Andy Kaufman on Letterman, January 7, 1983

[Music] thank you very much welcome back we have a great show for you tonight let me bring out my first guest here and then later in the show David Johansen will be here and also Twiggy my first guest tonight is an actor singer Elvis impersonator professional wrestler sword swallower and one of the stars of NBC's taxi of course we're talking about judd hirsch no no no no please welcome Andy Kaufman thank you thank you for being here and I'm it's nice to see him for a change without that brace you had on your neck for a while how have things been going what have you been doing what's new alright everything's fine mm-hmm yeah we've been doing anything unusual or interesting well I just finished filming a movie with Freddie Blassie called breakfast with Blasi mm-hmm a friend Freddie Blassie is a I know Freddie is Freddie Blassie is he was a professional wrestler he's the world's champion about 20 years ago and now he's a manager of wrestlers and we made a film together called breakfast with glassy did you ever see my dinner with Andre no but I know of the film well it's like the dinner with Andre rice breakfast it's us eating breakfast you know in a restaurant now will this be in general release maybe or art houses or it'll be well I hope it'll be shown I don't know where it's gonna be released this being edited now and then and then it'll be ready for release soon oh I guess it'll be either on cable TV or in midnight movies or little bit maybe regular movies I do regular movies yeah yeah now what how how is your personal life now I know we were doing well professionally uh-huh and that personally uh oh I I just finished taking a weekend workshop it was called the making love workshop and and it's where it's it's a workshop where they teach you you know opening yourself up and to to love everybody and to accept love from people and you know if you're closed off it opens you up and everything and I I took that weekend a few weeks ago and it was a seminar you know who sponsors this activity it's been it's given by a lady and man called Barbara and Johnny and and no barber and Johnny barber and Johnny Barbara DeAngelis and Johnny gray and they it's called the making love workshop and they are both psychologists and they and they give it and I took it a lot of my friends had taken and told me that I should take it it was fun so I did and it was great now what came up what did you learn there that you didn't know before or when had a hug people and tell people I love them like now I tell people I love them and I hug them but you couldn't have done this without Barbara and Johnny don't know it and I never thought of it before you know but yeah so I would do you feel that it's made a legitimate change in your life oh yeah it feels so much better and now I feel so friendly and loving towards everybody you know yeah it's true it's a good thing it's very very nice I know more open and I can be more honest if people yeah yeah and I could tell people I love them and hug them and stuff I love you [Laughter] [Applause] well you're just you're gonna hide me that's what you're gonna do it's not going to be one of those deals where you gets punched is no no okay what do you want me to do in that's it I can say that so I love let's see Paul [Applause] I learned four I love Robert [Applause] I love I love everybody here I love you [Applause] so I I used to do kind of a trick I'd put a little dog treat in my mouth okay well we planned retrieved mr. Kaplan from the audience you have to go away for commercial [Applause] come back to the show later tonight we will be showing you a rare glimpse behind the scenes of show business the making of late night tonight the making of the opening remark and David Johansen is here Twiggy is here and one or two other surprises Monday Miss America Oh Miss America Andy come back and wrestle her Bob Shaw and Grace Slick from Jefferson start to prepare now that's interesting what you learned there about hugging fools yeah and and and you know there there's two people seriously and more serious note there's two people the most the two two most important people in my life I've never told them that I love them and I would like to do that for the first time in my life on your show two people in your life that yeah yeah and that's my mom and dad my parents and so I'd like to do that with the fruit I've never told them that I loved them before and I'd like to do it on your show you've never told your parents / no Andy but while he's gonna but you're gonna do it tonight I'd like to do it all right you want to introduce your parents yeah all right this is my mommy and daddy Willie [Applause] I'm Stanley Stanley Kaufman nice to meet you sir and Janice nice to meet you and this is a pretty exciting being on TV with your son huh he's very excited okay Andy I I feel like I'm kind of used dropping here on a family event okay I just want to say mommy and daddy I never told you this before but I just want to say that I love you both very much and I'm sorry for for if I I know I was a hard kid growing up I gave you a hard times and I'm sorry for all the hard times I gave you and um I want to thank you and I appreciate all the good you know things bringing me up and all the good things you've given me I'm just being my parents and I really appreciate you I'm very grateful to have you both as my parents and I love you both very much [Music] like queen for a day out here now we're if you hope so mind you come over and we'd like to talk with you just a little bit I've never but we need to bring the couch out for Andy's parents if we can so there's room over there if we can yeah here we go alright so just take a few minutes did you did you have you live in the area [Music] beautiful forming a TV studio into a furniture showroom I don't know yeah yeah what did mrs. Kaplan why don't you sit here into mr. Kaplan there and Andy you sit right over there okay now are you comfortable let me let me ask you a couple of questions about your reaction to to what ain't what Andy does for example wrestling women how do you how do you respond to that you don't care for that yeah how about when Andy wrestled the men Jerry Lawler and so forth [Laughter] we're not ever seen the tape oh really yeah we know what up what about that upsets you the fact that Andy was injured or well of course yeah and