Andy+Kaufman

Life:

 * Born January 17, 1949
 * First son of Stanley and Janice Kaufman
 * Andy was an independent child. When he was nine months old, he could reach out of his crib and push the needle on his plastic records to make the music play. His mother would find him laughing and jumping as the music played.
 * Instead of playing sports outside, Andy would often go in his room and imagine his wall had a camera and he would perform his own shows. His father was worried so he forbid Andy from performing with no audience, so he bribed his little sister with bubble gum to watch him.
 * At the age of 8, Andy was getting hired to perform at kids birthday parties and by the age of 14, he got paid for these performances.
 * Andy was shy in social situations, and often misunderstood.
 * His obsession with Elvis Presley formed in the year 1960.
 * Between the ages of 16 and 19, he smoked marijuana on a daily basis, also doing LSD and other drugs under the influence of his friends.
 * Andy's friend recalled the only time Andy dropped acid, he forced everyone present to listen to Elvis albums repeatedly.
 * Summer of 1967 Andy scores a zero on the psychology test, Andy receives a 4-F deferment preventing him from being drafted into Vietnam.
 * The last day Andy ever took drugs was on November 20, 1968.
 * In 1969, he had a daughter named Bellu-Colonna with his high school girlfriend and they put her up for adoption. (Kaufman never married or had any other kids.)
 * Andy hitchhikes to Vegas and meets Elvis by hiding inside of a walk in kitchen cupboard in the Las Vegas Hilton, and Elvis gives Andy his blessing and a pat on the shoulder.
 * In college, Andy learned Transcendental Meditation and started to meditate on a frequent basis.
 * After college, he slowly became a star.
 * Andy died of a rare lung cancer May 16, 1984.

The Characters Inside of Andy:

 * Andy didn't like to read scripts, he wanted to perform his original material that he and his good friend Bob Zmuda worked on throughout most of his life. These performances involved different characters. Andy had a way of becoming whatever character he played and some of his characters would live on after he passes.
 * __Foreign man__: this character is who Andy is most known for. He started off as a lovable and childlike man from Caspiar that captured the hearts of his audience and became known as Latka Gravis on the ABC family sitcom //Taxi.// Foreign man also played a recording of the theme from //Mighty Mouse// and only lip-syncs the chorus. He would also do many imitations, which were just him saying he was someone else in his voice. Except for when he turned into Elvis.
 * __Tony Clifton__: a controversial small-time Vegas lounge singer that befriended Andy. Andy did sometimes play this character, but once he got famous he realized the audience expected Andy to play Tony. But, Andy wanted it to be clear that Tony Clifton and Andy Kaufman are two different people. Andy liked to have Bob Zmuda play Clifton and sometimes Andy would go on stage and be one of his other lovable characters and the audience would laugh and go crazy. But Clifton kicked Andy off the stage and this would enrage the audience and they wouldn't want to pay attention to Tony anymore.
 * __Conga man__: A sweet, shy guy who loved to play the bongos. Sometimes the audience would make him scared and nervous so Andy would cry, and eventually that cry would become a rhythm and he would play his bongos and be happy again.
 * __British man__: This character was only ever seen when Andy had a very harsh audience that would boo him and scream "Do Latka!" He would use a British accent and read the novel //The Great Gatsby// by F. Scott Fitzgerald in its entirety. At first, the audience would laugh and see that Andy is using a funny accent, but they got infuriated and most of them would leave.
 * __Bad Guy Wrestler__: This character got Andy voted off of Saturday Night Live. He claimed to be this superior man from Hollywood who could wrestle and beat any woman. Andy loved wrestling and the drama between wrestlers. Wrestler Jerry Lawler and Andy staged a hatred between each other and wrestled, Lawler had piledriven Andy and broke his neck. Andy won because the pile driver was an illegal move so Lawler was disqualified. They appeared on the David Letterman Show together afterwards and Andy's neck was in a brace, they came out and confessed it was staged a while after.
 * __Elvis Presley__: Andy wasn't just some Elvis impersonator, Andy was actually Elvis's favorite Elvis impersonator. Andy's lifetime obsession with Elvis allowed him to memorize his movements and voice, making Andy second to the king.

Andy's Performing Philosophy:

 * When Andy had a live performance, he thought of it as him inviting the audience into his home. He would entertain them, they would sing, it would just be a happy and fun time together.
 * Andy was only ever truly happy or entertained when he played with the minds of his audience, even his friends and family. He did this so often people still think he faked his own death.
 * It wasn't uncommon for Andy to lose audience members. In fact, he always started off his performances saying his show was just him sitting, don't have high expectations, and asked people to leave because he believed that would get rid of the audience members Andy didn't want.

Most Memorable Performances:

 * //Saturday Night Live//: 15 performances on the show, he was voted off of the show after viewers found him wrestling women to be distasteful.
 * //Taxi//: 5 Seasons:
 * Carnegie Hall:
 * Guest appearance on TV show //Fridays's//: