Bob Kaufman Books

Nicely written book about Andy Kaufman and Bob Zmuda. For a diehard fan of Kaufman's...it's an excellent read!

I would recommend this book to my friends.

This book should be read along with "Lost In The Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman" by Bill Zehme for a more complete view of Andy.

"...Revealed!" is a great memoir from Andy's closest collaborator, Bob Zmuda's anecdotes are incredibly entertaining. The thing is though they are just anecdotes, a collection of stories, this is not a flowing narrative, it's just fun. You really could open up to any page and be entertained.

When it comes to Andy's life before he met up with Bob, it's a lot of "Andy told me this..." , they are second hand stories. That's why "Lost In The Fun House" is so essential to get the full story of Andy's life (as much as it can be collected or believed).

Buy this book, it's great!

If "Man on the Moon," which depicted the trite TV reruns of Kaufman's wrestling shows bored you, you should read this book. Milos Foreman probably believed that Zmuda's insights were unappealing to mass movie audiences... which is why his film failed.

...and I must write that I have read biographies about Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, Friedrich Nietzsche, etc... but no one fascinates me quite as much as "Mr. X." When I read Zmuda's descriptions about him, I laughed so hard that I almost literally could not breathe. Zmuda did not diagnose him, but allow me: a paranoid schizophrenic who has a seemingly bottomless war chest. He is "carpe diem" gone absolutely insane.... and a part of me hopes he is alive.

Andy Kaufman was a fascinating man who proved to be more complex than any of his maddening performances. Now, Andy's best friend and confidant ever, has given us a first-hand account of what Andy was really like and how he pulled off his greatest skits. Zmuda traces out Andy's career, from when he first started playing local comedy clubs, up to the appearance of Tony Clifton a year after Andy's death, and provides plenty of laughs as he describes how fearlessly Andy toyed with his audiences.
If you are searching for information on Andy's home and family life, you won't find it here (and if that is what you want, I suggest Bill Zehme's "Lost In The Funhouse"). Zmuda focuses primarily on the experiences that the two shared. But the stories he shares are pure gold and you learn much about how they wound up in the entertainment world and how they turned it completely upside down. Andy didn't just put on a show, he yanked his viewers into his own reality where he was both puppet master and behavioral scientist. This book really captures that spirit.

I first learned of Andy Kaufman after seeing Man on the Moon, featuring Jim Carrey starring as the late "song and dance man." I use the term song and dance man, because Kaufman never thought of himself as a comedian, he was only a song and dance man - an entertainer. This book provides an in-depth look into the mind of Andy Kaufman through his best friend and producer, Bob Zmuda. I never thought I would be so inspired by this book. The way that Andy saw the world was so different that he influenced many comics that perform today. He thought of audience entertaining him, and himself being their audience. It is really hard to explain how amazing this book is without actually reading it. If you saw Man on the Moon and liked it, you will no doubt love this book, because it takes the movie to a whole new level. I only wish Andy were around today to keep influencing others and changing comedy as we know it.

Then again, maybe he is still alive. I guess we'll never know...