To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Andy Kaufman's "death," a fact debated to this day, the Andy Kaufman vaults have been raided and this, "My Breakfast With Blassie," gets the "Commemorative Edition" treatment with a full (GASP!) 8 minutes of bonus material including supposed lost footage of Andy in the raw, Blassie Graffiti bonus footage, Legendary Graffiti home movies, a brief "Making Of" vignette, a photo gallery and film premiere footage.

Isn't that an awful lot of description for only eight minutes?

The original "My Breakfast With Blassie" was released in 1983, the year I graduated high school. A Kaufman fan, I quickly watched it and was horrified by the DVD being the one thing I never expected from Kaufman...boring.

This new DVD, which is essentially a piece of performance art captured during a breakfast between Kaufman and the self-proclaimed King of Men Freddie Blassie filmed in the midst of an unsuspecting crowd at a Hollywood Sambo's Restaurant, has the two discussing such hilarious topics as wrestling, the challenges of stardom, hygiene and whether to choose bacon or sausage for breakfast.

Are you laughing yet?

"My Breakfast With Blassie" may very well resonate more with diehard Kaufman fans, though I've always considered myself one and it didn't resonate with me.

The production values are, as one could expect, modest at best with technology appearing to be not much more than a camera and modest sound equipment. Even the DVD packaging is, for lack of a better term, cheap. As I opened the packaging, I found myself having to take great care as the cover began to rip away from the DVD case.

Add it up yourself.

One of Kaufman's worst performances.

Average production values.

Cut-rate packaging.

If Kaufman is dead, he's rolling over in his grave. If he's alive, somebody's about to get body slammed.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic