"The test for Humanity can take many forms, so let your senior Sister decide the best form. In any event, a great deal of non-injurious pain is required. It must be something that makes the Postulant question herself at a very deep level. If she can withstand the pain and humiliation with grace and self-control, then she has passed. In any case, the ordeal is to be kept a secret by all parties involved."

February 22, 2011

Maybe my favorite comedian: Andy Kaufman


Andy Kaufman must've been a sweet boy.

I mean, look at that face.  He might be my favorite comedian of all time.  At least as long as I've been alive and conscious of comedians and what it means to be funny to others.  

I love Andy Kaufman because he was the ultimate actor.  It was impossible to know when he wasn't in character.  He was constantly in character--in this character, in that character... it didn't matter.  He was driven not so much to be someone else as to project, whenever possible, a personality you had to contend with.  All to get a rise out of you.




I fucking love that.  It's the epitome of tricksterism.  I take a kind of joy in tricksterism that I find hard to explain.  It's like Andy could create a character to negotiate the way he communicated with other people about matters that I presume mattered to him very deeply.  But the thing is, he loved to fuck with people.  I mean, if you call yourself the Women's World Wrestling Champion and youre a dude--dude, that's fuckin' hilarious.  And it satirizes all those men who think gender superiority is based on physical prowess or size (or both, uhthankyouveddymuch!).  



Great acting requires clarity.  So what does it take to project ambiguity?  Is that a higher form of acting?



Andy's great gift was ambiguity.  He made it impossible for you to know if he was for real, or not.  I guess we all knew he wasnt for real--I mean he was on TV for Christ's sake--he was a fucking entertainer!  It was the fact that I couldn't tell for sure whether he was a put-on that I loved so much.  Mind you, he could do the foreign guy, then be Elvis, then be the bongomeister and I would still be asking myself: which is the real guy?  He was clearly impersonating Elvis, so he must be putting on the other characters.  But where is Andy?

Check out this video and see if you think this is the "real" Andy Kowfman:





You see what I mean?  Impossible to say.  I want to believe this is the real Andy Kaufman, but I have no idea.  



He was a great comedian because it didn't matter to him if you got what he was doing.  He got it.  




So maybe that's what it takes to be famous.  To stop worrying about what entertains others...and entertain yourself.

Hey!


--YFWLY

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