The Passion of Andy Kaufman

By Jennifer Godwin
E! Online

It's only May, and it's already been a big year for resurrection in American pop culture: First Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, and now Andy Kaufman…as himself? Having promised to return from the grave on the 20th anniversary of his death, Kaufman is due back on the mortal coil on Sunday--and at 7:30 that evening his friends are throwing him a welcome-back party in Hollywood.

Bob Zmuda, screenwriter, comedian and Friend of Andy tells the LA Weekly that Kaufman first broached the idea of faking his own death back in 1980. "Andy said, 'You know if some celebrity really did this, do you know big it would be? How legendary it would be?' "

Zmuda's charity organization Comic Relief rolls out the red carpet at the House of Blues for Andy Kaufman: Dead or Alive?, which can only be described as a happening--sort of an event, sort of an performance and almost certainly a conga-thumping hootenanny. But there's no help-the-homeless angle here--the $250 VIP tickets are strictly for those who simply must be there when Kaufman rolls back into town.

Best known as Latka Gravas, the foreign man from no place in particular on TV's Taxi, Kaufman was one of the most eccentric comedic performance artists of the '70s and '80s. He impersonated Elvis and Mighty Mouse, created the character of venomous lounge singer Tony Clifton, wrestled women and took Carnegie Hall out for milk and cookies. Toward the end, while appearing to die from lung cancer at age 35, he mused aloud about the best gag of all--staging his own death and reappearing 20 years after the fact.

Zmuda, Lynne Marguiles (Andy's girlfriend) and George Shapiro (Andy's manager) are taking Kaufman at his word and throwing him a homecoming party. Should Kaufman choose to once again grace the Sunset Strip with his presence he'll be greeted by his friends and compatriots, his old band--Tony Clifton and the Cliftones and His Steamy Cliftonettes--and famous funny people galore, including Rodney Dangerfield, Caroline Rhea, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick, Paul Rudd and wrestling mogul Jerry Lawler.

"We're taking out hundreds of personal ads in newspapers across the country and abroad, reminding Andy of the date, and what he said," Zmuda tells the LA Weekly. "So, hopefully he'll see one of them."

Plans for the shindig include roasting Kaufman until he emerges from seclusion to defend his comedic honor (or not), a performance by the Cliftones and the world premiere of a never-before-seen Kaufman film, which is presumably not 1999's Milos Forman-directed Man on the Moon, which starred Jim Carrey as Kaufman, Paul Giamatti as Zmuda, Courtney Love as Marguiles and Danny DeVito as Shapiro.

There was no word as of press time about what miracles Kaufman might perform upon his return, or if he would be joined by post-life pals Elvis Presley and John Belushi

A limited number of tickets are available through the House of Blues Website (www.hob.com) and Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com); general seating is available for $99.95, standing room can be had for $50 a pop.

And, as R.E.M. once sang about a certain man on the moon, "See you in heaven if you make the list."

Man, how cool would that be, if it turned out Andy Kaufman was still alive?

Too bad it's not possible, since he died twenty years ago Sunday. :(

I'm still not sure if he's dead or not. He couldn't have "died" at a better time. Let's see. Taxi cancelled. Banished from SNL. No longer allowed to practice TM. If anyone could fake a death, it would be him. The fact that his girlfriend at the time of his "death" is going to be there makes you wonder. Either that or Zmuda's going broke.

Good points, jpnoyes.

Me? Even though I know he's dead, a part of me hopes he'll surprise us on Sunday. How wild would it be to read the headline "Andy Kaufman alive" in Monday morning's paper?

Originally posted by AKA
Good points, jpnoyes.

Me? Even though I know he's dead, a part of me hopes he'll surprise us on Sunday. How wild would it be to read the headline "Andy Kaufman alive" in Monday morning's paper?


That would be great! Though he would probably get arrested cause faking your death is illegal(I think).

Originally posted by jpnoyes
That would be great! Though he would probably get arrested cause faking your death is illegal(I think).

Not only that, but many people wouldn't be amused by the joke.

Originally posted by AKA
Not only that, but many people wouldn't be amused by the joke. but isnt that just his style :)

wouldn't that be cool if Andy shows up?

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
wouldn't that be cool if Andy shows up? Yeah, it would.

This sort of thing is just up Andy's aisle. If he does show up, I will be VERY angry with this joke, regardless of the fact of how much I love him.

