Andy Kaufman
Comedian
BIO
Early Years
– Andy Kaufman was born on January 17, 1949 in New York City.
– Andy’s father was Stanley Kaufman, a jewelry salesman, and his mother was Janice (Bernstein), a homemaker and former fashion model.
– At the age of 9, Andy Kaufman began performing at children’s birthday parties by playing records and showing cartoons.
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Early Years
- Andy Kaufman was born on January 17, 1949 in New York City.
- Andy’s father was Stanley Kaufman, a jewelry salesman, and his mother was Janice (Bernstein), a homemaker and former fashion model.
- At the age of 9, Andy Kaufman began performing at children’s birthday parties by playing records and showing cartoons.
Career
Early Career
- Andy Kaufman studied television production at Grahm Junior College (now defunct). He starred in his own campus show called, Uncle Andy’s Fun House.
- While attending college, Kaufman performed at coffee houses. He also wrote a one-man play now published as God [See below].
- He started performing stand-up comedy at various small clubs after graduating in 1971.
- Kaufman got his first break when Budd Friedman, the owner of The Improv, allowed him to perform onstage as Foreign Man.
Characters, Events, and Venues
Andy Kaufman developed and played three main characters:
- Foreign Man – he spoke in a meek, high-pitched, heavy-accented voice and claimed to be from Caspiar, a fictional island in the Caspian Sea.
- Tony Clifton – Kaufman played an obnoxiously rude lounge singer.
- Professional Wrestler – he began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed “Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World.”
TV, Film, and Broadway
- 1972 – Andy Kaufman appeared on The Midnight Special.
- 1975 – he was invited to perform portions of his act on the first season of Saturday Night Live. Kaufman made 16 appearances between 1975 and 1983.
- 1976 – Andy Kaufman appeared as Foreign Man in several guest spots on Van Dyke and Company.
- 1976 – Kaufman appeared in his first theatrical film, God Told Me To [see below].
- 1976-78 – he appeared four times on The Tonight Show.
- 1977 – Kaufman appeared on The Midnight Special.
- 1978 – 1983 – his Foreign Man character was the basis of his role Latka Gravas on the hit television show Taxi. Kaufman appeared in 79 of 114 episodes.
- 1979 – Andy’s Funhouse aired on ABC. It featured most of Andy Kaufman’s famous gags, including Foreign Man and his Elvis Presley impersonation.
- 1980 – Buckshot aired on ABC. Part of the show was a six-minute long version of Uncle Andy’s Funhouse. It featured Kaufman as the host of a children’s show for adults, complete with a peanut gallery and Tony Clifton puppet.
- 1980 – he made several appearances on The David Letterman Show.
- 1981 – Andy Kaufman made three appearances on Fridays, a variety show on ABC that was similar to Saturday Night Live. Later that year, Kaufman returned to host Fridays.
- 1981 – he appeared on The Midnight Special.
- Andy Kaufman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made For Television for Taxi in 1979 and 1981.
- 1982-1983 – Andy Kaufman brought his professional wrestling villain act to Late Night with David Letterman. He staged an encounter with Jerry “The King” Lawlor of the Continental Wrestling Association. Kaufman had 11 appearances on the show.
- 1983 – The Andy Kaufman Show was filmed for the PBS’s SoundStage program. It featured a peanut gallery like the previous shows, and opens in the middle of an interview Andy Kaufman is doing in which he is laughing hysterically. He then proceeds to thank the audience for watching and the credits roll.
- 1983 – Kaufman appeared on Broadway with Deborah Harry in the play Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap. It closed after just two performances.
- 1983 – Kaufman appeared in the film My Breakfast with Blassie with professional wrestling personality “Classy” Freddie Blassie.
- Andy Kaufman’s writings have been published posthumously in three books. [see below].
Andy Kaufman’s Influences and Thoughts
- Referred to by some as a Dadaistic comedian, Andy Kaufman took comedy and performance art to the edges of irrationality and blurred the dividing line between reality and imagination.
- Kaufman described himself instead as a “song and dance man.” “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.”
- Andy Kaufman used Transcendental Meditation, which he learned in 1969, “to build confidence and take his act to comedy clubs.” He practiced meditation and yoga daily for three hours.
- Comedian Elayne Boosler, who dated and lived with Kaufman, credits him with encouraging her to do comedy.
- Comedian Richard Lewis in A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufmansaid of him: “No one has ever done what Andy did, and did it as well, and no one will ever. Because he did it first. So did Buster Keaton, so did Andy.”
- Carl Reiner recalled Andy Kaufman’s distinction in the comedy world. “Did Andy influence comedy? No. Because nobody’s doing what he did. Jim Carrey was influenced—not to do what Andy did, but to follow his own drummer. I think Andy did that for a lot of people. Follow your own drumbeat. You didn’t have to go up there and say ‘take my wife, please.’ You could do anything that struck you as entertaining. It gave people freedom to be themselves.” Reiner also said of Kaufman: “Nobody can see past the edges, where the character begins and he ends.”
At the End and After
- 1984 – Andy Kaufman was diagnosed with an extremely rare type of lung cancer and died at the age of 35. He was survived by his daughter Maria Bellu-Colonna.
- In 1992, the band R.E.M. released the album Automatic for the People, which featured the Andy Kaufman-themed song Man on the Moon. The video for the song also featured footage of Kaufman.
- 2002 – he became a playable character in the video game Legends of Wrestling II
- 2004 – Kaufman became a standard character in Showdown: Legends of Wrestling.
- Since 2004, The Andy Kaufman Award competition has been held annually as “a showcase for promising cutting-edge artists with fresh and unconventional material, for those willing to take risks with an audience, and for those who do not define themselves by the typical conventions of comedy.”
- 2008 – Jakks Pacific produced for their WWE Classic Superstars toy line, an action figure two-pack that included Andy Kaufman and Lawler as well as separate figure releases of each.
- Rest assured, Kaufman’s legacy is still influencing filmmakers, restaurants, animators, comedy clubs, authors, etc., to this day.
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