dimland radio 7-2-16 show notes

Bob Zmuda Likes To Embellish

I'm not sure why this bothered me so much, but I dedicated almost the entire show to comedian, writer, and performer Bob Zmuda, best known for his work with his friend Andy Kaufman, and his appearance on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

 

The podcast dropped in January 2015, but I gather it was recorded sometime in 2014, because Zmuda did note that it had been thirty years since Andy Kaufman had died. Of course, Zmuda claimed on Gottfried's show that Kaufman faked his death. A claim I don't buy for a second. A claim Zmuda wasn't making (in fact he was refuting it) in 2013 when an actress alleged she was Kaufman's daughter and that her "father" had faked his own death to be a stay-at-home dad.

 

But, in 2014, Zmuda was selling a book about his friend and writing partner. This time he was claiming that Kaufman did fake his own death. Zmuda claimed that Kaufman was able to convince a man dying of cancer to allow his body to be used as Kaufman's upon the man's death.

 

Really? What about that man's family? Wouldn't they want to know what happened to him? Wouldn't the County of Los Angeles, who issued Kaufman's death certificate, be a little put off by this revelation?

 

Zmuda also told a couple tall tales about Jim Carrey. One about his getting the role of Kaufman and the other about playing a trick on Hugh Hefner.

Zmuda wants people to believe that he couldn't tell if he had been watching actual video footage of his friend and writing partner or that of Carrey playing Kaufman in an audition tape. Now, I've seen Kaufman's first Saturday Night Live "Mighty Mouse" performance and I've seen Carrey do it in the film Man On The Moon. I will say Carrey is excellent! He captures Kaufman's movements, mannerisms, and facial expressions perfectly. But he still looks like Jim Carrey! I find it difficult to believe Zmuda was fooled.

Hey! This just in! I found Jim Carrey's audition tape. Very well done, but it still looks like Jim Carrey!

Then there was the tale of Carrey "crashing" a party at the Playboy Mansion as Tony Clifton. Tony Clifton was a character developed by Kaufman and later handed off to Zmuda to play. The joke was for Kaufman and Zmuda, because no one else knew it was no longer Kaufman in the heavy Tony Clifton make-up.

So, when Hefner's Pajama Party in 1999 or so rolled around, Playboy Magazine's founder and publisher was made to swear he wouldn't tell anyone that Clifton was actually Jim Carrey, otherwise Carrey wouldn't come to the party. But Hef spilled the beans to at least one person. That person told Carrey and Carrey decided not to do it. Instead, he got good ol' honest Bob to don the make-up and revise the role he'd played so many times before. Then, at midnight, Carrey would show up to the party and the joke would be revealed.

Except it didn't quite go that way. Zmuda as Clifton did crash the party. (There is video of that.) But, he claimed the Hefner took Clifton around the party, quietly telling party attendees that it was really Jim Carrey. And with Carrey being a big star some women might want to get with him and Zmuda claimed he had taken full advantage of that fact. He claimed three women had separately given him some oral pleasuring. (And I don't mean they told him funny stories.)

When Jim Carrey arrived at midnight, Hefner was furious and had security rough up the imposter and toss him out of the party with Hefner quietly threatening, "If these people weren't here, I'd have these guys break ever f#@king bone in your body."

The next day, Carrey and Zmuda went over to the Playboy Mansion to let Hefner in on the joke.

Gilbert asked a very pertinent question: "Didn't any of those three women accuse you of rape?" Because, if we take Zmuda's word for it, which I don't, what he did was rape. Zmuda just joked it off. No rape accusations were made. That's probably because that part of the story was bullshit. As was the whole part about Hefner's reaction when Carrey finally arrived.

Come on. How stupid do you think Hefner is? He would immediately know that Carrey was pulling a stunt. What are the odds that anyone other than Jim Carrey would show up to the party as Tony Clifton if it wasn't part of a joke?

I guess bullshit sells books.

Poor Skeleton Steps Out

 

After I finished up with all that Zmuda/Kaufman/Carrey talk, I had a little time left over to mention something I had blogged about last week on Warehouse Find, the official blog of Nostalgia Zone. I have long had a what I thought was an unusual way of thinking of human skeletons. I thought of them as their own sentient beings trapped inside human bodies. I thought I was the only one who thought this way. Then I heard XTC's song Poor Skeleton Steps Out.

 

Movie Recommendation: Man On The Moon (1999)

Universal Pictures

So, what other movie would I recommend? This is a pretty good film with an uncanny performance by Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman. I think he should have won the Oscar, but I can still tell the difference between him and Andy.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Kissfolk' by 54-40 & 'Close (To The Edit)' by Art of Noise

Second ad break bumpers: 'The Spirit of the Radio' by Rush & 'Two Story House' by George Jones & Tammy Wynette

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
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