"I never told a joke in my life."

CONCEPT

Today is Andy Kaufman's birthday.

He died on May 16, 1984, or twenty-two years, three months, and thirty days ago.

• I just want real reactions. I want people to laugh from the gut, be sad from the gut-or get angry from the gut.


• I never told a joke in my life.


• I try to please people, to give them a good time, but I refuse to make my act conform to traditional show-biz standards of entertainment. There's a little voice that says, 'Oh, no, you can't do that, that's breaking all the rules.' That's the voice of show business. Then this other little voice says, 'Try it.' And most of the time, when the voice comes on and says, 'No,' that's the time it works.


• If I play my cards right, I could bring network wrestling back to TV. Unfortunately, to most people, wrestling is a laughingstock. But fortunately, I'm reaching people who otherwise wouldn't watch it.


• My mother sent me to psychiatrists since the age of four because she didn't think little boys should be sad. When my brother was born, I stared out the window for days. Can you imagine that?


• Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It's the real performers on the street who can hold people's attention and keep them from walking away.


• The critics try to intellectualize my materiel. There's no satire involved. Satire is a concept that can only be understood by adults. My stuff is straight, for people of all ages.


• There's no drama like wrestling.


• There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.


• What's real? What's not? That's what I do in my act, test how other people deal with reality.


• When I perform, it's very personal. I'm sharing things I like, inviting the audience into my room.


• When I was 7, I believed Howdy Doody was in a little world inside that glowing box. I was hypnotized and I wanted to go away, to be with him in there. When I was 8, I started doing party magic shows for kids - grown-ups had to leave. Then later, at college in Boston, I worked up my own kid's show, Uncle Andy's Fun House.


• Whenever I play a role, whether it's good or bad, an evil person or nice person, I believe in being a purist and going all the way with the role. If I'm going to be a villainous wrestler, I believe in going all the way with it and not breaking character and not giving away to the audience that I'm playing a role. I believe in playing it straight to the hilt.


• While all the other kids were out playing ball and stuff, I used to stay in my room and imagine that there was a camera in the wall. And I used to really believe that I was putting on a television show and that it was going out to somewhere in the world.

END OF POST.