I just watched the biographic Man on the Moon, which portrays the life and times of the zany comedian who wasn’t a comedian, Andy Kaufman. For those not familiar with him, he was an eccentric performance artist active in the 70s and early 80s, characterized by his unpredictability when it came to distinguishing the boundary between his life and his work. In fact, he himself didn’t see his work as that of a comic, he thought himself to be a “song and dance man”. Often his acts consisted of that exactly — It was only somewhat later in his career that these strange acts began to be seen as comedy, though, still, only by the audience.

What made Kaufman such a quirky person is that life for him almost entirely meant being in character. Much of what he did in life was in jest, but only for him. Invoking uncertainty and confusion in people when it came to his acts and, really, publicity stunts, was almost a way of life for Kaufman, from assuming different characters to assuming entirely different personalities.

I have seen a number of videos of the actual Andy Kaufman, and Jim Carrey, who portrays him in Man on the Moon, does a dead-on recreation of him in his mannerisms, the inflections in his speech, even his body language. This, combined with spot-on, near exact recreations of events in this captivating man’s life, made this movie really enjoyable for me.