almost got killed by an angry audience member once. Tony also
got kicked off the ABC studio lot. Tony continues to perform even
after Andy's death.
ELVIS
As "Foreign Man", Andy
would do several bad imitations. His very last would always be
Elvis, in which he would blow the audience away. Andy's impression
of Elvis is uncanny and remarkable. His moves and voice are all
down pat, his costumes are too. Elvis was an idol of Andy's, and
Elvis also said Andy's impression was his favorite. Several Elvis
impersonators were present at Andy's funeral.
"FOREIGN
MAN" AND LATKA
"Foreign Man" was an
act Andy had. Andy would walk out and do almost his whole act
with this foreign like voice. The audience really thought he was
foreign. He claimed to be from Caspiar, an island that sunk in
the Caspian Sea. He would do several bad jokes such as "My
wife's cooking is so bad...it is terrible." He would then
do imitations of several celebrities, the president, Archie Bunker,
Ed Sullivan, and finally Elvis. While the others would have the
same foreign voice, Elvis was the one act that blew everyone away.
At the end he would say "Tank you veddy much." Once
again, in his foreign voice.
THE
GREAT GATSBY
Andy would enjoy pretending he
was really English. He would put on an English monotone and then
bring out a book, The Great Gatsby. He would begin reading it
through page 1. People thought it was a joke, but Andy continued.
When the audience began to boo and yell. He would get impatient
and tell them to be quiet "We have a long way to go."
Then after they got too impatient he would say "Alright we
can listen to me read, or hear the record. What do you want?"
Everyone obviously yelled record, and he then played the record,
which was Andy reading right where he had just stopped.
ANDY
THE WRESTLER
Andy was always a fan of wrestling.
His routine of wrestling women started early in his night club
days, and then evolved into an even bigger career. Andy began
wrestling women in arenas, and eventually almost got beat by a
black woman named Foxy Jackson. Jerry "The King" Lawler
ended up challenging him. Andy lost when Lawler pile drived him.
Andy sustained neck injuries, and was forced to wear a neck brace.
They then appeared together on Late Night with David Letterman,
where Andy got slapped and he threw coffee on Lawler. Andy's wrestling
career also cost his popularity, he was voted off SNL.