I just hope no one is really expecting him to come back, because they'll be horribly dissappointed. Whether the public likes it or not - Andy Kaufman died 20 years ago.

:(

Andy Kaufman is my savior.

I always love Andy Kaufman as a funny man. Sadly he died 20 years ago. He was on "Taxi" at the time. My favorite sketch on the first SNL was the famous anthem "Mighty Mouse Theme" and Andy went crazy. I have that song on a CD called "Toon Tunes", a collection of 50 favorite cartoon theme songs and I also have the movie "Man on the Moon" with Jim Carrey played a biographical role as Andy Kaufman.:)

I loved his Mighty Mouse skit. It would be cool if he's alive. I think 2pac is doing the same thing doesn't matter to me though I never liked him. Nobody can come out with that many new songs and not be alive.

I saw Tony Clifton on the Jimmy Kimmel show the other night and I thought to myself how amazing it would be if he did return.
I'm sure many folks close to Andy would be pissed if Andy did return, and this was one big elaborate joke; but since I'm not one of them, I say welcome back Andy!

;)

Guess they're finding out right now whether or not Andy's a no-show. :)

I guess Andy didn't show. Seems most people here believe he is no longer with us. I have always believed that if any "dead" celebrity is out there alive somewhere, it's Andy. I don't think he's living in this country however & he most certainly wouldn't show up at a party. I think only Zmuda knows the 100% truth about Andy's fate. It would have been nice if Andy had shown up though. :)

Announcer: And now, Weekend Update, with AKA.

AKA: [Talking into the telephone] No.. I love it when you make noise. Remember when... [Notices the audience, hangs up telephone.] Good evening, I'm AKA, and you're not!

Our top story tonight: Generallissimo Francisco Franco and Andy Kaufman are still dead.

Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Andy Kaufman: Still Dead

Friends pay tribute to late eccentric comic

By Chris Rubin
Rolling Stone

Sad to say, Andy Kaufman is apparently still dead. But at a celebration of his life and work at the House of Blues Los Angeles on Sunday night, his spirit lived on.

The edgy comic, famous for wrestling women and lip-synching to Mighty Mouse on Saturday Night Live, Fridays and other programs before going mainstream with a regular role as Latka Gravas on Taxi, died twenty years ago Sunday from a rare and aggressive lung cancer. But as Kaufman, once dubbed a Dadaist comic, was known for his outrageous and often elaborate pranks, some thought reports of his demise were premature, if not entirely phony.

"I remember seeing the headline that Andy had died," mused screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, who penned the Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. "And I remember thinking, 'I can't believe they bought it!"

Kaufman had told many friends of his plan to stage his death and vanish, only to return twenty years later. But either somebody forgot to remind Kaufman to show up, or he's otherwise engaged, as not even a lookalike was in evidence. Nor were fans Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who penned "Man on the Moon" about him, or Jim Carrey, who played him in the movie, or various other expected celebrities.

Kaufman's partner and writer, Bob Zmuda, who wrote the book on which Man on the Moon was based, emceed the event, which raised money for Comic Relief. "You might have to phone home," he said, referring to the legendary Carnegie Hall performance by his late partner, which went in to the wee hours of the morning. "We're going for it! Yeah, you clap now, but wait until four in the morning!"

Well, this is Los Angeles, and nothing ever happens that late, so the event actually wound down before 2 a.m., with a candlelight vigil (Act IV) proceeding up Sunset Blvd., from the Comedy Store to a last stop at Kaufman's nearby last residence, filled for the night with his clothing and memorabilia. That followed post-midnight milk and cookies -- echoing a stunt Kaufman pulled at Carnegie Hall, when he invited the entire audience out for dessert after the show (Act II), and had three-dozen buses on hand to transport them. This time, the crowd crossed Sunset Blvd., from HOB to the landmark club.

In the club, after exotic dancers handed out small bags of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies and tiny boxes of milk, the crowd was treated to a tag-team wrestling match, one team resembling the Village People, the other a group of clucking chickens. Finally, out came Jerry Lawler -- the pro wrestler who (pretended to) hurt Kaufman, both in the ring and on Late Night with David Letterman -- to slap them around and inflict a pile driver, the same move that left Kaufman hospitalized for four days, on one of these wrestlers.

Lawler noted that Kaufman had been a fan of a "bad" wrestler nicknamed Nature Boy, who worked to rile up the audience and earn their hate. "He mad a big impression on Andy," Lawler said, "and I think it carried over into his comedy."

