"Andy Kaufman Is Me" Brings Comedian Back to Life at Tribeca

For many, their introduction to comedy icon, Andy Kaufman was on Saturday Night Live in the 70's, for others it was Taxi, and for some it was Man on the Moon starring Jim Carey. Regardless of how he was discovered, audiences have been enjoying the work of Andy Kaufman for decades, and this year the late great was honored with a feature documentary produced by David Letterman at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Shedding a new light on the weirdo we've all grown to admire, including never before seen footage archived by the people who loved him.

Director, Clay Tweel has been making documentaries for more than a decade now, but Andy Kaufman is Me is by far his most emotional. Kaufman's story is uniquely bittersweet, an outcast who did what he loved and was so unwaveringly true to himself. Audiences loved Kaufman, not in spite of his quirks but because of them. However, like far too many comedians, his life and career were cut short in 1984 when he died after a brief battle with lung cancer despite never being a smoker. He is the perfect example of a star, extinguished in its prime, leaving behind an iconic legacy.

For years Kaufman's success has been a beacon of hope for the weirdos of the world. He's a comedian that has inspired so many of today's biggest stars, but it's rare to find a young person who knows his name, and Tweel and company set out to change that.

Today, Andy Kaufman would be referred to as terminally committed to the bit. Audiences found it so hard to decipher what was authentic and what was performance, similar to the work of Nathan Fielder. Even today, rumors persist that he never truly died but instead faked his own death in some elaborate joke, and that any day now the real Andy Kaufman is going to appear out of thin air.

Throughout his life, Kaufman found himself playing characters, imitating celebrities, and greatly exaggerating his own personality for an audience. But while millions loved him, none of these fans ever got to truly know him. Andy Kaufman Is Me attempts to finally show audiences the side of the comedian that has gone unseen until now. Diving into his childhood, relationships, and where he acquired his unusual sense of humor.

Andy Kaufman Is Me is the kind of film that requires a delicate hand, and this documentary handles their subject's legacy with grace while at the same time not looking at him through rose-colored glasses. While his comedy was and remains a source of comfort for countless people, Kaufman was far from a perfect person. Near the end of his career, audience opinions on him turned sour and he gained a reputation for being occasionally tasteless, especially in terms of his wrestling career where he would only fight women, a bit far too ironic for its time. While making this doc, director, Clay Tweel had to walk the tightrope of preserving a legacy while including Kaufman's many flaws.

Andy Kaufman is someone who audiences are used to seeing as a performer, but not as a person. It can feel quite jarring to see home footage of him and his family as children, because it reminds you that this man was a regular human and not just an alien who fell out of the sky one day. A lot of what made Andy himself can be found in this unseen footage, like how he grew up idolizing Howdy Doody and always felt more comfortable putting on a performance than being himself.

Overall, Andy Kaufman Is Me is definitely one of the strongest documentaries at Tribeca this year, sure to enthrall the comedian's lifelong fans as well as those who have never heard of him. It's a reminder that we never truly know the entertainers we watch on our screens, and that there's a calling out there for everyone, even the weirdest among us.