Tony Clifton Tour Trailer
Tony Clifton in High Times
It's been 25 years since the death of Andy Kaufman, the comedian who gleefully made a career out of mind-fucking America. Whether it was his foray into pro wrestling or his insistence on reading The Great Gatsby in its entirety to a Carnegie Hall audience, Kaufman ventured boldly where no performer had gone before. His antics did have consequences, though: Many fans sincerely believe that he never died, that it was just another Kaufman gag. And now everyone will have some doubts, because lounge singer Tony Clifton has returned for a special "benefit" tour: Tony Clifton and the Katrina Kiss-My-Ass Orchestra.For the uninitiated, Tony Clifton was another Kaufman creation-maybe. The comedian allegedly discovered the seedy lounge singer in Vegas and immediately hired him as an opening act. But then Kaufman became Clifton. Then he proved he wasn't Clifton when they both appeared together as Clifton. So everybody's sense of reality was left reeling - which is pretty much what Clifton's act is all about.
Clifton is the anti-Sinatra, an abusive drunk in a tux who harangues the audience, insults his 10-piece band and berates his sexy back-up singers, the Cliftonettes, for not bringing in enough cash. The show ends when everyone in the audience gets fed up and leaves.
By the way, Clifton's newly adopted daughter, Keely, is one of the Cliftonettes. "I'm a booze man," says Clifton. "But Keely has introduced me to the medicinal purposes of Cannabis sativa. She says, 'It's good for what ails ya, daddy.'"
Tony Clifton at BB Kings
Twenty-five years after his death, Andy Kaufman receives almost universal adulation -- even from those who lambasted his work as tasteless and unfunny when he was still alive. Those brickbats were most often directed at the character of Tony Clifton, played alternately by the late comic and Kaufman's longtime partner-in-chaos Bob Zmuda -- both of whom denied any involvement in the manufacture of the foulmouthed Clifton.After many years on the sidelines, "Clifton" -- accompanied by a ragtag musical ensemble known as the Katrina Kiss-My-Ass Orchestra -- has re-emerged for a short tour designed to raise funds for artists displaced by the Gulf Coast hurricanes of three years ago. And while Zmuda still vehemently denies being the man behind the curtain, there's no mistaking the sense of confrontational surrealism that permeated the Borscht Belt performance-art outing.
The sprawling performance that
Clifton staged on Wednesday night was unquestionably the most unfettered
expression of pure id to hit a Gotham stage in ages. Acting as
ringmaster-cum-frontman, Clifton grew increasingly peripatetic as the evening
wore on, recalling nothing so much as a hybrid of Jerry
Lewis (in his telethon host role) and Bob
Guccione's imagining of Caligula.
At times, the 3½-hour gig seemed
more like a test of endurance than a standard variety show. Clifton showered
aud members in liquor -- the real thing, not food-color-laced water -- and
tossed various projectiles at random. Likewise, he stretched various comic
riffs well past the tipping point where nervous laughter gave way to even more
nervous glances.
More often, however, Clifton
white-water-rafted down his singular stream-of-consciousness with dizzy aplomb,
riffing on hit-and-run accidents, dipping into the songbooks of Sinatra and Anthony
Newley and berating his backing band with Buddy
Rich-like acidity. Toward set's end, he called his scantily clad dance
troupe out for a vamp through Lou
Reed's "Walk
on the Wild Side," only to slag them for -- in sanitized terms -- not
bringing in enough cash while moonlighting on street corners.
Some of the women seemed steamed enough that one got the idea the bit was entirely unscripted -- the case with much of the evening's more spot-on material. That was, of course, Kaufman's greatest strength, and while Clifton's delivery isn't as nuanced, the spirit is similarly transfixing.
