Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All [Paperback]

Bob Zmuda (Author), Matthew Scott Hanson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2001

With a movie about Kaufman already out, this is his manager and friend Zmuda's recollection of the late comedian. Best remembered as English-challenged immigrant Latka Gravas on the '70s sitcom "Taxi", Kaufman also appeared regularly on "Saturday Night Live", did stand-up, and wrestled women. Photos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

American comedian Andy Kaufman (1949-1984) was a performer like no other--a rule-breaking iconoclast who blurred the line between performance art and comedy, at times between life and art itself. Misunderstood by the public at large during his lifetime, and embraced by a cult of fans that has consistently grown since his premature death from cancer, Kaufman is the perfect counter-cultural martyr, ripe for a Gap khakis ad. Like Lenny Bruce before him, Kaufman chafed at the reigns of comedy; he didn't always want to make people laugh, in fact he wished to make them uncomfortable. One might consider those notorious French bad-boy playwrights Alfred Jarry and Antonin Artaud (who pushed the envelope of good taste and thoroughly enjoyed confusing their audiences) to be Kaufman's spiritual predecessors, though this might be taking things too seriously. His most well-known routines--the inept stand-up comedian "foreign man," the basis for the character Latka Gravas on the hit sitcom "Taxi"; the grizzled, professional lounge lizard Tony Clifton; and the reigning world champion of inter-gender wrestling--all hinged on making the crowd squirm. Life was a show for Kaufman, who began staging elaborate shows for friends and family at the age of 7; everything was a put-on and yet totally, dead-on serious.

Judging by Bob Zmuda's book (released in anticipation of a biographical movie starring Jim Carrey), Kaufman wasn't the easiest guy to be a best friend to. But, as Zmuda tells things, he rose to the challenge--letting Kaufman confide that he had a daughter he'd never seen, keeping his mouth shut at the appropriate times, and otherwise fulfilling best-friend duties with aplomb. Andy Kaufman got the friend he deserved in his lifetime, but this is not the biography he deserves; it is written in a well-meaning though hackneyed and hard-to-digest style. Simple points are made again and again, as if the two(!) authors were attempting to fuse a poorly-written college essay with a USA Today article. And Mr. Zmuda makes the mistake of assuming that his own history will be of much interest to the reader, who is ostensibly reading a tell-all about Kaufman, not his best friend. There are tremendous anecdotes here; about half the book is filled with glorious tales of artful mischief, hijinks, pranks, and funny stuff that Zmuda and Kaufman pulled on friends, crowds, and strangers. Fans will undoubtedly want to pick this one up, while those with a more casual interest are cautioned to perhaps look elsewhere for a less clumsily written tome. --Mike McGonigal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The brilliantly subversive comedian Andy Kaufman is remembered today not only for his ability to make people laugh but also for his unnerving blend of shock humor and high-concept performance art. Fifteen years after Kaufman's death from lung cancer at the age of 35, his close friend and collaborator Zmuda unveils an intimate portrait of the enigmatic performer. In 1972, Zmuda, then a struggling writer/comedian, first saw Kaufman perform at New York's Improv as Foreign Man, a lovable dork, who, after bombing miserably on stage, would burst into a dead-on impersonation of Elvis Presley. Foreign Man would become Kaufman's signature act, leading to regular appearances on Saturday Night Live and a role as Latka on the TV sitcom Taxi. Yet Kaufman, according to Zmuda, often grew bored with celebrity and constantly pushed the comic envelope: inventing an alter ego, the swaggering, foul-mouthed lounge singer Tony Clifton; taking a Hollywood audience out for milk and cookies (a concept for which Zmuda claims credit); going on tour to wrestle college-age women, an idea apparently dreamed up by Kaufman in order to get women to sleep with him. Kaufman's unpredictability was such that audiences never knew whether or not they were in on the joke; when the comedian succumbed to cancer, many wondered whether he was faking it. Zmuda reveals some long-kept secretsAincluding the truth about the infamous feud with wrestler Jerry Lawler, which landed Kaufman in the hospital. Although Zmuda touches upon Kaufman's obsessive-compulsive behavior and the possibility that he might have exhibited a form of multiple personality disorder, this highly absorbing memoir will be read less for its insights into Kaufman's psyche than for the immediacy with which it recounts his brief but blazing career. (Sept.) FYI: The Andy Kaufman craze continues this fall as Universal Pictures releases the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon, directed by Milos Forman and starring Jim Carrey. In November, Delacorte will publish Lost in the Fun House: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman by Bill Zehme.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316610984
• ISBN-13: 978-0316610988
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (119 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent anecdotes, good insights, questionable narrative, January 4, 2000

