I'm from Hollywood

A look into Andy Kaufman's foray into the world of professional wrestling. Interesting bit of entertainment, seeing a comedian who reached his peak playing a babbling mechanic on "Taxi" try his hand at fooling people into thinking he was serious about wrestling. Andy is made to look like an absolute psycho-case by this movie and you sort of feel sad for him, till you realize he's pulling your leg all the way. Then you realize that the producer is attempting to keep Andy's lame joke going as are the "interviewees" who are shown wringing their hands and worrying about Andy's mental condition. He certainly had neither the verbal nor the physical abilities to carry off the charade of being a wrestler for long, but it is an interesting look at a strange experiment. They let midgets, bears and all sorts of human flotsam and jetsam wrestle. Allowing some skinny guy in his flannel underwear into the ring was no big accomplishment. Recommended for those fooled by perhaps Kaufmann's ultimate scam, portraying a comic genius.

Andy Kaufman was the funniest man of all time. This film/biopic is just a testament to the fact that Andy Kaufman was the originator and mentor of all the great comedians since the late 70's (Robin Williams, Richard Belser, Jim Carey, and yes probably even Carrot Top). He will go down in history for mastering that rare brand of humor that was infantile yet adult, lowbrow yet refined, utterly disgusting yet beautiful. Everytime anyone reads The Great Gatsby, sees an Elvis impersonator, or professional wrestling he should be thought of.

Viewers unfamiliar with the late Andy Kaufman might appreciate this enlightening glimpse at his unique (if indefinable) comic personality, detailing his exploits as the self-crowned 'inter-gender wrestling champion' of the world. Because any man would no doubt have beaten him to a pulp, Kaufman extended his competitive challenge only to (mostly smaller) women, but what began as an inflammatory prank soon evolved, in the words of Robin Williams, "from comedy to Roman Circus". Of course the real challenge was to audiences wondering if he was serious or not. Kaufman never pretended to be a conventional stand-up comedian so much as a masochistic exhibitionist, who liked to carry his 'act' into the outer limits of entertainment by refusing to admit the joke. And make no mistake, it might have become an obsession but it was, at the same time, a joke: note the ironic repetition of his brag "I'm from Hollywood!" (as if that somehow proved his superiority), and his facetious celebrity habit of suing everyone in sight. If nothing else he proved the truth behind the famous P.T. Barnum maxim: there is indeed a sucker born every minute, at least among wrestling fans in Memphis, Tennessee.

I was born too late to witness Andy Kaufman's genius when it was brand new, but it's still incredibly fresh. The fact that people are still wondering how serious the wrestling was is a testament to Kaufman's uncanny abilities. This is the movie that prompted me to start watching "Taxi" reruns on Nickelodeon.

I'm also looking forward to "Man on the Moon". If Carrey doesn't screw it up, he could be an Oscar contender playing the role of such an interesting character.

This film makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it.This is the one that turned me into a life long fan of Andy's work.To imagine a HOLLYWOOD comic,(even though he didn't see himself that way)would go into wrestling and take it to a "higher level" with an element of comedy as the twist,is too unbelievable.

There is also brief clips of Kaufman playing the bongos,and impersonating Tony Clifton,the self absorbed lounge singer. With great comments by Henner and Robin Williams about Andy being so bizarre and taking his wrestling so serious.

It sent me into a frenzy looking for more Kaufman material, I would love to have more of the wrestling footage than is shown on the videotape.

"It was like,Andy was the premise and the entire world was the punchline" -Robin Williams