Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman (1949–1984) was an American comedian and performance artist who used elaborate characters, deadpan delivery, and staged deception to unsettle expectations about comedy and reality.

Foreign Man: A shy, bumbling character Kaufman performed with a deliberately awkward accent and comic timing. This character supplied the persona that became Latka Gravas.
Deadpan: A comic delivery style that suppresses visible emotion and vocal emphasis. Kaufman’s flat delivery made absurd claims harder to distinguish from sincere ones.
Bob Zmuda: An American comedian and writer who collaborated with Andy Kaufman and portrayed Tony Clifton. Zmuda helped sustain the uncertainty surrounding Clifton’s identity and appearances.
Elvis Presley: An American singer and performer whose stage presence helped shape postwar popular culture. Kaufman cited Presley as a performance influence and included an Elvis impersonation in his act.
Performance Art: An art form in which live or recorded actions by an artist constitute the work. Kaufman’s staged personas and audience confrontations overlapped with performance art’s use of live action.
Latka Gravas: A mechanic from the fictional Caspiar who appeared on the sitcom Taxi, played by Andy Kaufman. The role brought Kaufman’s Foreign Man character to a mass television audience.
Character Comedy: Comedy built around a performed persona whose traits generate humor. Kaufman used distinct personas rather than presenting himself as a conventional joke-teller.
George Shapiro: An American talent manager and producer who represented Andy Kaufman. Shapiro helped bring Kaufman’s unconventional act to television and mainstream venues.
Saturday Night Live: An American live sketch-comedy television program that premiered in 1975. Kaufman’s appearances on the show introduced his work to a national audience.
Kayfabe: Professional wrestling’s practice of presenting scripted events and personas as real within the performance. Kaufman’s wrestling act borrowed wrestling’s managed ambiguity between staged entertainment and reality.

Linked from 3 pages