That's really friggin' uncomfortable.

The man was clearly struggling, and clearly on a ton of cocaine ... and people there reflexively wanted to laugh it off (in part no doubt because they imagined him as pretending to be Latka IRL) ... but it's really sad to watch in retrospect. Especially the coughing ... when he died of lung cancer a few years later. Rough stuff ...

It's also interesting just how much ... he sounds like Michael Stipe, voice-wise. I mean, he really, really does. I don't think it's a coincidence Michael wrote the song Man In The Moon, put it like that.

that was a certain kind of genius. This was 3 years b4 he died, he was exagerating that cough on purpose!

It's not uncommon for it to take 3 years to die from lung cancer after the point at which symptoms like coughing begin.

In the interview, it also sounds like he thought his Taxi gig was over, someone downthread said he was just banned from SNL at the time, he says he has no movie deals, and he was saying he was occasionally working at the Improv ... which may've suddenly been his only gig.

He may very well have been at a very low point here, not knowing if he was going to get more work, he also may've known his lungs were in bad shape, and the whole pan-handling thing with the audience ... may've kinda been 'for real', even if sorta played for laughs.

against drugs. He did a little experiment in HS. He was into meditation and healthy eating, I believe he was a vegetarian.
OTOH, Tony Clifton smoked cigars and was far from healthy.
I was only 7 when he died. I have read every book I have been able to find on his life.

I mean ... are you sure?

There are people who say they're against drugs ... but what they are really trying to do is avoid getting busted. It does happen.

Giamatti, plus most of the original cast of Taxi (which Andy hated), it is one of my favorite movies. I have read every book there is on his life.
He was a complex dude, and it thrilled him to pull one over on the audience. There are many videos/documentaries about his life on Youtube.

If he was able to pull that off sober that's certainly a testament to his acting skills, but there's really nothing creative about that as it's been done thousands of times by thousands of other comedians. I think that had a lot to do with the end of his career before he reached the end of his rope. That and the fact he was notoriously hard to work with.

There's lots of other comedians who went downhill prior to their death and it's almost always the result of drugs as it's something of an occupational hazard. At least in those instances it's easy to figure out why. In the case of Kaufman if he wasn't doing drugs, then it's hard not to think he went downhill because his act just got old and he could no longer find creative ways to stay on top.

But I'm not sure the coughing is really a gag ... nor that he legit wasn't sure where his next friggin' $ was coming from ... at that particular moment.

Making a substantial salary.

The coughing was part of the gag.

He did the same schtick on Fridays - and even pretended he was getting divorced.

And why would the coughing be 'part of the gag'? What gag are you referring to? He died of lung cancer 3 years later. If it was really a 'gag', it was pretty eerily prescient, wouldn't you say?

He was pretending to be down and out and not well - hence the coughing and disheveled appearance. He was not worried about money and was not actually ill. In addition to Taxi, he was filming Heartbeeps in late 1980 (around the same time as this Letterman appearance) for which he also got paid a hefty salary. This was an act to make the audience uncomfortable - which was part of what he enjoyed doing. In the Letterman appearance, he makes up a story about his wife and kids leaving him (he had neither a wife nor kids) and pretends to panhandle in the audience. This is his style of comedy/performance art.

he did father a daughter when he was young. She only learned he was her father 8 years after he died.

This clip is part of his schtick. I realize it's weird, but he loved trolling audiences. That is what he is doing here, often Letterman was aware of what he would be doing.
This particular clip, I believe was filmed right after SNL banned him.

Sitting poolside talking about he is in Hollywood, not Memphis Tennessee. The book I read about said he uh....enjoyed wrestling the women.

Peace