Latka Gravas - Foreign Man

Foreign Man

In the 1970s, Kaufman often performed in comedy clubs in character as a nameless amateur comedian who claimed to be from "Caspiar," a fictional island in the Caspian Sea. He spoke little English, and with an indeterminable accent. This character later came to be referred to as "Foreign Man."

Foreign Man would play an LP album of the theme song to Mighty Mouse. As the song plays, he nervously stares at the audience. When the line "Here I come to save the day!" is sung, Foreign Man exuberantly lip-synchs it with a wave of his arm. He then continues to stare at the audience until the line is sung again when he again lip-synchs the line. Foreign Man apparently only understood or enjoyed the one line in the entire song. As the song ends, he quietly bows.

Another well-known bit contained the surprise factor. Foreign Man would nervously tell nonsensical jokes and perform poor impressions of famous people without changing his voice. For example, he would say "I would like to imitate Meester Carter, de President of de United States." He would then say in the same voice, "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of de United States. Tenk you veddy much". The audience would begin to heckle him, but Foreign Man would continue: "And now I would like to imitate de Elvis Presley". As "Also sprach Zarathustra" played, Foreign Man turned around, quickly changed his clothes into a rhinestone-studded jumpsuit, slicked his hair back, and launched into an Elvis Presley impersonation so accurate that Elvis Presley himself described it as his favorite. In addition to imitating Presley's voice, he accurately imitated his mannerisms and stage banter. After he finishes, Foreign Man meekly says "Tenk you veddy much".

Kaufman's Foreign Man character became very popular when he appeared on the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. It was so popular he performed Foreign Man four more times on the show from 1975-1977, that was until he famously exposed himself live during a sketch with Chevy Chase. Kaufman also appeared as Foreign Man on Dinah! and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Kaufman also used a version of the Foreign Man character, as Andy the Robot in the once-aired pilot for the proposed sitcom Stick Around in 1976.