As doing research for an Oral Communications project I've been balls-deep into Andy Kaufman material. As much as I thought I knew already about my idol, I was surprised to find out some things about his life that I was completely unaware of. Here are some maybe previously unknown or uncommon Andy facts.
1. Andy never brushed his teeth on Sunday.
Andy Kaufman would sometimes spend hours in the bathroom getting ready for the day, and he would often only use a toothbrush once before throwing it away but on Sunday he chose the stank mouth.
2. Andy had a daughter.
Her name is Maria Colonna and Andy had her when he was 20. At the time his girlfriend was 17 and they gave her up for adoption since neither of them wanted to get married. Maria never knew Andy Kaufman was her father until 1992.
3. Foreign Man was created when Andy was mugged in New York City.
This was a story told by Andy (50/50 shot of it being true). He claims that as he was loading his vehicle after a gig and he was stuck up by a mugger in New York City. He thought of foreign man on the fly to maybe confuse the assailant enough to where he would take pity on him and leave him alone. According to Andy a mixture of frustration and pity kept him safe that night from the mugger and his idea for Foreign Man (Latka) was born.
4. Elvis' Favorite Impersonation of himself was Andy Kaufman.
When Andy went to Graceland to pay tribute to his long-time hero. During his trip he broke off from the group with best friend Bob Zmuda and ended up finding a video of Andy doing his Elvis impression in The King's personal video collection. Andy was stunned with joy. So much to where he took a dump on Elvis' infamous death toilet.
5. Micheal Richards was the only one "in" on the Friday's incident.
It was revealed that Micheal Richards was the only one in the entire building that knew what Andy was up to during this staged brawl. He simply stated that he knew people who were convinced that it wasn't real and he wanted to prove them wrong.
Andy worked as a part-time busboy at Posh Bagel on Santa Monica Boulevard and at Jerry's Famous Deli in Studio City. He claimed that it relaxed and grounded him. For what it's worth his employers said he was fantastic and was low-key enough never to get noticed due to the unbelievable idea that the Taxi mega-star would be working as a busboy anywhere.
9. Andy wore "authentic" Elvis gear for his NBC special.
1. Andy never brushed his teeth on Sunday.
Andy Kaufman would sometimes spend hours in the bathroom getting ready for the day, and he would often only use a toothbrush once before throwing it away but on Sunday he chose the stank mouth.
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| cereal on Saturday means stank on Sunday |
2. Andy had a daughter.
Her name is Maria Colonna and Andy had her when he was 20. At the time his girlfriend was 17 and they gave her up for adoption since neither of them wanted to get married. Maria never knew Andy Kaufman was her father until 1992.
3. Foreign Man was created when Andy was mugged in New York City.
This was a story told by Andy (50/50 shot of it being true). He claims that as he was loading his vehicle after a gig and he was stuck up by a mugger in New York City. He thought of foreign man on the fly to maybe confuse the assailant enough to where he would take pity on him and leave him alone. According to Andy a mixture of frustration and pity kept him safe that night from the mugger and his idea for Foreign Man (Latka) was born.
4. Elvis' Favorite Impersonation of himself was Andy Kaufman.
When Andy went to Graceland to pay tribute to his long-time hero. During his trip he broke off from the group with best friend Bob Zmuda and ended up finding a video of Andy doing his Elvis impression in The King's personal video collection. Andy was stunned with joy. So much to where he took a dump on Elvis' infamous death toilet.
5. Micheal Richards was the only one "in" on the Friday's incident.
It was revealed that Micheal Richards was the only one in the entire building that knew what Andy was up to during this staged brawl. He simply stated that he knew people who were convinced that it wasn't real and he wanted to prove them wrong.
6. When Andy was stressed or bored he would assume part-time work.
7. Everytime he stepped on an airplane he went right foot first.
Everytime he stepped onto a plane it was right foot first and he even required it of his travel companions. According to Bob Zmuda Andy skipped this ritual on his last flight before he died, but it seems a little too dramatic for me to believe.
8. Andy Kaufman would "floss" after playing Tony Clifton.
After Andy would drink, smoke and eat meat after playing Clifton he would go on a strict body cleansing regiment. He would soak 15 feet of cheesecloth and swallow it whole. He would then wait for his body to pass it and pull it out of his ass in some sort of "internal flossing". It was said that Elton John (for whatever reason) gave Jim Carey 60 feet of cheescloth as a gift on the set of Man on the Moon as joke.
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| It comes out your butt ... get it? |
9. Andy wore "authentic" Elvis gear for his NBC special.
A majority of his budget for the show was invest into getting Elvis' real costume designer in to make him two authentic Elvis costumes. It was even said that Andy paid money to get buttons that had actually popped off of Elvis' jumpsuits.
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| buttons courtesy of Elvis' fat ass |
10. Andy wanted to levitate.
Andy actually left in mid-season of Taxi to attended a Transcendental Meditation retreat in Switzerland where they claimed that after 6 weeks they would teach you to levitate. Andy returned after the trip claiming it was, in fact, real but in order to do it you had to "purify" yourself by staying celibate for the rest of your life. Andy was not on board with that.
