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Thirty years after Andy Kaufman's death, his girlfriend Lynne Margulies and loyal and sole writer Bob Zumda wrote The Truth, Finally for him. The book recalls in detail the experience of Bob and Andy working together (of course, most of the interesting and glorious history , Mentioned in the movie "The Man on the Moon" and this documentary), and also revealed the original intention of Andy to create Tony Clifton, the difference between Tony Clifton and Andy, the book first revealed that Andy is actually bisexual , And have multiple personality tendencies.
Bob Zumda and Andy first met at the Improvisation Comedy Club. This is a comedy venue founded in 1963, and is happy to provide performance opportunities for new and unknown comedians. Performers can eat light meals, drink coffee, sing songs and improvise on stage. Judy Garland and Lisa Minnelli have performed here. Of course, there is no shortage of future comedy legends in this club: Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer and Jay Leno...
It was 1974, when stand-up comedy just started to become popular, and Andy Kaufman appeared at this time.
Andy appeared at the club about an hour and a half before the show, hanging out in the bar outside the main hall. No one knows who he is, and no one knows that he is going to be on stage. He was dressed up as a "foreigner" that day, carrying a suitcase, as if he had just gotten off a Greyhound bus and was visiting New York for the first time.
He asked the club owner, Budd Friedman, if he could be allowed to perform on stage with a crappy foreign accent—the voice was so loud that anyone in the bar could hear what was going on. Budd said: "I'm sorry, we have an audition on the 3rd of every month." Daner Kaufman begged: "Please, this is my dream of coming to New York to be an actor."
I don't know for what reason, maybe I was really moved by this "foreigner", maybe I just felt that he should be given a chance. Budd compromised. He said at the opening: "Ladies and gentlemen, we usually end the show here, but I don’t know if you see the person who came in and asked to be on stage. We usually don’t do this, but I’m tonight. He will be allowed on stage. I don’t know what he does. He is Mr. Andy Kaufman."
So Andy appeared on the stage as a "foreigner". Every audience believes that this guy is from a foreigner who just arrived in New York without knowing which country. He began to use spoken language with a full foreign accent to reinforce this impression. "I want to imitate Archie Bunker (Archie Bunker is a fictional character in the American sitcom All in the Family in the 1970s)." Andy said lamely.
"Hahaha fool", "terrible".
"I want to imitate Ronald Reagan. Hello, this is Ronald Reagan."
The audience began to laugh, because his performance was so bad that it didn't look like it at all, but rather funny.
On the contrary, Andy performed more and more vigorously, and every audience's impression of him was getting worse and worse. But the audience is howling because this guy is so stupid. Then Andy seemed to realize suddenly that the audience was not enjoying his performance, but mocking him. The situation has become very serious. He started to cry.
"We (the audience) felt terrible. This is a psychological technique in an Andy performance." Bob Zumda recalled in a future interview.
Finally, Andy said: "I want to do the last imitation-Elvis Presley." He turned his back to the audience. Suddenly, the music of "2001" sounded and the lights came on. Andy put on a costume, combed his hair like Elvis, turned to the audience, he looked like Elvis.
His horrible foreign voice disappeared, and he was completely imitating Elvis. The audience stood up and applauded like crazy.
"The mood of the audience is completely controlled by his performance. He makes me in awe." Bob Zumda said, "After the performance, I was waiting nearby. About half an hour later, I saw him dragging all these props out— Conga drums, movie projectors and lights. I want to know if this is a show or just a foreign guy imitating Elvis Presley. I saw him loading things into the car. It looks like the foreigner got off the bus just now An extension of the story. He saw me and shouted like a foreigner:'I'm sorry, can you help me? My back hurts.' I started to put these heavy things into his car. He closed the trunk He said like a foreigner:'Dank you very much!' and then said in a normal voice:'Sucker!' Then, he drove away."
Andy quickly gained a reputation as a talented but eccentric performer. On October 11, 1975, Andy was invited to participate in the premiere of Saturday Night Live. Later, he became famous for playing Latka Gravas in the TV sitcom Taxi ("Taxi").
But obviously, just playing a comedy role alone cannot satisfy Andy Kaufman. He did not take advantage of the increased exposure due to appearing on popular TV shows to expand his appeal. On the contrary, he was engaged in a series of self-confrontation, he made strange performances on talk shows, staged farce, and tried to alienate the public in this way. For example, reading "The Great Gatsby" hahahaha.
"Andy is undoubtedly a true artist. He has the ultimate freedom to do whatever he wants in art. He teaches us to stay true to our vision no matter what. No one is more free than Andy Kaufman."
If the attempt to cross the border in the TV show is to test the waters, the next Andy is like a runaway car, you don't know what he is plotting in his mind.
Andy and Bob Zumda co-created a character: Tony Clifton. Tony Clifton is a bar singer in a suit, wig, fake beard, and sunglasses. Most of the time Andy will play Tony, and let this role do everything that will annoy the audience. He is very addicted to cigarettes, always holding a bottle of Jack Daniels cigarettes and puffing. He would eat half-rare steaks and run around the city with the prostitutes in his arms. But Andy is a strict vegetarian, he doesn't drink or smoke. But most importantly, Clifton will never do self-censorship. No matter what thoughts came into his mind, it was like having Tourette's disease, and he had to say it out of his mouth immediately.
