It seems almost like an understatement to say that comedian Andy Kaufman was one of the most influential people to practice the craft. With an impish glee, Kaufman would subvert audiences’ expectation, in the process deconstructing and reassembling comedy into something new that continues to influence up and coming comedians today. But as part of his comedy, Kaufman often wore multiple masks, peeling them off in onion layers, though never quite removing that final one to reveal the true performer under the performance.
However, the new documentary Andy Kaufman Is Me from director Clay Tweel looks to dig past the public persona and present a picture of Kaufman that only his closest family and friends got to see.
Speaking on the film’s premier red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival this past week, Tweel admits that he is a fan of Kaufman and well aware of how much has already been has been written and produced about Kaufman’s life.
“I know how much stuff is out there, and I have enjoyed all of it,” he says. “I felt like, ‘What was the new thing we can bring to the table?’ And then, the first conversation I had with Andy’s family, Michael and Carol, they were like ‘Listen, there are parts of our brother we don’t feel like have been known to the public and there hasn’t been a more three-dimensional portrait of who he is and we think we’d like to do that.’ I said, ‘Great, but how, in what way?’ and they said ‘We have a lot of this archive and Andy used to record himself all the day. He had his inner monologues and his ideas for skits and recording himself on the Staten Island Ferry doing doing characters for people.’ That to me was the new unique thing, having Andy have his own voice be the narrator of the arc of his journey.”
“This is the definitive Andy Kaufman film,” asserts the documentary’s producer Ross Dinerstein. “There’s been plenty said about him, but no one has ever gotten this deep, no one has ever really shown who he was as a person. Andy Kaufman will always be misunderstood and confusing,” he explains. “But because of the ability for his family to tell who Andy was as Andy versus his various characters, that’s what this film brings. You see a side of him that no one has ever heard or seen. Through his audio he’s able to tell his own story and some of his own motivations.”
Co-producer and co-writer Shannon Riggs agrees. “As soon as we started listening [to the tapes] we went ‘Wait! He’s just a regular person!'”
Ask anyone what their favorite Andy Kaufman bit is an there are a few pieces that will invariably come up in the conversation – lipsyncing to a record of the Might Mouse cartoon theme, his timid Foreign Man character turning into a very credible Elvis Presley impersonator, or even faking a fight on live television.
Tweel states that it was drawn to Kaufman’s work by “that dynamic range of emotions he presents to an audience as he’s performing. So you can have things like that are like a Tony Clifton that are crass and rude and have that edge to it, but you can have something like where he’s doing a bit with Howdy Doody and its very sweet and loving and genuine. And the difference between those things all within a period of twenty minutes off a show is what gives an audience a more powerful performance. It’s something that sticks with you more than someone just doing setup, punchline.”
Riggs concurs, stating that her personal favorite Kaufman bits are the ones that showcase Kaufman’s gentler side. “I’m a sentimental person so any time he’s with the puppets is sweet to me,” she admits, while conceding that others are drawn to Kaufman’s darker, edgier material. “I think that’s probably what most people are drawn too. It was something we talked about a lot. I am a person who gets second hand embarrassment very easily. That was a process for me to be warming up to this and we kind of used my discomfort as a bar. I get cringe very easily and he’s thrilling for me in that way.”
But given that he hid so much of himself under layers of character and comedy, how would Kaufman have reacted to the scrutiny his life and work has received in the decades following his death?
“Every person we interviewed that was close to Andy, we asked them ‘Do you think Andy would find it funny that there this many documentaries made on him?’ and the all said ‘Yeah!'” states Riggs. “So we feel like we are honoring him.”
But would Kaufman still be on the forefront of comedy?
“I think he would be doing something in the vein of what Nathan Fielder is doing,” speculates Tweel. “But I will say this, people who are that far ahead of their audience, I think have a hard time being sustainable because its like you can only stay so far ahead for so long.”
