Andy Kaufman - Beloved Star of "Taxi".... Spills His GutsThis is a clip from Kaufman's wrestling odyssey from the late 70's. Over the years it was lost and forgotten about. This was from the creative minds of Kaufman and his agent, Bob Zemuda.
According to which biography you read this was all staged. In the Milos Foreman film, "Man on the Moon" this whole wrestling thing was totally exposed as a hoax. Bad guy wrestler Jerry Lawler makes a cameo appearance - playing himself - acknowledging that this entire thing was a stunt.
It seemed pretty convincing at the time. This was long before the WWF and when wrestling was divided into different territories throughout the US. The broadcasts which made this whole thing seem real were very low budget. They had very low production values and the venues themselves were actualy very small.
What is interesting about this was that by this point of his life Kaufman didn't seem to care very much about money. He just wanted to cause some trouble and make a few more enemies while here on Earth, (he died of cancer shortly after). This was over the top entertainment. But what is really important here is that the butt of the joke was really the audience.
It was an elaborate put on.
This whole wrestling stunt with upsetting the deep south and wrestling women on the Merv Griffen Show gained him mountains of hate mail. This later led to Saturday Night Live producer Lorn Michaels to have a vote on live television whether to keep him on and send him packing -- never to return to the show again. The results were in favor of kicking Kaufman off the show for good. I think he only rated 23%.
From there his career spiraled downward -- permanently. He made the film, "Heart Beeps" and it was a commercial failure. He would appear on David Letterman a few more times before becoming bedridden.
------------------------------
Cantu FASCUBE 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment