It soon became clear to me that one of the other women was a plant. She was tall, broad and attitudinal, yelling taunts at Andy as he paced in front of us like an auctioneer. The decision of whom he would wrestle was based on audience applause, and of course the Xena lookalike won. I returned to my seat, defeated and yet somehow relieved. It took all of my nerve just to go up on the stage of that revered hall. Actually wrestling Andy Kaufman - well, I’m not sure I could have pulled that off.
At the end of the performance, Andy returned to center stage, had the houselights turned on, and declared we had all indeed been good and instructed us to follow him. He then ran down the center aisle and out the front of the building. Figuring this was just a clever way to make an exit, none of us rushed to follow. The audience started filing out of the theater, the conversation lively as people reflected on the performance as they would any other. Rachel and I headed out, reluctant to put the show behind us, and started down the front steps of the theater.
As I struggled to get my arm in my coat sleeve (Cold Duck will often do this), Rachel gasped and pointed to the curb. I looked up and saw buses lined up and down 57th street. Everyone in the audience was standing on the sidewalk slack-jawed. Eventually, with the encouragement of show staff, Rachel and I joined our fellow audience members and stumbled aboard the buses, mouths agape, still disbelieving. The convoy carried us to a public school on the lower west side where we found the gray-hued, institutional-style high school cafeteria set up with thousands of packages of Famous Amos cookies and cartons of milk.
There was a bizarre show in the auditorium (all I remember is fire walkers and jugglers), and Andy thanked us for coming and joked that the party would continue the next day at 10:00 am on the Staten Island Ferry. Finally, after a call to our worried parents, we stumbled home after midnight.
It seems Andy's comment about the ferry really was a joke, but I skipped school the next day (don’t tell Sister Catherine) and joined about 12 other gullible types in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal who’d taken Andy at his word. After the milk and cookies incident, why not believe him? Among the group was someone who worked for him, and she called Andy to say we were waiting for him. The man himself arrived not 20 minutes later, very pleased that we’d come. He said he thought no one would take him seriously.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Wow, this is awesome. What a great story! Thank you.
2 - El Bicho
Congrats, I've seen video of Andy out with the audience enjoying milk and cookies.