mr. Coughlin how did you respond to that sort of thing I was very angry at Gerry Lola uh-huh I was absolutely incensed yeah that he would take advantage of Andy's amateurism and really go out to really do damage yeah but it's furious it seemed to me like Andy sort of goaded him into it at the time well Andy does a lot of goading I think that's part of it it's part of the wrestling scene but I don't think that hold is illegal oh very upset now Janice of all of the things that Andy does as a performer which do you like best you don't like his wrestling no I love his Elvis uh-huh what kind of a kid was Andy around the house Oh Andy was brought up in the 60s and they were pretty rough times and Danny was very inquisitive and he wanted to know what all the various situations of that time were about and he went out to find out and we of course were relative newcomers he was our first son and uh we had a learn and he taught us a lot yeah Andy did did you know from early on that he was going to be a performer a comedian ya know he did some things he was about 10 years old in the what are you doing that's ten years old well he was one of the first kids to decide that birthday parties needed a little piping up and he decided that he would entertain at children's birthday parties he was the first one to do it and I think he would he gave a two-hour performance I think for about five dollars when he started out yeah and he would show home movies and his grandfather had given him a sound camera which weighed about two tons and I thought I had a log that thing to all the parties that he did wherever they were yeah but he loved it yes and tell him about the time when I was nine months old mommy tell him about the time I I used to stand in the groove and put on the records night yeah actually now as I understand you let me ask you about now when Annie was getting a lot of hate response when he was wrestling women that that must have upset both of you huh sure yeah well I tell me that he didn't try and talk him out of it tell about how you couldn't go in the beauty parlor because you couldn't go into the beauty parlor huh she couldn't go in the beauty parlor because they did she was embarrassed yeah well that's that's awful I mean you you sound like you you're proud of that Andy or no now you all to you you can you're gonna sing for us is that correct yeah but aren't we gonna call my grandmother you're gonna call your grandmother all right we do that now yeah okay you got the number Andy yeah where does this is your mother yep okay yeah give me the number really your write it down I'll never have you ever been on television before well this before here was that in California huh with with Andy Andy had a skit going up and our United parents are you proud of Andy very much okay and we're calling where is this and the area code 305 it's Florida okay and and who are we gonna be talking to random digit you forgot the floor okay you folks don't miss a thing grandma Lily right I don't I don't know what to say to her what am I to call on this woman for we'll all Toby sure oh okay okay I call her Lily I'm gonna tell her I love her well okay calling Andy Kaufman's grandmother if you just tuned in ladies and gentlemen who knows tomorrow night maybe we'll call your grandmother sound like Lily may have stepped out oh hello Lily my name is David Letterman I'm calling from New York City are you are you Andy Kaufman's grandmother Oh Andy is here and he wanted me to call you and he has something he wants to tell you okay you couldn't be more excited hi how are you I'm fine oh so yeah I'm fine yeah I just want to say grandma yeah I love you I love you very much and I do too okay why are you doing well we're on television right now yeah no no I'm gonna wrestle right now what do you think no no no wrestling okay okay then I won't all right okay yeah okay here's David he wants to talk to you again okay okay okay hello Lily yeah we're gonna go away for a commercial but can you can you hang on for a little while okay what part of Florida are you in in Hollywood Hollywood how's the weather yeah do you warm yeah do you watch this program a lot I watched your actively every night well there you go let me let me hang on here a second Lily let me figure out what we're doing what exactly are we doing we're doing what oh we're gonna do it right now oh okay Lily do you want your grandmother okay you you know that your son Stanley and his wife Janice are here tonight and and Andy is going to arrange a song for everybody he was cut off the other night Oh Andy was cut off at the end of the song in your program was over okay let me let me figure out what's going on here now you're gonna you're gonna sing okay [Applause] I feel like Senor winches here well now what are we doing they're gonna sing now yeah okay now we're you gonna do it from the couch are you gonna it's a real thing okay sure there's Lily I'll just be outside we're gonna sing row row row your boat for me yeah oh come on [Laughter] so you oh you all start then your second mommy and daddy is third no never mind maybe we should do it without you grandma it'll be much better okay so guys want to play along what she doesn't want to play along okay she's kind of like right okay okay Lily that's all right no they're gonna go sing in you and I'll just sit here and swap recipes okay go on over there with your mother and father and just go ahead and are you gonna up there yeah okay they're gonna do it there okay I'll start and now you second and your third okay okay you do this a lot at home no Meredith I just thought it would be fun if we did it for the first time the truth and I we do rehearsing for the last couple of days okay let's let's see what happens row row row your boat gently down [Music] [Music] merrily merrily merrily merrily we're gonna go away for a commercial ladies and gentlemen we'll be back here right after this to chat [Applause] [Music] hi there and welcome back to the show at this point we're gonna have to say goodbye to mr. Andy Kaufman and his lovely mother Janice and his father Stanley thank you very much ladies and gentlemen from [Applause] all right yeah we're having fun now aren't we having almost too much fun all right now have you have you ever won

Channel: Don Giller

Views: 479,032

Keywords: Andy Kaufman

Id: MTh7LUcZwec

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2015