Was This Man a Genius?: Talks with Andy Kaufman
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.92 (877 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 143913572X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 192 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-05-18 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Insight into Man who was Strange, Totally Unique Comic" according to Renee Thorpe. Julie Hecht followed Kaufman around sporadically over a couple of years, trying to nail down some facts about his inspiration, his life, for Harper's.Kaufman did appear to have some affinity for Hecht, in contrast to her report of another press interview she witnessed, hanging . Context is everything here Look, those of us who have read "Do the Windows Open" and "The Unprofessionals" know that Julie Hecht is a fabulous talent whose wit and wisdom is both as ideosyncratic and as it is humane. Knowing her body of work helps a great deal here. What we get is vignettes of two very i. Enjoyable but short, wrong interviewer, and needs editing. This short book is worth reading if you want to "hear" Andy converse. Don't expect any analysis or insight from the author. The title is provocative, but not very germane to the book. It should have been edited for punctuation and spelling. Also, I don't think Kaufman needs to
From Publishers Weekly In 1978 and 1979, short story writer Hecht (Do the Windows Open?) conducted sporadic, often frustrating interviews with the comedian Andy Kaufman for an intended Harper's magazine profile. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.. (Apr.)Forecast: Advertising in the New Yorker, which has published many of Hecht's short stories, may yield a few sales. Still, coming so far behind Zmuda's Andy Kaufman Revealed and Bill Zehme's Lost in the Funhouse, and containing little new information, the publication of this tedio
She was able to discover the truth behind the stories Andy Kaufman made up for interviewers and to discover the secret of his inspiration. Just as Andy Kaufman subverted traditional forms of comedy, Julie Hecht, with her deadpan wit and highly original style, subverts the traditional form of the profile with her acclaimed nonfiction book, Was This Man a Genius?, reissued in trade paperback. She withstood nerve-racking experiences: at a party for Kaufman at his parents’ house, on a visit to his childhood bedroom—packed with bags of his teenage poems and elvis clippings—and as a passenger in a car he drove, no hands, while singing and trying to dance to radio music at 3 a.m. “Because you persevered,” he said. This is a book of bizarre incidents and frequently hilarious conversations between one of our most fascinating performers and a writer of short stories who found the story of Kaufman’s life and work to be out of this world and worth the trip. Following Andy Kaufman—from an appearance at his old high school to performances at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall—Julie Hecht talked with th