I just finished watching the Andy Kaufman DVD and thought "My breakfast with Blassie" was hilarious. I was wondering though, did Blassie know he was being recorded? It does not appear he was aware there was a camera on him. If that is so, I was jsut wondering how Blassie would of reacted once he found out that their breakfast was recorded. Andy Kaufman though definately looked like he was acting, he didn't really seem comfortable being there. But he made it a good breakfast.
I was also wondering if any of the other people in the show were paid actors, especially the guy who kept taking out straw things out of his nose and threw up on their desert. I mean if he wasn't a paid actor then he definately was a serious pro wrestling fan and probably had seen Andy Kaufman in the ring. Since Andy Kaufman had a neck brace that means he was already pile driven by Jerry "the king" Lawler. At this time he was already hated by most people in Memphis, Tennessee. This being so, that man in the restaurant was probably acting out his hatred for Andy Kaufman. Although throwing up on his table was a bit much and probably means he was a paid actor. I wonder if Blassie suspected anything by this time.
The women didn't seem like paid actors. If they were or were not, it seemed obvious that they definately were not wrestling fans since the only people who hated Andy Kaufman more than pro wrestling fans were women pro wrestling fans. Even though they seemed annoyed by Andy Kaufman, they didn't really seem to hate him.
The whole thing about not shaking hands and being strict about what you eat really made me look at Blassie differently and makes me think if this could really be a normal breakfast and not a performance. Also in the beginning when Blassie didn't show up for a while, the way he showed up really made it looked planned. I am confused about if this was a performance or not, does anyone know? HAHA and I like it when Blassie says "you pencil-neck geek!"...
2 comments:
Chris, you raise some great questions. We had a little discussion about this in class. This was actually completely staged, and Blassie did know he was being filmed. But don't think you are alone. Someone else I recently talked to said they had seen My Breakfast with Blassie and thought that it was all a joke on Blassie.
In my mind, it shows how--while Andy Kaufman was very good at his act--Blassie may have had it down even more. If you can tell Andy is acting but Fred is a mystery, I think it's a testament to some of these wrestling characters, and how they start to live those characters.
Also, as far as the guy who interrupted the breakfast, it was Andy's friend Bob, who appears as the lawyer in I'm from Hollywood and makes several comments about Andy and who is played by Paul Giamatti in the clips from Man on the Moon.
Yeah I thought the breakfast was hilarious too. It didn't seem like much happened during the breakfast. They were just having a "normal" conversation most of the time, not counting the later interruptions. The conversations were so random and the fact that they both appeared so serious made it hard for me to believe that anyone could dislike the movie.
At first I thought that Blassie was unaware of the breakfast being planned by Kaufman. But in class on Monday, a good point was made how Blassie was such a good performer so most likely he was in on the gag too. I guess knowing Andy Kaufman you can't really expect anything he does to be serious, which makes me like him even more.
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