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Was This Man a Genius?: Talks With Andy Kaufman - Softcover

Hecht, Julie

 
9780375725203: Was This Man a Genius?: Talks With Andy Kaufman
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0375725202 ISBN 13: 9780375725203
Verlag: Vintage Books, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

An enlightening portrait of the great comedian details the author's unusual encounters and coversations with Andy Kaufman, from an appearance at his former high school to his legendary Carnegie Hall performance, and discusses Kaufman's life, artistic aspirations, and influence on postmodern popular culture. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

<b>Julie Hecht</b> was born in Manhattan. She is the author of <i>Do the Windows Open?</i>, a collection of stories, all of which appeared in <i>The New Yorker</i>. Her stories have also been published in <i>Harper’s</i>, and she has won and O. Henry Prize. In 1998 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives on the east end of Long Island in the winter and in Massachusetts in the summer.

Aus dem Klappentext

defied explanation. But between 1978 and 1979, acclaimed <i>New Yorker</i> short story writer Julie Hecht attempted to arrange an interview with him, hoping to discover how he came to do what he did. The one-hour interview turned into innumerable surreal meetings and phone conversations with her subject; but she couldn't always tell when his act was on. <br><br>Whether driving recklessly on icy roads, or drawing the author unaware into his schemes and dada-esque pranks on unsuspecting waiters and college students, Andy Kaufman never seemed to separate himself from his stage personality--or personalities. <b>Was This Man a Genius?</b> is the culmination of a series of bizarre, frequently hilarious meetings; In describing them Hecht, herself a master of wit and observation, illuminates the enigma of Andy Kaufman's work and life.

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Not Funny

"I just want the audience to have a wonderful, happy feeling inside them and leave with big smiles on their faces," Andy told me with a blank stare the first time I met him. "I can't help it if people laugh, I'm not trying to be funny," he explained. He said that he felt insulted when he saw reviews calling him a comedian. "I wouldn't mind being compared to Charlie Chaplin or W. C. Fields," he said sadly. "But I don't find most comedy funny."

People were surprised when they heard Andy speak on TV for the first time. He spoke with a foreign accent, but it was impossible to be sure what kind of accent it was, because it sounded in between Pakistani and Jamaican. Someone with the name "Andy Kaufman" was probably from New York, not Pakistan, and this made the accent even more mysterious.

"No one else would have me when I got put on Saturday Night Live in 1975," Andy told me when I met him. After the first show, when the cast appeared to wave good-bye, Andy wasn't there. The time he did come out, at the end of one of the later shows, he stood by himself and stared into the camera. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt with the hood on his head.

"I wasn't trying to be funny," he said when I asked about the the sweatshirt. "I was dressed to leave and they said to come out onstage for the good-byes, so I did. This is what I really wear outside. I can't help it if people think it's funny."

It hadn't been easy to get to talk to Andy for the first time. "What's it for, some kinda movie magazine or what?" Andy's manager, George Shapiro, asked me over the phone from Beverly Hills. I explained what, but George wasn't impressed. "Yeah, well, Andy doesn't like to do these things, and he's gonna be very busy when he's in New York for Town Hall. But, listen, he's also gonna perform the same week at his high school, in Great Neck, and this is a great triumph for him, because he was so shy in high school. You can go out there and talk to him for a few minutes after the concert." I realized that a number of people in Beverly Hills spoke with New York accents.

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Verlag
Vintage Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2002
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0375725202
ISBN 13 
9780375725203
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
192
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Verantwortliche Person
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