Kenny Kramer
Encyclopedia
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
and is the real-life inspiration for the character of Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...
from the television sitcom Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
Pre-Seinfeld
Prior to his fleeting fame as the "real-life" Kramer in Seinfeld, he enjoyed a spotty career as a stand-up comedianStand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
, and worked as the manager for a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
band. Kramer sought to manage Bill Beason, a New York point karate fighter/champion, with the hopes that the karate tournament scene would develop along the same lines as wrestling had, since corporate sponsors such as Budweiser and Paul Mitchell were emerging. It proved unsuccessful.
Just as the character of Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld (character)
Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld is the main protagonist of the American television sitcom Seinfeld . The straight man among his group of friends, this semi-fictionalized version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld was named after, co-created by, based on, and played by Seinfeld himself.The series revolves around...
lived across the hall from Cosmo Kramer in the television show, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
lived across the hall from Kenny for six years. The two lived in Manhattan Plaza
Manhattan Plaza
Manhattan Plaza is a large federally-subsidized residential complex at 400 West 43rd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City. It has 1,688 units and about 3,500 tenants, primarily in the performing arts. It occupies the city block bounded north by 43rd Street, east by 9th Avenue, south by 42nd...
, a federally assisted apartment complex for performing artists in Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Seinfeld
Michael RichardsMichael Richards
Michael Anthony Richards is an American actor, comedian, writer and television producer, best known for his portrayal of the eccentric Cosmo Kramer on the television sitcom Seinfeld....
did not meet with Kenny to study the character and actually wanted nothing to do with him at all, a situation later parodied in the Seinfeld fourth season episode "The Pilot". The character was originally going to be named "Kessler" (parodied when he and Jerry are shown meeting for the first time in "The Betrayal"), due to Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David's (eventually justified) fear that using the name might spur the real Kramer to exploit his association with the character. However, they eventually came to the conclusion that the name was too good not to use. Kenny Kramer then proceeded to contact Castle Rock Entertainment
Castle Rock Entertainment
Castle Rock Entertainment is a film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. It is a subsidiary of Warner Bros...
with a list of several demands, many of which were financial, for the use of his name. One demand not met was that Kenny would get to play Kramer, which is also parodied in "The Pilot".
Kenny has been the host of Kramer's Reality Tour and Kramer's Reality Road Show for the past thirteen years. He tells behind-the-scene Seinfeld stories to his audience and gives a bus tour of sites made famous by Seinfeld. A DVD version of his reality tour has been produced.
The "Reality Tours" were later spoofed on Seinfeld in the episode "The Muffin Tops", when the Cosmo Kramer character receives money from catalog sales company owner J. Peterman for the use of his various stories in Peterman's biography; he develops a reality bus tour and touts himself as "The Real J. Peterman."
The relationship between "Cosmo Kramer" and Kenny Kramer is explored in the featurette "Kramer vs. Kramer: Kenny to Cosmo", on the 3rd season Seinfeld DVD.
Post-Seinfeld
After achieving fame due to Seinfeld, Kramer has worked as a correspondent for Hard CopyHard Copy
Hard Copy is an American tabloid news television show that ran in syndication from 1989 to 1999. Hard Copy was aggressive in its use of questionable material on television, including gratuitous violence....
; created and hosted "Kramer's New York" segments for the Fox New York City affiliate WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
's Good Day New York
Good Day New York
Good Day New York is a weekday morning news and entertainment feature show which airs on WNYW, the New York City flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company...
; and appeared in the original New York company of Tony n' Tina's Wedding
Tony n' Tina's Wedding
-Film adaptation:The play was "freely" adapted for film by writer-director Roger Paradiso— "filmed primarily from the point of view of a lisping videographer"—with Joey McIntyre and Mila Kunis playing the title characters...
, playing himself. He has made numerous appearances on the bonus features of the Seinfeld DVD series.
In 1997, Kramer attempted to gain the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nomination for New York mayor
Mayor of New York City
The Mayor of the City of New York is head of the executive branch of New York City's government. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.The budget overseen by the...
; he claimed that his candidacy was "quite serious," saying that he wanted to represent "a lot of disfranchised Democrats out there." He did not get the nomination. In 2001, Kramer was asked by a television reporter about running again, and he replied that "if Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
can be governor, why can't I be mayor?" The next day, the Libertarian Party contacted him to run on its ticket, and he accepted. He cited his agreement with the Libertarian Party on, among other issues, the decriminalization of marijuana. During his run, he claimed that the previous run was "a publicity stunt"; his campaign slogan was "Kramer for mayor...this time I'm not kidding!" He finished seventh in the election
New York City mayoral election, 2001
-Republican:- General election campaign:Unlike his cash-poor Democratic rival, who had just emerged from an expensive primary and expected to rely on traditionally reliable free media coverage that never materialized, Bloomberg continued to spend $74 million on TV ads and direct mail in the weeks...
, with 1,408 votes.