Here is Paul's thoughts on Tony being on the show....I
went a bit meta on that show. Here’s the scoop: First of all, Bob Zmuda created Tony WITH Andy Kaufman. (Bob was Andy’s muse, writer and co-conceptualizer for Andy’s entire career.) It was always intended that Tony have a life of his own – Tony opened Andy’s shows – sometimes it was Andy, sometimes Bob. And sometimes Tony Clifton would heckle Andy onstage. It was all part of the reality/illusion game Andy played so well. So, Bob Zmuda doing Tony IS, essentially, Andy doing Tony. They were both the real character, and the character still exists despite Andy’s death – not by an impersonator, but by one of the original Tonys himself. Still with me?
Now… With Russell Peters, Bill Burr and Colin Quinn on the panel, I knew we would be talking about crossing lines, the randomness of those lines, and where lines are regarding race, PC culture, and other hot buttons, and of course, context. Tony Clifton is all about not having lines and being as offensive/provocative as possible. The character is meant to be hateful and an awful human being — and the context he appears in is usually the most inappropriate (See his appearance [played by Andy] on Dinah Shore in the early 80’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsT9Mc_eh_o)
When I invited Tony to come and be in the audience, we planned nothing. I told no one what kind of extremes he might go to, I had no idea what exactly would happen myself. The only conversation I had with Tony was him asking, ‘what can i do on the show?’ and my answering, ‘just be Tony, and know that Tony can be as much himself as he likes.’ SO what actually happened was completely spontaneous, and neither I nor anyone else knew what was going to happen or what was happening at any moment. Even the guys who threw him out didn’t know if they really were going to have to throw him out. They were not even sure how to handle the situation. They didn’t know he would fight back, which was real, and they were really trying to get him out as quickly as possible. The tussle was real, not staged in the least, and Tony didn’t know how rough they would get with him, or that we would even end up throwing him out. So…
Tony Clifton, behaving badly as he does, being racist and vile and pissing off comics essentially then became a backdrop to the whole conversation. We could talk about those things all we wanted, but I wanted to have those very things present in the room for all to experience through the lens of the comics on the show, and through the lens of audience members as well. I wanted uncomfortableness to be palpable, and as a side note, for an audience to feel what comics feel when hecklers do what they do, and what an uncomfortable area those kinds of comments are for people who parse them day in and day out in their craft. Every comic’s response was genuine and in the moment – and alternately hilarious or frustrated, just as I expected. The dynamics that developed on that show are very complex, genuine and spontaneous– and serve as meta comment on the discussion we were having. I wanted viewers AND we comics to also FEEL the stuff we were talking about, not just hear each other talk about it. Colin Quinn let me know early on, subtly, that he knew what was going on and got right away why it was going on. Watching him get ‘inside’ it with me, in contrast to the others, adds yet another layer of complex dynamic to it all. It wasn’t a staged thing, it was completely real, despite the character being fictional (but also not – a very Andy K space to be in), and the comedians were now out of the comfort zone as they discussed the things that take audience’s out of their comfort zones. Every response was real, unfiltered, authentic and palpable. It’s a somewhat different experience of a Green Room, but in many ways a much more valid, authentic and unexpected one than any other episode. None of us knew what would happen next – which is true for every show – but this time it felt… dangerous.
THAT was *beep* hot.
Also – Tony Clifton is MORE than ‘an actual comic’. Tony Clifton is an actual COMIC PREMISE. A living, breathing conceptualized premise. The opportunity to have that in The Green Room is a no brainer. He absolutely belonged there, and the discussion about him there is a perfect one to have.
reply
share