About Andy Kaufman, David Letterman once said “You got the impression that the engine was running but no one was behind the wheel.”

I don't think Andy was ever out of character.

I saw Andy Kaufman at a grocery store in Los Angeles back in 81. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything. He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying. The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter. When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

I bet he was a really nice guy

I could listen to Andy say Rude all day long. What a sweet man.

He's such an inspiration for me. He always pushed his limits and pushed the art of comedy. He was truly exceptional and the only one of his kind.

So behind his mask, Andy was first of all a professionist who took his job really seriously, and he was proud of his experiences and shows around. He liked to do artistic experimentation and push himself to the limit all the time. Surely he was a really busy man and didn't have a boring life.

This man helped shape my sense of humor. I loved him so much.

The whole interview was still in character except “Is that what you want?” And “Nah, I don’t want to do that”. Incredible.

Gosh he's handsome

Andy always seemed more interested in gaining a reaction from the crowd over being just "funny". This is why I always see him as more of a performance artist than a traditional comic. What makes him the best at what he did is how hard it was to tell when he was really being natural. He was (is?) awesome and will forever be remembered as the greatest prankster in history. Great video. Thanks for sharing.

Reading the whole of The Great Gasby to an annoying audience, brilliant.

He has such a sweet personality. What a beautiful human

i really wish i could have met him. all the interviews ive seen make him seem like just the sweetest most interesting guy.. I cant learn enough about him

Andy's humor was closer to the U.K. than the U.S.A. (Just watch Vic Reeve's Big Night Out). He was a Genius; his bravery was unmatched.

I think Andy was unaware sometimes that people didn't know it was a character. And sometimes he didn't either. This interview may have been a window into a fractured world. He was something else, that boy. Genius.

i want him to still be alive so bad. he is such a genius passionate man

Beautiful voice!

He's not fully out of character here, he's just a little tired.

I like this real side of Kaufman. You can see after the show he was tired, relaxed and being himself. Actually a very normal guy. Funny as hell when he wanted to be.

8:07 -8:16 was the closest we will ever get to an out of character Kuafman . His real voice

I saw Andy in the beginning, and after decades I still come to the conclusion, he was either an amazing entertainer the best ever to hit the stage, or he was the most insane person ever to get paid for being nuts. Or both..... ingenious as he was there will never be another Andy.

This is the best interview I've seen of Andy Kaufman. Thank you for sharing.

Its a cruel world but mr kaufman did stand his ground

He looks like the bass player for Nirvana.

He's putting you on like always

I wonder what he would've been like today. He was truly one of a kind.

Lol, everyone denying he's acting like his normal self, don't idolize people folks, he was just a human like everyone else.

If anything comes through on this video, its his sweet, gentle nature

Maybe they said boo-urns

Thanks for posting. I wanted to hear him talk normal forever. It was cool to see.

He seems like he was a really cool and pleasant dude. What a comic genius. I wish Jim Carey explored more of that side. You can only fit so much in a biopic movie without boring the audience.

Andy made a high art out of being a consummate liar. That he did it so believably is what makes it so funny. That he even thought of doing it is what makes him a genius.

The most authentic Andy you'll ever see for sure.

After a hard night's work, Andy Kaufman gave his buddy Seth Schultz what he wanted. Thanks for posting this clip of a generous and misunderstood genius of a performer.

This is such a gift. It is priceless. Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us. DAMN he was a genius.

His genius of bending reality within comedy and mingling it with humans ability to say SO much while saying nothing. He made so many laugh. I miss uninhibited comedy so very much.

Andy was a genius pf the arts, God bless the man

How could you not like this guy

I freaking LOVE HIM.......when he died we all lost a great great performer and a great man. There will NEVER be someone like him again. EVER!!!!!

"Is that what you wanted?" "Is this what you want?" ... even after an exhausting gig where he's really down on himself (and if you've ever hung out with comics you know how hard they take it when they can't work a room) these guys ask him to dance like a clown.

they were so RUUUUDE!

A performance artist deals in spontaneity and Andy was a true master. He was always in the zone. He treated everyday life as though it were a stage, and it is.

This was great, thanks so much!

Jesus. He is a human being, he gets tired. He's a genius and he could have said so many other things than "rude," but he didn't. This video just proves how real of a person he is. He's a sweet guy and I miss him!

Saw him at San Diego State college. He invited the entire audience across the street to Jack in the Box for a bag of fries after the show. He was great.

LOVE Andy Kaufman. He was an innovator. He worked hard. He was real. and he was funny and he was ENTERTAINING. I remember being a kid and even though I was confused, I loved the guy. GREAT interview Joeyland. Thank you.

thx for posting!

Andy was doing "performance art" for lack of a better term, and these crowds were used to Freddy Roman and Alan King...

Even his "real life interview" is in character. This guy is fascinating. Do we thing he's an absolute genius or a guy who just loved to piss people off?

His rendition of This Friendly World still brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it, truly a beautiful cover for as much as he was doing it as a goof. Helluva guy

He looks very sad to me. Like his outer character we always saw is some protective shield from his feelings. I loved him in everything he was in, including taxi. A great show. Very sad the world lost his talent when he died at a young age. I have never seen him as his true self. Thanks for the video.

