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Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally Hardcover – October 7, 2014


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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: BenBella Books (October 7, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1940363055
  • ISBN-13: 978-1940363059
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bob Zmuda connects on so many levels with this gripping yet hilarious inside industry chronicle. A great story of unconditional friendship and love framed in a studied portrait of a fascinatingly complex, brilliant, unduplicable anti-performance artist who may well resurrect to blow our minds again."
—Dan Aykroyd

"Danger. What would've or WILL Andy do next???? We wondered every time we saw him on TV or live on stage. I still wonder. We still laugh. The definition of an enigma, LIKE NO OTHER."
—Kathy Griffin

"I never worked with Andy Kaufman and I never even watched Taxi. I do like the name Andy, if that's any help."
—Paula Poundstone

"Bob Zmuda was (is?) Andy Kaufman’s partner in all of Andy's reality-bending adventures. Is Andy's death yet another elaborate hoax by the ultimate performance artist? An absolutely astonishing read, Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally reveals all. Prepare to be amazed!"
—John Landis

"I was so fascinated by the melding of Andy’s and Zmuda’s mind that I spent two years of my life making a movie about it."
—Milos Forman

About the Author

Andy Kaufman and his writing partner, Bob Zmuda, changed the worlds of comedy and performance in the 1970s, showing fans and friends alike a determination to follow put-ons into territory no one had ever even considered “comic” before. Their fervor was so intense that when Kaufman passed away suddenly in 1984, it seemed as if his death had been staged, with the reveal soon to come.

Zmuda met Kaufman in 1974, when Zmuda was a struggling comic himself. Soon he began writing for Andy until his (supposed) death in ’84. Bob also wrote briefly for Rodney Dangerfield and was the late great Sam Kinison’s producer, “another gifted provocateur,” said Zmuda.

For nearly 30 years, Bob Zmuda has been the driving force behind one of America’s most beloved charities, Comic Relief, probably best recognized for their telethons on HBO hosted by Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Billy Crystal. As president and founder, he and his fellow comedians have raised over $80 million for those in need.

A Grammy nominee and Emmy Award winner, Bob is also a bestselling author. His book Andy Kaufman Revealed made top 10 lists nationwide. Two-time Academy Award winning director Milos Forman said, “I was so fascinated by the melding of Zmuda and Kaufman’s minds that I spent two years of my life making a movie about them, Man on the Moon.” The award winning film starred Jim Carrey as Kaufman and Paul Giamatti as Zmuda. Zmuda also coexecutive produced the film with Danny DeVito and Jersey Films.

On television, Bob has hosted several specials for Comedy Central and A&E. His television appearances include Saturday Night Live, Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and all the Comic Relief telecasts. His acting credits include Punchline, Batman, Man on the Moon, D.C. Cab (which he also wrote), and The Number 23, again with Jim Carrey.

For the last few years, Zmuda has been producing Kaufman’s alter ego, international singing sensation Tony Clifton, to sold out audiences. He is currently working on mounting the largest star-studded fundraiser ever for endangered wildlife worldwide.

Lynne Margulies, artist and filmmaker, was Andy Kaufman’s partner, caretaker, and the love of his life until his death from lung cancer in 1984. Courtney Love portrayed Margulies in the Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey. During the film’s production, Margulies worked closely with Carrey, giving him rare insight into the human side of Andy Kaufman. Margulies teaches fine art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She is the codirector of the documentary film I’m From Hollywood, which chronicles Kaufman’s foray into the world of professional wrestling. Her latest art project is The Book of Steve, a four-foot by three-foot book which tells the story of her brother’s descent into mental illness. Margulies, her musician husband, and their eight cats live on the Oregon coast.

