Man on the Moon

The life of Andy Kaufman is dramatized, focusing on the period starting just prior to his celebrity to his premature death due to illness. He always wanted to be famous, but on his own terms. Getting his professional start in the comedy clubs as a stand-up comic, he was not a stand-up comic per se but rather a performance artist who was arguably more interested in maintaining his own artistic vision than entertaining the audience while still wanting that fame. Regardless of what was his rather odd routine at a club, he catches the eye of well-regarded talent manager George Shapiro, who is able to find a place for that talent, Kaufman's big break, somewhat to his dismay in not admiring it as a genre, on the sitcom Taxi (1978). With the celebrity, he begins to act more and more outrageous, no one ever clear, except for those few needing to be in the know, if that behavior is an act in his performance art or reality. As such, even reports of his illness and ultimate death are met with skepticism in Kaufman having had "them" once too often. And his star begins to fade as many in the industry will no longer employ him in he being too unpredictable. Standing by him to the end are Shapiro, Kaufman's writing partner Bob Zmuda, and who would become Kaufman's wife, Lynne Margulies.