![andy kaufman andy kaufman](https://cdn.britannica.com/28/193928-004-00034869.jpg)
He conquered his shyness through inner peace and wellness. Taking up Transcendental Meditation helped keep him grounded as he focused on his goal. On this time in his life, Andy stated, "I went to college to study to be in television, and I said to myself, ‘What do I want to do in life? Do I want to keep on getting stoned, which I really don’t enjoy that much, or do I really want to do something with my life? I want to be on television and be successful at what I do.’" He had gotten low grades throughout school and just seemingly was "not part of this world."
![andy kaufman andy kaufman](https://images.thestar.com/8kZUhHVfdJgZL8ZK_gND6X43mZ0=/1200x849/smart/filters:cb(2700061000)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/entertainment/2013/11/14/andy_kaufman_is_still_alive_alleged_daughter_claims/andy_kaufman.jpg)
Once they were getting close to graduating, they wondered what Andy would do when he had to go to college or have to work. Years later, as an adult, playing the role of Elvis was one of his main acts.Īs a teenager in the early ‘60s, he became part of a group of outsiders in high school that liked to take illegal narcotics. He’d stay at home obsessively listening to his records and imitating him. He remembers while living in the Long Island, New York area, nobody liked Elvis and preferred the Beatles. As if he felt safer with older children compared to kids of his own age, Kaufman began to entertain them at parties at eight years old.Īs an adolescent, he was shy and obsessed with Elvis Presley. He was not athletic and did not enjoy playing sports with others. In summer camp, Andy, who didn’t like to go, would, according to his father, "just stand in the outfield with his back turned to home plate and dream out there." “When my brother was born, I stared out the window for days. "My mother sent me to psychiatrists since the age of four because she didn’t think little boys should be sad,” Kaufman once admitted.
#Andy kaufman professional#
His parents sought professional help because they believed something was wrong with their son. When his younger brother Mike reached the age of two, Andy could be seen often alone in the living room looking sad and just staring out the window.
![andy kaufman andy kaufman](https://todaybirthday.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Andy-Kaufman.jpg)
When in his basement bedroom, Andy imagined there was a camera on the wall where he recreated shows as if he were really on television. Instead of going outside to play with the other kids as his parents urged him, he preferred to watch television all day (if he could) and to write poems and stories. Andy Kaufman – Early Life Andy Kaufman as a childįrom an early age, Kaufman felt a need to perform.
#Andy kaufman plus#
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#Andy kaufman pro#
There are so many great stories in pro wrestling history. The characters Andy Kaufman later developed were made for entertainment, not necessarily for the audience to like him. This proved invaluable when he got involved in wrestling, a business that had no qualms with muddling the truth. He wanted to entertain but kept pushing the envelope further, making people uncomfortable, making them question if what they were seeing was genuine and true.
![andy kaufman andy kaufman](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/c6764977a3cec23abcc377b31c3358bbc23108c3/c=0-544-1303-1283/local/-/media/USATODAY/popcandy/2013/11/14/1384432021000-ib0-lline-kaufman-10.jpg)
Kaufman wanted genuine emotions from his audience, and most of the time, he kept people around him out of the loop of what he was going to do. It was often difficult to separate the entertainer from the real person that was Andy Kaufman. Andy Kaufman exasperated the fans and Jerry Lawler like no other. Nobody had seen anything like Andy Kaufman before, or since. The small territory of Memphis was about to go mainstream in a hurry. Like a fish takes to water, he instigated and got heat like the best of them. Once inside the wrestling world, very few could argue that Andy wasn’t born to be a heel. "He was the greatest thing that ever happened to my career," Lawler declared. Jerry Lawler once mentioned that Andy Kaufman told him that he would give up everything he was doing in Hollywood if he could just stay involved in wrestling.