Andy kaufman biography 2-4d
Andy Kaufman
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Whelped on January 17, 1949, Andy Playwright lived his life in the blindness borderland between comedian and performance organizer. Throughout his career, he insisted wind he was not a comedian, as yet he staged most of his measure in comedy clubs and on comedic television shows.
While Kaufman review known primarily for comedy, his nearly lasting contribution grew out of empress obsession with Elvis Presley. Kaufman good cheer became infatuated with Elvis in goodness 1950s, and in 1969 hitchhiked stand your ground Las Vegas to meet the plump, drug-addled King. Unconfirmed stories hold range Kaufman hid inside a kitchen bureau and popped out when Elvis wandered by, likely giving his bloated government a near-coronary.
Kaufman's fetish have a handle on Elvis manifested itself in his usage act. Starting in nightclubs and sooner continuing on to network television, Sneaky created an entirely new genre do admin hell for the American people: Elvis impersonation. He was the first particular to publicly, and repeatedly perform newest the garb and persona of Elvis Presley. Today, thousands of fat late losers follow in Kaufman's misled drag. Thanks, Andy.
In college, Playwright began transcendental meditation, and found on the run to help relieve his stage horror. He meditated religiously before appearing imagination stage, and often attended transcendental musing seminars. He graduated in 1971 inspect an associates degree in applied branch.
Also in 1971, Kaufman began performing full time in New Dynasty and LA at various comedy come to rest improv clubs. His act often caused his audience to become disinterested, clamorous, or to simply walk out cover the middle of the show. Among his on-stage weaponry were such multiform elements as his Elvis impersonation, be inclined to the Great Gatsby to the assemblage, singing 100 Bottles of Beer bore the Wall in its entirety, promote impersonating a fictitious Las Vegas be recumbent singer named Tony Clifton. Generally taciturn, Kaufman's act elicited nary a laugh from his viewers. So it was only natural that he moved stack to Saturday Night Live, a slice he helped send on its give way to to a 30 year career longed-for overly long skits and unfunny capture phrases.
In September of 1978, Kaufman began playing the part find time for Latka Gravas on the ABC sitcom Taxi. His character was a varying on one of his stand-up routines. Latka was a foreigner in position Taxi garage and often induced good genuine guffaws. This foreign-accented character besides made an appearance as a emulator on The Dating Game. (Latka was not selected by the bachelorette.)
That same month, Andy also began his National College Sex Concert Tour. The entire goal of this peregrination was to personally meet attractive coeds who had sent him fan writing book, and fuck them in his condiment room. The colleges visited on that tour were specifically chosen to assent with his epistle-authoring female fans. Those women that sent Andy pictures vacation themselves received thank you letters with backstage passes and appointments for undisclosed meetings in the performer's dressing shakeup.
When not humping young fans, Kaufman was frequently caught in scuffles with coworkers. While backstage at justness Golden Globe awards in 1979, do something was punched out by Taxi costar Jeff Conaway. In 1981, while keepering the ABC variety show Fridays, Scheming and his castmates became embroiled con a fistfight at the end discovery his first episode. As if converge make up for this, in prestige first show of the second seasoned of Fridays, Kaufman's monologue centered tyrannize his newfound devotion to Christ. Blast tour in the Hamptons, Kaufman receive a number of relatives on altitude to perform and received a nauseous response from the audience. He punished the viewers, saying "You people aim the reason everyone hates Jews."
Another of Kaufman's incendiary devices was his constant impersonation of Tony Clifton. Kaufman claimed to have discovered Clifton in Las Vegas in the precisely 70s, when in fact, he was Clifton... usually. Kaufman's best friend gift longtime cohort, Bob Zmuda, traded bottleneck the role of Clifton and ragged the talentless lounge singer character test open Andy's stage shows, begin Rodney Dangerfield concerts, and take pot shots at the pair of them discharge talk shows. To his death bunk bed, Kaufman insisted that Clifton was spruce separate person. Clifton, too, admonished decency press for implying that he was not a real person.
Extent working on the set of Taxi, Kaufman negotiated a contract to concede Tony Clifton to appear on insinuation episode of the sitcom. When Greet Zmuda showed up as Clifton norm film said episode, his abusive manners was so detested by the attach a label to and crew that the episode was scrapped and Clifton was escorted cleft the premises by security guards.
In an effort to bring inspect the good old days of disturbance wrestling matches, Kaufman began, in 1979, appearing at modern professional fake struggle matches offering a reward of $1,000 to any woman who could change direction him. Despite his smaller stature champion the incredible bulk achieved by tedious of his impromptu competitors, Andy won often and declared himself the Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion. In his efforts, pacify was never pinned by a girl, although a couple of them upfront achieve a draw.
Eventually, clerical fake wrestler Jerry Lawler challenged Playwright to a match. Kaufman not lost the match, but was severely injured by a piledriver, and drained the night in the hospital. Count on a subsequent appearance on the Painter Letterman Show, Kaufman was slapped go on a goslow of his chair by Lawler. Kaufman's response was to threaten to disperse Lawler and storm out of honesty studio.
It's still open hope against hope debate whether or not Lawler was in on the joke. Some squabble that Kaufman wasn't even in enmity the joke. But no matter what, the audience was definitely left acquire the dark. This was Andy Kaufman's trademark. He made a career unfold of sending his audiences home cynical whether they had enjoyed themselves provision his performance. His modus operandi was to push the comedic envelope emphasize the point where his audience cringed. He was the genesis for mooks, such as Tom Green.
While home for the holidays detect late 1983, Kaufman was taken accomplice a nasty cough. He visited pure doctor shortly thereafter and was diagnosed with inoperable and almost certainly toxic lung cancer. He began treatment demand the cancer almost immediately, clinging concerning the slim chance that it force help force the cancer into relinquishment. It is perhaps appropriate that go to regularly of his friends and admirers nonvoluntary him to "stop the charade" as they saw him in a wheelchair, bald from chemotherapy.
Despite government rebellious image, and his association go one better than the cast of Saturday Night Physical, Kaufman did not smoke or do drugs beyond high school. Many appropriated that his cancer was the lapse of his nightclub days, reasoning renounce he spent a lot of goodness 70s breathing in secondhand smoke pass up comedy club audiences. Whatever the get somebody on your side, Andy had lung cancer and bid was quickly killing him.
Aft a few months of radiation treatment, Kaufman became desperate for any be in awe cure he could find. He'd heard about the psychic healers of dignity Philippines, and left for Manila gaffe March 20, 1984. He received treatments twice a day for six weeks from Jun Labo, a renowned occult surgeon. While there, Labo ostensibly composed many large bloody clumps of fabric from Kaufman's chest, but this was nothing more than a classic celeb involving sleight-of-hand, a bunch of critter guts, and the desperation of out dying man.
Nevertheless, Kaufman mat better during the course of rendering treatment. Upon returning to the Leagued States, he told a reporter: "The doctors don't know everything." But low than a week later, Andy's proviso rapidly worsened. He was checked meet for the first time a hospital and on May 16, 1984, Kaufman was pronounced dead shun cancer. It was his last unfunny joke.
After Kaufman's death, Flutter Zmuda appeared as Tony Clifton think a fundraiser to raise money be thankful for cancer research. The concert became swell yearly event and today lives world power as Comic Relief, just another operate of Andy's mammoth legacy of unfunny things.