"Sometimes when you look into Andy's eyes, you get the feeling someone else is driving." - David Letterman

I prefer when he played bass for Nirvana

colorful personality

Thanks this was great.

it's krist novoselic

Andy is beautiful

that is amazing...I have never seen him out of character. brilliance

thanks for posting ... shows just how good he was

That was great, that was the real Andy Kaufman. I've never seen him out of character before. Just a young experimental comedian expressing his feelings after a gig.

It's neat to hear him talk about his San Diego gig. He had just done it. I was 10, sitting there with my mom at UCSD Mandeville Hall. She was a huge fan and I got a little of what he was doing. After the bunny hop incident he took the entire audience out for milk and cookies.

Andy had such an amazing comedic mind. I wish he had lived longer...his blue eyes were just mesmerizing. His Elvis impression was priceless.

Raw fucking genius.

I like how he turned the "get outta here" guy into an aspie having a meltdown.

Well, I think one of his best routines that I have come across is the David Letterman Show with him yelling at Jerry Lawler. Hilarious.

Andy was such a genius, his style of entertainment was over most peoples heads. RIP Andy, you made the world a happier place!

You were there. I'll take your word for it. And I appreciate the post!

I can't help but wonder if a lot of the hate Andy still gets has anything to do with his wrestling bit. If so, then bravo for not understanding that wrestling is fake, and Andy was just using that medium for his own amusement. But, it's also kind of cool, considering a negative reaction was what he was going for anyway. 

He is/was a highly intelligent person. That's for sure.

amazing personality. he cares more about the people and their feelings. he just wants people to be entertained. all i see is a child at heart

That was a wonderful song thanks Andy that meant alot.I really liked your lyrics and your vocals I didn't know you can sing.

What an honest, truthful person, that had to protect himself to make a living by trolling the world. And we are still talking about him. Genius, got the entire world wondering, considering, contemplating, never knowing but thought they did.

this just reminds me of how alone i am

This is great, having caught Andy when he wasn't "on" . This is the real Andy, relaxed/exhausted and just talking. Thanks for posting!

Seen him twice loved it. Really miss him. Almost got his autograph.

It's so hard to watch Andy Kaufman and EVER know if he's really completely out of character. There almost seemed to be no real independent personality behind the façade. You never knew if and when he was truly sincere.

My heart hurt watching this...

I wished I would had been old enough to had enjoyed one of his shows in person, I thought he was great and seemed real polite and nice!

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.

This guy was awesome. Him and Peter Sellers both

This is *not* Andy Kaufmann out of character. He is putting people on again.

That’s cool to see the real Andy, especially the first part talking about the audience right after his show

I am so happy to see this clip of him ,❤ human!!! Alot of ppl wnt n character all the time and i love this

I think watching this video is the first time I've ever heard Andy speak in a normal voice, out of character. I only ever remember hearing his "foreign man" voice or maybe Tony Clifton. Seems strange to hear his real voice and getting perhaps a glimpse of the "real" Andy.

When not in character he actually had no eccentricities at all. Very interesting (completely normal) side to him.

I like that song.

you made my day !

This is such an experiment in psychology, and he knew it. Wearing an I Love Grandma shirt and testing these people's patience...lmao.

Total Tony Clifton at the end there!

We played a few arcade video games together while talking about Anything and Everything. Best, JP Fenyo Thanks for sharing this... very much appreciated....

Some of the Taxi cast have said they had conversations with Andy where he was not "in character" they would talk about family and so on. He was, according to them, during down time, a normal guy. The film gave the impression Andy was "on" 24 hours a day.

The movie Man on the Moon failed miserably at portraying the real Andy. Instead they portrayed some weird unlikable caricature of Andy that was miles away from who he really was.

I was in high school when Andy become famous, and I thought he was brilliant and hilarious. Many, many, MANY people did not understand or "get him." He was truly avant garde, thinking outside the box. Honestly, there were few people in the middle; you either hated him, and didn't understand that he was breaking ground, or you loved him. Luckily I was in the latter group. That being said, however, I think Andy was a strange dude. Always wondered if he was on the Aspergers continiuum. And while I wanted to believe he was alive, when the 20th anniversary came and went with no Andy, I gave up that fantasy. Plus I think Bob Schmuda would have come clean by now, and IF Kaufman had tried a stunt like that (faking his own death) his best friend would have been in on it. No, sadly he is dead, but we can enjoy his performances here. I've watched the Elvis impersonation he did in '77 on the Tonight Show a zillion times. Andy was a triple threat: he was a comic genius, plus he had a great singing voice, PLUS he could dance. I wish he had lived, because he really pushed the boundaries of what we considered 'entertainment' and I would have liked to see how far he would take his act. RIP.

yes, awesome! upload this asap

Andy, so happy you were you. I don't care which you that you were. You will always be my favorite. smiles.

Man, if that's the real Andy, he's got Asperger's. I wouldn't doubt it. He's a really smart guy with Asperger's and a real drive and talent to make people laugh. He was a true genius, mostly because he was so unconventional and didn't seem to notice.

This interview is also a put on. He couldn't turn it off.

this is really, really cool. I'm glad I saw this

What a beautiful spirit