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Andy Kaufman Hologram Coming For A Comedy Tour

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 05:09 PST, Oct 24, 2015

There may be people out there who think comedian Andy Kaufman is still alive, but for the rest of his fans who miss the late comedian, they’ll get a chance to see him once again.

According to Vulture, an Andy Kaufman hologram is being created in the form of an experimental comedy. Kaufman, along with comedian Redd Foxx, will both get the hologram treatment so the two can go on a comedy tour throughout the country.

Hologram USA, the company behind the holograms released a statement to The New York Times, and explained how this all came about. The company’s founder, Akil David detailed the comedians were chosen based on those estates that agreed with the futuristic vision.

“Working with other estates of famous funny guys and funny girls, these just happened to be amenable estates who see the vision.”

He continued, “every project is done with the utmost respect for the person’s life and work.”

That said, is this pushing technology too far? Vulture seems to think so. Jesse David Fox writes about the pending holograms, “If they respected the ‘work,’ if they respected comedy, they’d know this is a terrible idea.” He went on to say that during a routine, a comedian responds and bounces off the energy of the room. Some of this includes engaging with the audience during an act, so it is easy to see how taking that ability away while propping up a hologram of a comedian to “perform” might numb the performance, and deprive people a full experience of a live comedian at their best.

That said, Michael Kaufman, Andy’s brother, wants to keep his spirit alive through the hologram. Although his brother is not around to “troll” the Internet, as he probably would have because it’s his signature style of comedy, Michael said,”I think it would have busted the Internet. This keeps him alive.”

As far as the duo’s performances go, the founder said, “They will play several times a day for the first year, and then eventually they’ll be put on a rotation with other acts.”

These aren’t the only two pop culture figures Hologram USA has had their hand in creating. Prior to Andy Kaufman and Redd Foxx, the company also created WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for an appearance at a conference in Nantucket, and Jimmy Kimmel for some hosting duties in Nashville. Kaufman may not be the biggest pop culture icon that the company is taking on in hologram form.

It’s also said that the company will bring Billie Holiday and Whitney Houston to the stage. The Holiday hologram is set to perform at the historical Apollo Theater while Houston’s hologram is expected to go on tour.

Holograms aside, Kaufman has been in the news in the last few years over various hoaxes surrounding the validity of his death. When Kaufman was alive, he was typically disappearing from the public eye and playing pranks on people, so a lot of his fans couldn’t believe it when the comedian passed of cancer in 1984 at the age of 35.

Back in 2013, an actress, Alexandra Tatarsky, crashed a ceremony for Kaufman at the Gotham Comedy Club, and insisted that she was the daughter of Andy Kaufman, and that he was alive and well. At the time, Kaufman’s brother was at the ceremony and spoke to Tatarsky on stage. Although many believed that his brother was in on it, Michael told CNN that he was the victim of the hoax.

“I believe I am part of a hoax. I don’t believe she’s acting on her own, though. But, you know, that’s all I know. I’m still processing it. As Andy’s brother, you learn over the years, you know, to go with the flow, kind of. So I have mixed emotions. I never allowed myself to get too excited, but I was always slightly skeptical.”

[Photo via Paramount Pictures]

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