I just want real reactions. I want people to laugh from the gut, be sad from the gut-or get angry from the gut.
I never told a joke in my life.
If I play my cards right, I could bring network wrestling back to TV. Unfortunately, to most people, wrestling is a laughingstock. But fortunately, I'm reaching people who otherwise wouldn't watch it.
My mother sent me to psychiatrists since the age of four because she didn't think little boys should be sad. When my brother was born, I stared out the window for days. Can you imagine that?
The critics try to intellectualize my materiel. There's no satire involved. Satire is a concept that can only be understood by adults. My stuff is straight, for people of all ages.
There's no drama like wrestling.
There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.
What's real? What's not? That's what I do in my act, test how other people deal with reality.
When I perform, it's very personal. I'm sharing things I like, inviting the audience into my room.
While all the other kids were out playing ball and stuff, I used to stay in my room and imagine that there was a camera in the wall. And I used to really believe that I was putting on a television show and that it was going out to somewhere in the world.
Andy Kaufman's first movie was God Told Me To where he played a murderous policeman.
Andy Kaufman made 11 appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.
During his inter-gender wrestling matches Andy Kaufman offered $1000 to whomever could beat him.
At many of his performances the audience would demand him to do the character "Latka" from Taxi, so when this happened he would punish them by reading The Great Gatsby.
He never thought of himself as a comedian.
In a recent poll Andy Kaufman was chosen as "the celebrity who most likely faked his own death". He beat out other favorites such as Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, James Dean, and Jimi Hendrix.
Due to his insistence, Andy Kaufman's alter ego "Tony Clifton" was once hired for a guest role on Taxi. However, after throwing a temper tantrum "Tony Clifton" was escorted off of the ABC studio lot by security guards.
Andy's style of entertainment is now known as "performance art."
According to wrestler Jerry Lawler, when they cleaned out Andy's house after his death, many uncashed checks from Mid-South Wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett were found. These were given as payment for his stint as a wrestler, and brings many to the conclusion that he didn't wrestle for the money, but rather for the love of it.
Andy's granddaughter, Brittany Colonna, who played Andy's younger sister as a child in the biopic Man On the Moon (1999).
Andy shared the same birthday with Jim Carrey, who plays him in the film Man on the Moon (1999).
Andy and Jerry Lawler's famous feud, including their infamous Late Night with David Letterman (1982) appearence, was all later confirmed as a setup and not real as many believed.
When trying to bring his wrestling women act into the world of mainstream pro wrestling, Andy wanted to wrestle at Madison Square Garden for the World Wrestling Federation, but Kaufman's good friend Bill Apter, a head editor for several wrestling magazines, told him that Vince McMahon, Sr. would never go for such a thing, so they tried to talk to Apter's friend Jerry Lawler, which led to Andy's infamous feud with Lawler from 1982-83.
Although he died of lung cancer, Andy was very healthy. Andy had never smoked, did not drink regularly, and was a vegetarian.
Andy was renowned for bizarre stunts that were part of his stage performances, such as the time he took his entire Carnegie Hall audience out for milk and cookies, via 35 waiting buses.
According to Jim Carrey as stated in Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman, Andy created and originally played the "Tony Clifton" character. The secret kept for 15 years (according to Carrey) was that he did so only briefly and the character was soon passed off to Bob Zmuda (Kaufman's writer) Most of the TV appearances of Tony Clifton are actually Zumda, not Kaufman.
R.E.M. wrote a song about Andy called Man on the Moon for their 1992 album, Automatic for the People.
Andy's daughter Maria was put up for adoption, but later reunited with his family, after tracing her biological parents in 1992.
Saturday Night Live (1975) viewers voted Andy off the show forever in a call-in poll in 1982.
Andy graduated from Great Neck North High School in 1967.
Andy was 6' (1.83 m) tall.
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