Tony Clifton is an incarnation of Andy, because of the influence of makeup and hair, they look completely different. Tony is a bully, yelling violently at the audience, and even malicious bullying. After Andy's death, Tony's role was occasionally played by Bob Zumda. When filming "The Man on the Moon", the director brought Elton John to visit the class.
Kim Carey, who was in Tony's state at the time, said: "Nonsense...he is not Elton John." The director said, "No, this is the real Elton John. Elton John stood there, completely caught by Tony Clifton and the surrounding hell angels. The motorcyclists were frightened. Kim/Clifton said, "I will judge. "Then he quickly turned to Elton and said, "What is the single from the "Captain Strange" album?" Elton John was surrounded by muscular angels dressed in leather jackets, so nervous that he forgot to answer. Kim/Clifton immediately said loudly, " You see-it's not him. But the director insisted that it was. "Well, I'll give him one last chance. Don't break my heart?" Elton replied timidly, "I won't make you sad." Clifton laughed. "Well, this is him. Everyone around laughed.
Tony Clifton is a magical existence.
To play Tony Clifton, you must abide by the strict rules set by Andy himself:
1. You must drink a lot of alcohol (Jack Daniel's is best).
2. You must eat meat. (Andy himself is a vegetarian.)
3. Prostitutes, prostitutes, more prostitutes.
4. Language-the dirtiest you can call.
5. Most importantly: Tony Clifton will never conduct self-censorship. No matter what thoughts came into his mind, it was like having Tourette's disease, and he had to say it out of his mouth immediately.
Those who watched Tony Clifton's performance were shocked at first. No one dared to say what Clifton said. But over time, the audience discovered that Clifton was an equal opportunity lawbreaker. Like Archie Bunker (Archie Bunker), his sentimental finally won their hearts. I can't think of any of his performances without standing applause from the audience.
Of course, Andy's avant-garde humor is not for everyone. After several provocative acts appeared on SNL shows, the CEO of NBC became bored with Andy, calling him "not funny at all" and banning him from participating in the show.
Bob Zumda described it in the last book written for Andy: "Introducing new things" always has a price, and Andy is just an ordinary person. He sometimes does worry that he will end up unwelcome by breaking the rules. However, he would rather be loyal to his art than be careful with the crew of "Taxi" because he thinks it is "other people's playground."
However, Andy's rejection is not just because of his extreme performance. "Andy does his best when he coexists with "funny". "In the beginning of SNL there was a series of great comedians. When Andy stood up and did what he did, it felt so different. You find yourself laughing, because his performance is too untimely! When Lorne Michaels was still in SNL, this kind of interleaving would be very interesting. You can put Andy in the middle, "Juxtaposition, the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.) to make the performance a success. When "Saturday Night Live" started to go downhill-Andy's anti-comedy performance in the middle was not so funny, because the comedies around him were not so successful, that is, not so funny. "
Embarrassing and funny, it's never easy. Jimmy Fallon said that he tried to have his own Kaufman moments at a talent show, but his weird attempts to attract attention-shave his head on stage and tell jokes that have nothing to do with razors, shaving cream or water ——But the best, undeniably failed.
Andy was later dubbed a "Dadaist" performer or "absurdist", but in fact he is just a living person. He has free will and tries to achieve it. He is an experimenter, and this is the most fascinating part of his story. The strangest thing about Andy is that many of his things are not funny. He is just challenging people. He wants people to become more open-minded. He likes to force people to accept embarrassing performances and to feel the true feelings they are willing to avoid. And more importantly, Andy doesn't think he's doing a great career, he thinks all this is a damn joke. Even in Tony Clifton's eyes, it was all innocence, not intentional malice.
People commented that he "cannot find a trace of cynicism in Kaufman" . Andy faces life directly. He always finds life interesting, even if it's not completely funny. He thinks that many people don't have a sense of humor, and will say angrily after being pranked: "That's not funny at all." And he doesn't like this kind of people. In fact, if he bumps into one of them by chance, he will teach them a lesson and make them angry.
Funny and humor are never the goal, Andy never performs for the audience. His performance is for freedom. How to arouse people's various emotions and observe where these emotions will go next is the main pleasure of Andy Kaufman. The freedom of art is not restricted by commercial entertainment. He freed the show from the shackles of pre-recorded laughter, freed from the tyranny of punch lines, and got rid of the shackles of reminder cards. Andy rebelled against the entire entertainment industry's institutional system, and he succeeded because he was Andy Kaufman.
He is really funny.
Of course, the crazy stories about Andy Kaufman go far beyond that. His solo performance at Carnegie Hall in 1979 ended with taking the entire audience to a coffee shop to eat milk cookies. After being expelled from SNL, he openly challenged all women, claiming to be able to marry a woman who defeated him in the boxing ring (Although Andy looks arrogant, arrogant and disgusting, he is actually a person who really loves boxing. ). This sex boxing farce ended with him being thrown into a plaster by the Memphis boxing champion... He continued to provoke and paid the price, but he never gave up the opportunity to try new pranks.
To sum up, I can only say that this is the true spirit of comedy. It is not meant to make people laugh. It is breaking boundaries. It makes people feel uncomfortable and offensive. It’s satire, it’s resistance, it’s a futile and stupid gesture created by National Lampoon,
This is where Andy Kaufman surpasses the times.
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