‘Seinfeld’ Star Michael Richards Went Wild on Stage Again – In A Good Way this Time

Michael Richards Has Always been an an anpredictable performer.

Critics and Audiences Alike Singled that Out As Richards’ Brilliant Skill, Shaped Across Nine Seasons and 180 Episodes While Starring as Cosmo Kramer on IConic Sitcom Seinfeld. Even Co-Stars Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus Didn’t Always Know How How Richards Planned to Play A Scene, from Entrans to Exits With An Ine. Richards Likes to Describe HimSelf As “Dionysian,” A Word That Translates to Sportaneous, Off-The-Cuff, Frenzied.

That unpredictability Helped him win Three Emmy Awards. But It ALSO TORCHED HIS CAREER AND SENT HIM INTO An EXTENDED 17-YEAR Exodus. Durying An Apperance at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles in November 2006, Richards Was Heckled By An Audience Member and He Responded With An Impromptu and Explosed Ti. N-Word. The incident, captured on Camera by an Audience Member, Went Viral. After An initial apology organized by Seinfeld for Late Show with David LettermanRichards retreated from Public Life. HE SPENT YEARS WORKING ON HIMSELF THROUGH “DEEP Analysis” and Spiritual Reflection, Traveling The World and Reading. Richards Emerged Last Year with A Memoir, Entrans and Exitsand he made the publicity Rounds in Support of It by Appearing in Print and On Television Doing His First Interviews in Years.

On Wednesday Night at Ventura Music Hall, He Returned to the Stage for the FIRST TIME SINCE 2006 by Headlinging Michael Richards: An Evening of Conversations, Questions and Answers. The Mini-Tour of California Cities Continues with San Luis Obispo, Menlo Park, Monterey and Petaluma, and Being that Ventura Was First Out of the Gate, Nobody Knew! That included richards and his moderator, respected veteran Writer tod Gold, Who Collaborated On Entrans and Exits.

“We have no iDea Whata’s Going to Happen, WHICH MAKES IT REALLY EXCITING,” GOLD SAID IN Kicking Off The Event Shortly After Minutes, Saving The Final 30 for Audience Questions Which Were Submitted on Slips of Paper Before Showtime. Perhaps Unsurpringly, The Unpredictability of Such An Event Proved to Be A Fitting Match for Richards WHO TOOK The AUDIENCE ON A ROVLERCOASTER OF MOMOtions WHILE GOLD.

Richards Was at Times Times Thought and Quiet While Recounting The Racist Tirade, ITS aftermath and the resulting exodus or praing peers likes sam kinison, Andes Kaufman and George Carlin. Other Times, He Was Wild, Loud and Rambunctuos As He Acted Out Scenes From Seinfeld or told colorful stories involving ufos. At One Point, While Acting Out An Assignment He Delivered in A Public Speaking Class, He Mimicked A Seizure and Threw HimSelf to The Floor Convulsing Richards Must’ve Gotten Out of His Chair at Least A Dozen Times Throughout the Course of the Night, Struting Across Stage and Commanding The Room. The Audence Got Up, Too, Responding in Kind by Delivering A Standing Option to Start and One When It Was All Said and Done.

“On Our Way Over to this Theater tonight, You Were Congerned About Whather You Could Could Could Could Off As Your Authentic Self. How Do You Think You’ve Done?” Gold Asked As Richards Responded, “Yeah, I’M Close to The Bone.”

Below Are Highlights from Michael Richards: A Night of Conversations, Questions and Answers.

On that racist tirade and self-imposed exodus After Touching on Richards’ Acting Method of Always Coming Up with A Backstory for Kramer Before He Entered A Scene Even IF It Wasnwe Backstory for the purposes of Entrans and Exits. Thought The Moderator Meant Backstory As in Childhood, Richards Went Straight To Controversy. “I WAS FORCED TO REVISIT [my backstory] Because 19 Years Ago, I Was In A Comedy Club and I Was A Very Naughty, Naughty Man, ”He Said of the 2006 incident.“ That Night, Doing My Act, I Got InterRupted, Got Heck. It Went Really Bad, and I SAID SOME AWFUL Things. Althugh I was Trying to Lift It Into Comedy, Believ It OR, Playing This Idiot Who’s A Racist But I’M Channeling All this Goo-Gah, WHICH is What I do a diosian. I DON’T REALLY WORK WITH An ACT, I’M VERY LOOSE ON STAGE, VERY LOOSEY-GOOSEY. That goosey got me into some trouble. ”

