Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman worried his parents from an early age. Not from his birth, on January 17, 1949 in New York, in a family of Jewish origin of which he is the eldest of the three children. But because very early, the young Andy, is impassioned for the art of the show. When he was only 4 years old, in his room he created his own TV channel in front of an imaginary audience. He then invented a very precise program schedule with action films, dramas and even silent films. Obviously, he’s the one interpreting all of this in front of… his wall. Stanley and Janice, his parents, are preoccupied with this all-consuming passion. While the other children are playing outside and having fun with each other, Andy is fussing and talking to himself in his room for hours. So they end up forbidding him all that.
Instead, the kid watches TV. One afternoon, he came across a wrestling program and fell in love with the sport. So much so that, aged 7, he trained with his younger brother Michael and asked him to reproduce a take. Result: Andrew finds himself on crutches for two weeks.
At 9 years old, animator at children’s parties
Even if he becomes a wrestling fan, Andy does not forget his first passion: to entertain. But this time, he no longer does it in front of an imaginary audience. From the age of 9, he began to “work” as an entertainer at children’s parties. He does magic tricks, plays games and even writes little songs that he performs. In 1968, he enrolled at Grahm Junior College in Boston, where he studied radio and television and graduated in 1971.
But what is Jim Carrey doing in this, and why did Andy Kaufman drive him crazy to the point of “taking possession of him”? If you want to find out, watch the video at the top of this article and find out the whole true story of “Man on the Moon”.
