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Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was a New York-born American self-described "song and dance man". Though many refer to him as a comedian, Andy himself hated this, saying "I never told a joke in my life". He is one of the most famous practitioners of anti-humor. He was also a composer. He graduated in 1971 from a now-defunct Grahm Junior College where he studied television and completed projects that informed his later work. 1 His early work
Kaufman first caught people's attention with a character named "Foreign Man" in the early 1970s. "Foreign Man", who claimed to be from an island in the Caspian Sea, would appear on the stage of comedy clubs and perform a number of bad impersonations ( Archie Bunker, NixonRichard Milhous Nixon ( January 9, 1913 April 22, 1994) was the thirty-sixth ( 1953 1961) Vice President, and the thirty-seventh ( 1969 1974) President of the United States. He is the only man to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to, etc). For example, he might say in a phony accent, "I would like to imitate Meester Carter, de President of de United States." He would then say in the same voice, "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of de United States. Thenk you veddy much." The audience would be torn between outrage at seeing such a bad act, and sympathy for the hopeless "Foreign Man", who would cry on stage once heckled enough. At that point, "Foreign Man" would launch into an Elvis PresleyElvis Aron Presley ( January 8, 1935 August 16, 1977), known as The King of Rock and Roll, or as just "The King", was an American singer who had an immeasurable effect on world culture. He started his career under the name the Hillbilly Cat and was later impersonation good enough that Elvis Presley himself would later describe it as his favorite. The audience would realize they had been tricked, which became a trademark of Kaufman's comedy.
2 "Latka"
Kaufman later reprised his "Foreign Man" character, renamed "Latka Gravas", for the Taxi sitcomA sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a format in which there are one or more humorous story lines centred aro in 1978Events January January 1 The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. January 1 Air India's Boeing 747 explodes near Bombay 213 dead. January 4 Referendum in Chile supports policies of Augusto Pinochet.. Kaufman hated sitcoms and was not thrilled with the idea of being on one. In order to allow Kaufman to demonstrate some comedic range, his character was given multiple personality disorder which allowed Kaufman to display other characters. In one episode, Kaufman's character came down with a condition which made him act like the character played by Judd HirschJudd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American actor best known for playing "Alex Rieger" on the television show Taxi. He played the title character on the sitcom Dear John and the father of Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day''. Hirsch also r.
On a few occasions, audiences would show up to one of Kaufman's performances requesting to see "Latka". Kaufman would announce that he was going to read The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby was first published in ( 1925) by the one of America's great short novelists, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story takes place in New York City and Long Island in the 1920s. It has often been described as the epitome of the " Jazz Age" in Ameri by F. Scott FitzgeraldCarl Van Vechten, 1937 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald ( September 24, 1896- December 21, 1940), was a Jazz Age novelist. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald is regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th Century. The self-styled spoke to them. The audience would laugh thinking that Kaufman was joking. They were soon horrified to find out that he was completely serious and would read the entire book to them.
