We didn’t think there would be worse hologram-related news this week than the release of that cut-rate Jem movie, but we were wrong. The New York Times reports that Hologram USA, purveyor of holographic images (and bad taste, apparently), is setting up a comedy tour for Andy Kaufman and Redd Foxx as computer-generated apparitions. So now you can live your dream of seeing the two iconic comedians in arguably their most watered-down form, because YouTube videos are for suckers.
The company, which has also employed the likenesses of Patsy Cline and Freddie Mercury for similarly questionable purposes, says it has the full cooperation of the estates of both men. Hologram USA founder and CEO Alki David said his company is actively trying to ruin, er, commemorate the legacies of several performers, but Kaufman and Foxx’s heirs were currently the most “amenable” to his “vision.” And in case you thought David was joking, the Times quotes Kaufman’s brother Michael as saying the hologram tour is “the right platform for the new generation of audiences to experience Andy,” and one that “keeps him alive.”
Hologram USA plans to produce hologram shows featuring the comedians performing some of their best-known material, as well as “narrative segments that dramatize biographical details.” The “tour” will set up residencies in tourist-friendly cities, and will play several times a day in the first year before being added to a rotation that will likely include a Billie Holiday or Whitney Houston hologram concert as well. For Foxx’s show, David intends to include a scene with a Malcolm X hologram, because the activist once complimented Foxx. We wonder if some of the holograms produced will show Kaufman and Foxx turning over in their graves.