Before the move across the boulevard, comics including Andy Dick, Bob Oderkirk, Rich Voss and Zack Galifianakis performed and paid tribute before a sellout crowd. Also on stage was Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof, along with a few of his girls, including the lovely and barely legal Sunshine Lane. Kaufman, he claimed, was a frequent visitor and would pay the girls to wrestle among themselves before wrestling and eventually having sex with the victor.

Lynne Margulies, Kaufman's former girlfriend, introduced a never-before-seen film of Jim Carrey getting carried away in his role in Man on the Moon, as both Kaufman and alter-ego Tony Clifton. Entertaining for some, it was interminable for others, and heckling broke out during the screening.

While the evening, which began at 8 p.m., ended at a reasonable hour, Zmuda offered, while dressed as Clifton, to continue the show into the next day, promising that anyone who showed up with a ticket stub between 8 p.m. and midnight on Tuesday at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada would, um, enjoy Act III with the girl of his choice.

Originally posted by AKA
Andy Kaufman: Still Dead not according to Yahoo! news:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040519/234/726q1.html

Andy Kaufman Returns After 20 Years

Wed May 19, 9:00 AM ET


New York City, NY (PRWEB) May 19, 2004 -- Twenty years ago, on May 16, 1984, most of the world believed that we had lost a comedic legend forever. This has turned out to be what will inevitably be known as the greatest comic prank ever conceived. Andy Kaufman, by all accounts, is alive and well at age 55 and is now living in New York City on the upper west side. To his loyal supporters and fans, Andy says "sorry about faking my death," in a recent interview with ABC News at his apartment. In order to reach legendary comic status and seal his place in the history of performance art, he said it was "necessary to go away for twenty years."

I smell a rat...

I don't think it's true, but I think it's funny.




From hollywoodpulse.com


Andy Kaufman Returns From Grave Looking Older, Fatter

On Sunday, the 20th anniversary of his death from lung cancer, performance art comedian and onetime star of "Taxi" Andy Kaufman made a shocking re-appearance at a pre-arranged momentous emergence at The Improv comedy club in Los Angeles. But those in attendance remarked that the unbelievable return was almost anticlimactic given the fact Kaufman appeared so aged and bloated.

Kaufman had long promised to stage his death and come back 20 years after being declared officially "dead." And he made good on the vow, returning to much fanfare (now at the age of 55) in what he noted was his most phenomenal stunt of all.

However, it wasn't entirely clear on Sunday if Kaufman had staged his death and was just now coming out of hiding or if he had in fact risen from the dead after his apparent death two decades ago from lung cancer. The fact that Kaufman wasn't at all gaunt and bony and had, in fact, appeared to put on a good 75 pounds since last being seen seemed to point to a staged death.

But those in attendance agreed that Kaufman all in all seemed in pretty good shape for a guy who was, in fact, dead.

"It's remarkable, it's amazing, it'd really and truly Andy!" announced Bob Zmuda, Kaufman's purported best friend at the time of his death and the man who has profited most from Kaufman's memory through his having launched the nonprofit group Comic Relief. "I wouldn't have thought it possible if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!"

Kaufman appeared in no mood to celebrate his feat, though. Instead, he held out his hand and demanded all of the monies that had been collected over the years in his name by Comic Relief.

"Being out of circulation for so long can wreak havoc on a guy's bank account," Kaufman said. "I've had it with working as a busboy at Jerry's Deli. I need some real cash. Hand it over, dammit!"

The stunned onlookers all immediately began reaching into their pockets to pour money into a hat being passed. As soon as the money-filled hat made it up onto the stage, Kaufman grabbed it and stole off into the night, shouting, "See ya all in another 20 years, suckers!"

anyone reading the blog on "Andy's" website?

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
anyone reading the blog on "Andy's" website?

Yes. I thought this post a reader made was brilliant:

It's surreal how you sound exactly like a twenty-something IT employee, and all of this reads exactly like every other internet hoax.. I was hoping that your wit was going to be exponential with your age, and if you really were alive, the human mind would implode just from having read your word. But for whatever reason, the inner lining of my skull seems to have remained intact.

People are blaming Zmuda for this, but I don't think he has anything to do with it.

Well, if Andy did return, I say Welcome Back!


;)

Good ol' Snopes! :thumbsup:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/kaufman.asp