By 

Paul Pearson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All (Hardcover)

One thing Zmuda's book does that "Man on the Moon" did not is outline the M.O. for Andy's stunts, although it still doesn't really establish a reason for them. Of course, maybe there wasn't one. Andy tried to erase the boundary between comedy on the screen and comedy in the field, but whether or not there was a point to his efforts isn't completely decided in this book -- he still could have just been an idiot savant for all we know. The stories behind Andy's best-known antics are wonderful; he and Zmuda really did operate a precise machine of real-life theatre that, for better or worse, set a lot of precedents in show business. The Jerry Lawlor passage puts to rest one of the entertainment questions I've been wracking myself about for many years.

I also liked Zmuda's chapter on his adventures with Mr. X (btw, Mr. X is allegedly Norman Wexler, who wrote "Serpico" and "Saturday Night Fever," according to Roger Ebert); if it doesn't obviously show the inspiration for Tony Clifton, it's still a great story. But I also agree with many other readers that Zmuda intrudes a bit too much of his own biography upon the story of Kaufman's, and succumbs to cliches, and sometimes embarassing details, about his own sex/love lives too much for my taste.

I haven't read the other bio on Kaufman yet, but I suspect that seeing "Man on the Moon" and reading this book might provide you with a good summary of Kaufman's life and importance. Of course, what's really needed is a comprehensive video release of his television history -- a great idea would be a compilation of his appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and "Fridays" if such a deal could be worked out. Not a bad reference, and definitely an entertaining and quick, if flawed, read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Revealing but not in the way intended., May 21, 2001

By 

"vinces" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All (Paperback)

I read over the most negative customer reviews of this book because even if I don't agree with them they generally tend to be more thought provoking than the positive reviews. So far I haven't found anything in them to disagree strongly with. I wanted to give Zmuda the benefit of the doubt though. His own life is somewhat interesting and I don't care much if he claims too much credit for Andy's work. And I'm willing to accept that this is a book about Zmuda's experiences with Kaufman rather than a Kaufman bio. But the guy really grates on you after a while. By around page 90 I'd decided Zmuda was an amoral slug, a boor and a bore. I finally lost all patience with his implied revelation that he was as good in bed (with women) as Andy. Was he trying to convince himself? To hear him tell it, Zmuda is not only a comic genius and a rockin'stud but also a "guerrilla comedy" trailblazer, stickin' it to The Man while expanding everyone else's mind. But he seems more like a 60's hedonist minor jerk who never grew up. The most revealing thing this book has to say about Andy was that he hung out with someone like Zmuda. Three stars because it does have great Andy stories.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bob Zmuda's Ego Revealed!, January 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All (Hardcover)

Anyone who wants the inside story of Andy Kaufman's genius should buy "Lost in the Funhouse" by Bill Zehme. While Zmuda's book disguises itself as a Kaufman bio, it's nothing more that Zmuda talking about his life and taking credit for concepts that Andy developed years before meeting Bob. The stories of Andy are entertaining, but the book leaves a bad taste in your mouth, much like the film "Man on the Moon". Buy Zehme's book instead - you'll be glad you did.