Andy Kaufman as Elvis Presley
An evening pause: A very talented comic actor once told me something very profound about comedy: “Play opposites, it works every time.” Performed live on the Tonight Show 1977.
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An evening pause: A very talented comic actor once told me something very profound about comedy: “Play opposites, it works every time.” Performed live on the Tonight Show 1977.
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
He was one odd duck.
Funny as heck sometimes but odd.
pzatchok-
“Wassup With Lordbuckly” Episode 16
(October 2025)
–>The Life of Andy Kaufman
https://youtu.be/dOxkeU9tepw
(2:14:39)
“Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. He has sometimes been called an “anti-comedian”. He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, “I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian’s promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can.”
Comedy is the toughest act of all.
He struck me as the guy who didn’t know when the comedy/performance/entertainment/whatever wasn’t funny anymore, and just kept on with it.
Never liked the guy. There was always a decidedly creepy vibe about him. Never found any of his stuff funny. Felt sorry for Elayne Boosler when he died, but haven’t missed or thought about him since. That seems to be a widespread reaction as I don’t see much of any enduring posthumous fan following for the guy like there is for, say, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield or even Sam Kinison who have also passed on.
There are not, in general, many showbiz people – even those who were big deals in their time – who are much remembered even a generation after their passing. Many, in fact, pass from public consciousness well before they finally die. “Oh, was he still alive?” seems to be a common reaction to news of the passing of some former headliner who has been decades out of the spotlight. Sic transit gloria mundi as the old Romans said. They were mostly right.
A little of Andy K went a long way
From his explanation on his method, Kaufmann sounds like a Court Jester born a few centuries too late.
Andy got a posthumous REM song and a Miloš Forman movie with Jim Carrey playing him, and that ain’t too shabby. But even those were a long time ago now.