Andy Kaufman

September 15, 2014
Another biography of the idiosyncratic comedian that will make fans question what the authors' previous work on the subject offered and to doubt that this will really be their "final" word. The co-authors were both very close to the late comic provocateur, as Zmuda (Andy Kaufman Revealed, 1999) was his best friend, and collaborator/writer Margulies (Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!, 2009) was his lover and partner until his death in 1984. The book offers a split opinion on that death, with Zmuda still maintaining that it was a hoax and offering frequent conversations with Kaufman on how it could be perpetrated, while Margulies, now married, believes that the death attributed to cancer was more likely a result of AIDS: "His bisexuality would be so humdrum today that I considered not even mentioning it, but Bob and I agreed that we would be completely honest in this book, since it is most likely the last book we will write about Andy." Zmuda, who often played Kaufman's alter ego Tony Clifton when his friend was alive, has continued to perform as Clifton since Kaufman's death, while blurring the line between preserving and extending Kaufman's legacy and capitalizing on his memory. He is the primary author, with interludes from Margulies, and much of the book concerns the roles the two played in the making of Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey as Andy, and the tensions between the two authors and the Kaufman family over his portrayal (and memory and estate). There are some revelatory anecdotes featuring Carrey, Elton John, Hugh Hefner (who tossed Zmuda as Clifton out of a Playboy Mansion party) and others. There's also plenty of amateur psychoanalyzing and lots of exhortation for Andy to return and reveal the hoax. Whatever readers believe or don't about Andy Kaufman, this book will confirm that particular "truth."

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