Issue 18: Sydney Brown's Sixty Seconds
By Sydney Brown

Sydney Brown’s Sixty Seconds

I’ve been on a comedy kick lately, watching the stand-up work of Mitch Hedburg and Bill Hicks, and after discovering a ton of Andy Kaufman material on Netflix, (and being as I have only watched two real movies since my last column), I’m devoting this edition to the work of Andy Kaufman.

For those not in the know, Andy Kaufman was not a stand-up comedian, nor was he even necessarily a comedian, but a performance artist who did what he wanted when he wanted, and if you enjoyed his work, good. If you didn’t………well, you were in for a long night. His career lasted about a decade or so, (he passed away from cancer in 1984), and while he’s most well-known as Latka Gravas on the show Taxi, (a variation on one of his characters in his shows), he’s much more three dimensional than that.

Quite possibly the ultimate “love-it-or-hate-it” performer, in layman’s terms he’s a kinder, gentler Sacha Cohen, (Ali G / Borat), but had every bit of the “Is he serious?” vibe if not more so. And here’s a look at five shows either starring him or about him:

Man on the Moon (1999) Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito **

Okay, but pretty unspectacular biopic of Kaufman’s life that almost plays like a Reader’s Digest version of his life. A film that focused on one aspect of his career would have made for a great film, but cramming his entire life into two hours comes off as a rush job. Carrey does a great acting job, but the film is a major disappointment, especially when you consider most of the major scenes can be seen for real on DVDs and other media, (and usually aren’t even that close to how the film presents them.) The film is geared towards people who have never heard of him, and unfortunately it means things you are supposed to figure out for yourself are force-fed instead. Not a bad film, but a MUCH better one could have been made.

The Andy Kaufman Story (2000) **1/2

Part live performance, (from a 1979 Catskills show), part documentary, this takes a rare look at one of Andy’s stage shows (with a less than forgiving audience), which is fascinating. What isn’t fascinating is the producer putting himself on camera way more than he has any right to, and what also isn’t fascinating are the anecdotes from “comedians” and people who never knew him in the first place. But this is one of the few places you’ll see Andy wrestling women, bringing his show to a dead halt by letting his family perform bad jokes and karaoke, and hear him intentionally botch the “Oklahoma” song, (a personal highlight.) An unedited stage show would have been much more interesting as the producer’s ego just gets in the way too much for this to be effective.

Soundstage: The Andy Kaufman Show (1983) ***

One of the last major Kaufman programs was this 1983 PBS special which is part kids show / part talk show. Don’t expect to laugh out loud, but do expect to wonder what the hell is going on. Highlights include the “Talk to a Has-Been” segment where Andy brings a former “star” back for one last hurrah in a segment that can be seen as poignant or utterly humiliating depending on how you take it, a bizarre dog food commercial involving a wind-up toy dog, and a talk show segment where Andy admits his dislike for his guest during the “break.” Only 58 minutes, but either you’re with him or you aren’t, (and it’s pretty clear even a lot of the audience isn’t either.)

Heartbeeps (1981) Andy Kaufman, Bernadette Peters ½*

One of the most annoying and boring films you’ll ever see. Imagine a full-length film where C3P0 talks to his female likeness for 78 minutes and you have this colossal waste of time. Kaufman and Peters are robots who leave their factory to discover the outside world. A police robot chases them. That’s it! That’s the whole freakin’ movie! They meet a miniature robot and are followed by a Jewish comedian robot, all of whom do nothing remotely interesting. So bad it’s bad. Even worse, small roles by Christopher Guest and Randy Quaid only show how wasted everyone involved was. The half a star is for the innovative makeup and John Williams score (which pretty much sounds like Star Wars outtakes.) Jerry Garcia voices the mini-robot for no particular reason. It would have worked as a 20-minute short, but as a feature, it’s painfully dull.

A Comic Salute to Andy Kaufman (1994) ****

Quite possibly the best tribute that could have been done for Andy Kaufman with virtually all the bases covered. Clips from all his famous and infamous TV appearances are here, including his seldom-seen temper tantrum that “ruined” a live episode of the ABC show Fridays. His specials, his wrestling career, even his busboy job are covered here. Amazingly, this was aired by NBC, and even more amazingly got very good ratings and an Emmy nod. Not available on video, but if you look hard enough, you can find it, and it’s well worth the look.

-Sydney Brown