Posted on 11/14/2013 8:05:42 AM PST by Bobalu
He claims the "Taxi" star, who officially died of cancer in 1984, faked his own death "to get away from being Andy Kaufman."
A mysterious woman's claims that she is the daughter of Andy Kaufman have helped to revive long-standing rumors -- fueled in life by Kaufman himself -- that the comedian may have faked his own death.
The far-fetched admission, reported first by The Comic's Comic and Defamer, occurred Monday night at the Andy Kaufman Awards, held annually at the Gotham Comedy Club. The woman was introduced by Michael Kaufman, Andy's brother, who first explained how years ago he'd discovered an essay in which Andy detailed plans to fake his death. Official records state the Taxi star died in 1984 at age 35, of lung cancer. Were he alive today, Kaufman would be 64 years old.
"I witnessed the entire thing and I can tell you without a doubt this was not a prank," says Al Parinello, a lifelong friend of the comedian who produces the awards. Parinello relayed to The Hollywood Reporter how Michael, whom he describes as "accountant-like" in demeanor and not prone to mounting hoaxes, followed instructions in the essay to meet his brother at a specific restaurant on Christmas Eve, 1999.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
I believe it. I never found this guy funny at all. What some people saw in him as edgy and clever struck me as self absorbed and weird.
Latka was great. Not that wild about Andy.
E Be Dah.
In the age of Obama, we need someone to come and save the day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGx94VPb8V8
Tony Clifton lives!
“Here I am to save the day!” :-)
Kaufman just made me feel uncomfortable. I think that was the point, but it wasn’t something I wanted to watch, let alone laugh at. Instead, I wanted someone to grab him by the neck and pull him off stage to end his misery and mine.
Yeah. A lot of the great ones. Jonathan Winters also comes to mind.
A friend of mine looked like Charles Manson.
He had a picture of himself standing with Manson and you couldn’t tell which was which.
He went to a Don Rickles show in Vegas.
DR saw him and proceeded to do his entire show around Charles Manson sitting in the audience.
He said the audience was about to fall out of their chairs laughing.
He said he wanted to crawl out of there but dared not.
After the show DR came and sat with him, had pictures taken, and signed one of the pictures to Charles Manson from Don Rickles.
The casino gave him a couple of thousand to play with. Free room and food.
You would have to kill him to get those pictures of him with DR.
I don’t know way Andy was I think he could pull this off
Is he still goofing on Elvis?
‘Elvis’ is dead, but he has an uncanny voice impersonator in jon cotner ... and a little (or a lot ) in the face....
A facebook link for this jon guy.....
https://www.facebook.com/jon.cotner.980
I have long thought Rickles to be the best live comic ever. He will find something funny to his audience and just wring it of every drop of humor.
That was amazing... I have probably seen that before, but still that was amazing thanks for linking.
The casino gave him a couple of thousand to play with. Free room and food.
I'd bet it was Don Rickles, not the casino, who ponied up on this one. Not well publicized, but that was always his M.O. If he ragged on you in his show, you would never see a bill for your drinks. I know a number of people to whom this happened back in the day.
You’re probably right, it probably was DR.
Carson even mentioned Rickle’s “Charles Manson” show more than once on his show and how brutal Rickle’s was to him.
Thank you very much.
Is that for the most un-funny comedian ?
Bet Al Franken won.
Kaufman was funny in Taxi, of course the lines were likely written for him. What few lines he had.
Aside from that role he was awful. JMO
I read somewhere that Rickles is actually a very shy guy when he’s not performing. I’ve heard the same thing about Robin Williams.
Well, he did actually look like Elvis......................
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