Redd Foxx Andy Kaufman, As comedians, Redd Foxx and Andy Kaufman could hardly be more different. Foxx, the pioneering nightclub performer and star of “Sanford & Son,” who died in 1991, was candid, socially conscious and unapologetically obscene. Kaufman, the standup, sometime wrestler and “Taxi” co-star who died in 1984, was experimental, obtuse, playful and perplexing.
But now these two comics will be united in a most unlikely way: both are being turned into holograms to perform and tour again.
On Friday, Hologram USA, a technology company that specializes in these visual recreations of celebrities, plans to announce that it will use the likenesses of Kaufman and Foxx and parts of their previously recorded routines to create hologram shows that will be presented across the country next year.
“They’re comedy icons,” said Alki David, the founder and chief executive of Hologram USA. “Both of them influenced so many comedians after them.”
Mr. David, a billionaire entrepreneur, said in an interview that while the company is “working with other estates of famous funny guys and funny girls, these just happened to be amenable estates who see the vision.”Foxx, who released more than 50 albums of his material, was among the first black comedians to find popularity with white audiences and to star in his own network sitcom.
Kaufman was a prankish provocateur and frequent guest of David Letterman’s “Late Night” program. He was the subject of the 1999 biographical film “Man on the Moon,” in which he was played by Jim Carrey. (He also appeared on Mr. Foxx’s short-lived ABC variety show in 1977.)
Michael Kaufman, the comedian’s brother and a representative of his estate, said in an interview that the hologram show was “the right platform for the new generation of audiences to experience Andy.”
In Andy Kaufman’s heyday, when he was picking fights on live television or feuding with the wrestler Jerry Lawler, Michael Kaufman said, such incidents “made it to the newspapers — that’s as much as you could do back then, as far as hoopla.”
If his brother were getting up to the same antics today, Mr. Kaufman added, “I think it would have busted the Internet. This keeps him alive.”
Mr. David said that the hologram shows featuring these comedians would include some of their best-known material — say, Andy Kaufman lip-syncing the “Mighty Mouse” theme on the debut episode of “Saturday Night Live” — as well as narrative segments that dramatize biographical details.
Noting that Malcolm X had known Foxx before his stand-up fame and described him as “the funniest dishwasher on this earth,” Mr. David said, “We’re going to have a scene with Malcolm X. We’re going to have various notable names featuring in his story.”
Mr. David said these shows “will have residencies in multiple locations in tourist-oriented cities across the country.”
“They will play several times a day for the first year and then eventually they’ll be put on a rotation with other acts,” he said.
Hologram USA, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif., has previously created projections of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (allowing him to appear at a Nantucket, Mass., conference from political asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London); and the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel (so he could host a country-music awards show in Nashville while remaining in Los Angeles).
But now these two comics will be united in a most unlikely way: both are being turned into holograms to perform and tour again.
On Friday, Hologram USA, a technology company that specializes in these visual recreations of celebrities, plans to announce that it will use the likenesses of Kaufman and Foxx and parts of their previously recorded routines to create hologram shows that will be presented across the country next year.
“They’re comedy icons,” said Alki David, the founder and chief executive of Hologram USA. “Both of them influenced so many comedians after them.”
Mr. David, a billionaire entrepreneur, said in an interview that while the company is “working with other estates of famous funny guys and funny girls, these just happened to be amenable estates who see the vision.”Foxx, who released more than 50 albums of his material, was among the first black comedians to find popularity with white audiences and to star in his own network sitcom.
Kaufman was a prankish provocateur and frequent guest of David Letterman’s “Late Night” program. He was the subject of the 1999 biographical film “Man on the Moon,” in which he was played by Jim Carrey. (He also appeared on Mr. Foxx’s short-lived ABC variety show in 1977.)
Michael Kaufman, the comedian’s brother and a representative of his estate, said in an interview that the hologram show was “the right platform for the new generation of audiences to experience Andy.”
In Andy Kaufman’s heyday, when he was picking fights on live television or feuding with the wrestler Jerry Lawler, Michael Kaufman said, such incidents “made it to the newspapers — that’s as much as you could do back then, as far as hoopla.”
If his brother were getting up to the same antics today, Mr. Kaufman added, “I think it would have busted the Internet. This keeps him alive.”
Mr. David said that the hologram shows featuring these comedians would include some of their best-known material — say, Andy Kaufman lip-syncing the “Mighty Mouse” theme on the debut episode of “Saturday Night Live” — as well as narrative segments that dramatize biographical details.
Noting that Malcolm X had known Foxx before his stand-up fame and described him as “the funniest dishwasher on this earth,” Mr. David said, “We’re going to have a scene with Malcolm X. We’re going to have various notable names featuring in his story.”
Mr. David said these shows “will have residencies in multiple locations in tourist-oriented cities across the country.”
“They will play several times a day for the first year and then eventually they’ll be put on a rotation with other acts,” he said.
Hologram USA, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif., has previously created projections of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (allowing him to appear at a Nantucket, Mass., conference from political asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London); and the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel (so he could host a country-music awards show in Nashville while remaining in Los Angeles).
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