Hope I’m not posting too much. I’ve slept one day out of the last 4 and am in a pretty clear state getting things done.
One person I’m quite fascinated with in life is Andy Kaufman. Well before I even knew about him, I think I was a lot like him putting on performances for stuffed animals and things like that. I even did some performances for live people in the Army…something I could never do now.
The more I think about Andy, the more I think that maybe Foreign Man and Tony Clifton were the real him and Andy was the performance. I think he was really schizophrenic too…not just playing a SZ role on Taxi. I guess we will never know.
I remember watching him in a few things, thinking we wern’t all that much different.
“If you believe. They put a man on the moon” R.E.M.
Andy Kaufman was unique, one of a kind. He did what HE wanted to do. He didn’t care what the audience wanted. He didn’t care if he antagonized people. Was the incident with Jerry Lawlor staged or real? Who knows? Andy took the answer to his grave and so will Jerry Lawlor.(if he hasn’t already). Some people think Andy Kaufman is still alive and he’s pulling a fast one. I first saw Andy Kaufman on some variety show in the seventies.He came out onstage with an old cheap turntable. He stood there for a moment and then he put a record of 'Pop goes the Weasel", on. He played it over and over, non-stop, for about 5 minutes. He bounced one leg to the rhythm. That’s it!! Then he picked up the turntable and walked off.
Lol. I wish I had seen Andy live in my 20s or 30s. I was a little too young, but I see everything still on tape. I loved how if a crowd made him mad, he’d threaten to read a book. If they did it again, he actually would read the book out loud from page one until the last word until everyone had already left. Lol. I think his genius was very under rated and people don’t appreciate him historically the way they should.
Jerryis still alive. He is a commentator for wrestling events. He recently challenged Kaufman to a rematch on the radio. Jerry is also pushing for Andy to be inducted into the WWE hall of fame since Andy invented drama wrestling.
More or less, wrestling made billions due to Andy’s additions to the sport.
He used to wrestle women for real. And he took it totally seriously.
Weren’t their claims that he’s still alive??
Yes there were. Just like Elvis. Who he used to do the best imitation of I’ve ever seen.