"...there was an expectation that Andy Kaufman, who had been dead for months if not a year or more, would suddenly do a "reveal" during the show, whipping off the Clifton make-up and saying, basically, gotcha!"
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Steve Towsley on Guarding Tony Clifton on May 16th, 1985.
"I met Bob Zmuda through a mutual friend, Mario Rongstadt, who later became Bob's assistant when he produced the Comic Relief shows. At the time, Mario and I were both serving as Development Directors to Topper Carew at Round Midnite Productions, a producer with a deal and offices at Universal Pictures. I was motion picture development director and Mario was TV development director. At the time, in the mid-80s, Andy Kaufman had already passed away. I met Bob, who at the time lived in a largely empty house (I think I saw an ironing board; that was it). I didn't know anything about Bob, except that he seemed to be a nice guy, with curly long hair and a beard, in need of a source of income. I had no idea that he had any connection to anyone "in the biz", let alone Andy.
Bob and I met a number of times for one reason or another socially, enough to become friendly -- one time I was in the Hughes supermarket on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley doing some shopping, and a loud voice yelled at me from across the front of the store: "Stop! Thief! Shoplifter!" He was looking at me and pointing, and of course attracting the attention of every checkout clerk and customer in line. Obviously, Bob's sense of humor and Andy's were not too dissimilar. That was his idea of a friendly greeting. We smiled and moved on, and everybody relaxed. Anyway, I got wind of someone named Tony Clifton making an appearance at the Comedy Store when I was asked by Bob (as was Mario) if we would work the show backstage, basically doing security. We both were issued black T-shirts with Clifton's image and the name of the show on them, but I think Bob took them back afterward as I no longer have mine. Anyway, I agreed, not knowing anything about Tony Clifton. I had followed Andy's comedy appearances, of course, but I was not aware of the Clifton character. All I knew about this Clifton was that he was some sort of Vegas-style entertainer who had previously appeared with, or opened for, Andy -- at first.
As it developed, of course, the show at the Comedy Store attracted a star-studded audience including Eddie Murphy and others because there was an expectation that Andy Kaufman, who had been dead for months if not a year or more, would suddenly do a "reveal" during the show, whipping off the Clifton make-up and saying, basically, gotcha! I don't need to tell you that there were some people who weren't absolutely sure whether Andy's death by cancer hadn't been just one more hoax, and even though the speculation had died down by this time, the news of a Clifton show renewed the speculation with a vengeance.
I became aware at some point in the preparations that this was some people's expectation. Of course, Bob Zmuda did not tell us in so many words that Tony Clifton was someone in make-up, and certainly did not admit to us that Tony would be someone under make-up, but I finally learned enough about "Clifton" to realize that Andy had played the character before his death. All we knew was we were working a show at the Comedy Store as a favor to our friend Bob Zmuda -- he told us he would be up in the director's booth watching the show from the back of the room. As Mario filled me in on the Clifton saga, and Zmuda made clear we would not be seeing him before the show, I began to wonder who would be playing Clifton. By the time we got to the day of the show, I had reason to wonder what would happen at the show, myself. Yet I was also being told that Andy was definitely not alive.
Anyway, we arrived early and dutifully took up our positions backstage, with our T-shirts as credentials, as I recall. Clifton made an entrance in a limo with a pseudo-celebrity named Angelique on his arm, a woman most famous for being an aging blonde bimbo with a self-promotion billboard on Hollywood Boulevard. I think "Clifton" invited her for show trimmings, and once he arrived I think he ignored her the rest of the night and I seem to remember she was ticked off about being cut loose.
In any case, the house was packed, and Tony Clifton did an entire show of mediocre renditions of Vegas songs and bad jokes -- as Tony Clifton. The crowd hooted, booed, and generally didn't find much to enjoy in it. Clifton insulted some people as well, certainly responding to some of the heckling. He smoked a little, drank a little, sang badly, and mouthed off. When the show was over, he walked off the stage -- leaving everyone wondering, is that all there is? By this time, I had not seen Bob Zmuda all night, since early that day, in fact. So when Clifton walked past me off stage, I gave him kind of a wink and a pat on the back, which he accepted without reaction. He didn't exactly acknowledge knowing me, but he didn't take umbrage either, which wouldn't be like Clifton, with the touchy persona.
The next planned step of this evening was that we had agreed to meet at an after-show reception at a restaurant or bar across the street, whose name I do not recall.I got there first, with Mario, and we awaited the arrival of Clifton, not being sure exactly where he had gone immediately after exiting the backstage. By this time, of course, the media was there in force, and going crazy, as were the guests from the paying audience, because there had been no "reveal" -- in fact, there had been nothing but another tacky Tony Clifton night club act. Granted, it was a good Clifton show -- abrasive, tacky, insulting, almost as if Andy had managed to dupe an audience one more brilliant post mortem time. But the crowd at the reception across the street was confused, excited, befuddled -- you name it, they had it. Some were OF COURSE still expecting a "reveal," which they now assumed would HAVE TO come at the reception party.
Instead, what happened was that "Clifton" entered in a hurry and went straight to an unoccupied back room, escaping the media and the guests. He asked me to hold the door, which had no lock, shut. At the time, I was working out three or four times a week at the fitness center so propping the door shut wasn't difficult. When the door did open a crack, what I got a glimpse of was freaked out media wanting to get in and ask questions -- I remember one young irritated-looking woman in particular. Since propping the door shut did not take much energy, or prevent me from turning toward "Clifton," I turned and watched. He was sitting on a table or a countertop and resting. He claimed, or someone related to me, that a guy outside the Comedy Store had been angry or frustrated enough with him after the show to punch him as he had crossed the street heading for the reception. He was not seriously hurt as far as I know, but tired or shaken a little, and this event seemed to have soured him on going any further with the evening, and he just wanted to gather himself and get out of there.I was surprised that he was not planning to attend his own reception. I said what about all these media people outside the door? But Clifton had nothing to say to them, and found another exit and took off, alone as far as I know. Once he was gone, I unbarred the door, and the media dispersed when they found out the room was now empty of celebrity.
After the fact, I was on the Universal lot speaking to a former girlfriend of Bob's, and told her I'd attended the event.She asked me, with a tone that made it obvious she knew who Clifton had been, "Oh, how did Tony look?" I said, he looked good, the show was nutty, and Clifton took off right afterward without meeting his public. She did not seem surprised. By then I was 99% certain that the absent Bob Zmuda, who had claimed to have been in a director's booth watching the show (but had never made an appearance backstage at show's end) was Clifton in heavy make-up.
It wasn't until years later that Zmuda awarded Jim Carrey the "honor" of breaking the story on some TV documentary [A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman] that Tony Clifton had not always been played by Andy himself. I think it is safe to say there were a handful of people, between me and Mario and a few of Bob's girlfriends, a manager or two, and probably a few of the TAXI guys, who knew this for years, and collaborated, voluntarily or involuntarily, to make it possible, even though it was taboo with Bob Zmuda for open discussion. Sometime later, Bob Zmuda sold the Comic Relief concept and became a successful producer (again) of the annual event, enjoying an active working life that he probably had not had since Andy's death. And that, for the moment at least, is all I have to say about that."