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Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful By clawless on September 26, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
A Lot of innuendo and supposition is what I have disappointedly found in this book. It isn't too different from Bob's last book. Lynne has very little to do with it that I can see. The photos are good to have and maybe there are some little things about Andy that I didn't know. But overall, this book is a big disappointment. Bob is trying to cash in on being Andy's friend and writer. Again. Can't he just pay attention to his own talents and use them without hiding in Andy's shadow to make money?
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful By imageten on October 10, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Ok, I need to start this review off by saying a few things. I never knew Andy Kaufman. As a matter of fact, he died a little less than a month after I was born. With that being said, I discovered his work at a young age, and it became a pretty important part of my life. Actually to a point where it worried my parents. They even tried to keep me away from reading about him. That didn't work. Both as a person and a performer myself, Andy has always been an inspiration to me. Hence, I would and still do continue to seek out anything that was ever written or made about him. So that's why, even though I didn't have high hopes about it, I still bought this book.

OVERALL QUALITY:

Firstly, this book isn't nearly as well written as Zmuda's last effort. While there aren't any misspellings or anything like that, the wording is very funny in lots of places, and reads like a rough draft. I believe that it was "technically" proofread for obvious spelling and grammatical errors, but no one went through this thing to make sure the writing flowed, or to point out the fact that significant portions of the book are a bit incoherent and are repeated time and time again, most likely to take up space. At times, the writing appears as far out rambling...especially the final chapter entitled "Andy Will Be Back". Zmuda even says that his family wanted him to have a psych evaluation because he's still obsessing over a person who has been dead for over 30 years. Maybe they are right...

CONTENTS:

I agree with the other reviewer on here who says something to the effect that the book should be called "Jim Carrey: The Truth, Finally".
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Format: Hardcover
Obviously you have to read this book with a vat of salt. a grain just won't do. I happen to be friends with Little Wendy who was Andy kaufman's performing partner and friend for a long time and she tipped me off to this book. The book in and of itself is very entertaining with the best parts being about the Man in the Moon movie and all the Jim Carrey anecdotes about playing Andy.
The surmising about whether Andy really died or is faking his death got a little tedious at times and the last chapter where Bob Zmuda postulates how he believes Andy managed to fake his death really went on a bit too long. I think Lynne marguiles commentary was there to give us an occasional break from Zmuda. She was the voice of sanity for the reader.
The book was only $20 and it was fast paced and entertaining and it helps to perpetuate the legend of Andy Kaufman.
You can watch Tony clifton berate Jim Carrey at a press junket on Youtube. Finally, andy if you are out there please come out of hiding before no one alive remembers who you were.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful By Eric Smallwood on October 10, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Andy Kaufman was & is my favorite comedian o all time & the fact that he never called himself one only cemented that position for me. Bob Zmuda was Andy's cohort in comedy if not in crime (As he's careful to explain repeatedly in this tome regarding Andy's possible death hoax as if to say: "DON'T BLAME ME! IT WASN'T MY IDEA!!") & together the two made comic magic that's still being deciphered after all of these years. Consider just a few examples of things that the two were doing years before anyone else had the good sense to: 1)The masked magician revealing his secrets. The Fox specials were all the rage for a few years with a masked magician giving up all of the secrets of David Copperfield & company. Unfortunately for the creative geniuses behind this, Andy & Bob had done the exact same routine years earlier. 2) The whole Truman Show idea of watching a celebrity's every boring & mundane move as Andy frequently "entertained" his audience by allowing them to watch him do his laundry onstage or perhaps eat a bowl of ice cream. There were no jokes during these segments of course (Andy never told any but in these set ups he wasn't trying to be funny in any way as if to challenge the audience seeking out comedy to find some in his act.) but under the right circumstances even the unfunny becomes funny as Andy well knew. 3)Years before Hulk Hogan brought wrestling into the mainstream (Back when wrestling was suspected of being fake by practically all but not yet admitted to being fake by those who do it & who had been for years keepers of "Kayfabe" which was to wrestling what "Omerta" was to the mafia. Both honor bound oaths of silence went by the wayside in time.Read more ›
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