The Viral Debacle Led to An Extended Break That Wound Up Being About 17 Years, He Said. “I Thought i would just just back off and step into mySelf APART FROM SHOW BUSINESS, APART FROM The ACTING, APART FROM ALWAYS BEING MOVED THROUGH Character. How about Being Many, Many Years Just Looking Very, Very Closely at Mood, Feeling, Thought, Dialoguing with Mood, Feeling and Thounga, Paying At my Dreams. ”

While Richards Revealed that “Took Lots of Calls” from people that wanted to put him into acting jobs, he declined all thoss opportunities. “Something Else Wanted Me to Stay Alone, to Be A Reclusive. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME EACH MORNING IN THE SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS. I NEORED THE SUN. ME IN GATHERING A KIND OF ORDER WITHIN MYSELF. ”

“Terrified” of Tirade Aftermath, Richards Thought it Might Lead to Civil War The response to what happled on the laugh Factory Stage Was So Intense That Richards Said He Was Left “Terrified,” Thinking IT MIGHT SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL. “I Thounghht the Who Country Was Going to Go Into a Civil War Because Suddenly The Guy Who Plays The Beloved Kramer, This Wacko, Was On Stage Trowing ADAM That night, he immedialate Pictured an American Flag Splitting in Half Based on a Vision that he had in a dream years before. “What the hell is anger? Who did i let that heckler get me so angry? What in me is so asceptible, so -susceptible to get so angry to say. AROUND ME TO See How My Humanity Could Be SO, SO Angry. ”

Jerry Seinfeld is “Very Methodical” Gold Noted How Seinfeld Wrote The Book’s Foreword, Praising Richards As A “Natural” and Adving the Gift of Doing The Sitcom Was Hows How Off The Chance to Be Six Inches from Richards. “What was jerry like?” Gold Asked, Revealing He Had Never Asked Durying in Their Years-Long Collaborations. “OH, Jerry’s Very Methodical,” Richards Explained. “I Always Called Him An Apolllonic. He have a real Sense of Order. Everything Has to Be Put in Place Before He Takes A Step Forward. It’s Astoning, and Itrektov. HE REALLY KEPT THAT GOING. I’M Much More Dionysian. Physical Comedy. ” Because of the unpredictability of his Physical Comedy While Playing Kramer, Richards Said Show Directors Were Always Prepared. “I have a fourth camera,” he said. “IT WAS A Three Camera Sitcom Show But I HAD The LUXURY OF A FOURTH CAMERA SO they Always Stayed Wide on Me.”

“IF YOU WANT Funny, Go With That Guy” While Richards Has Talked and Written About His Seinfeld Audition Before, It Always Sems Relevant to Revisit How Casting Changed TV History. Looking Back On the Process, Richards Dried that NBC Executives “Didn’t Want Me” and CO-CREATOR LARRY DAVID WASN’T IMMEDIATELY SOLD EITHER. The actor was coming off the short-lived series Marblehead ManorAlso on NBC, and “Since that Show Had Been Canceled, The Networks Didn’t Like to Put An Actor Fresh from A Canceled Show Into A New Show,” HE SAID. But He Gave It His All During the Audition. “I SAW An Office Chair That Had Wheels on It, and I Got in that Insthead SO I COURCK there wasn’t much i could do from what was in the script, ”Richards recalled, adding that his goal became Making Seinfeld Laugh, which he accol was. “Jerry’s laughing and that was the chemistry. I KNEW THAT WHEN HE LAUGHED, I COURCK

But he have to make it to the Final Audition, WHICH WAS HELD at New York’s Plaza Hotel. Richards Rode the Elevator to Emerge Into A Suite Whole NBC Executives Were Waiting. HE WALKED IN AND ASKED, “WHAT Are You People Doing in My Room?” THEN HE WENT TO The Bathroom, Yelled Out “Come On!” Before Flushing the Toilet and Walking Out with Wet Hands. Institute of Playing It Straight, He Continued with the Audition by Reading His Lines While Doing A Headstand on the Table, Kncking Over a Lamp and Landing in a Chair. Nailed It. “I HOPE I’M NOT SUNDING CONCEITED,” Richards Admitted. “BUT The Head of the Network Was Sitting There Said, ‘Well, If You Want Funny, You Go With That Guy.’” ”

On Refusion to Watch Seinfeld (And WHY THAT Changed) Thought is one of the most Beloved Sitcoms of All Time – and Routinely Charts on Netflix’s Streaming Rankings All These Years Later – Richards Refused to Watch The Show. “WHEN I would Watch ‘Em, I would feel soppointed,“ He Reveed. “There was so Much to do. You Only Get One or Two Tax, and You Got to Move on. Television is the Fastest Medium Possible. You Put These Shows Together In Fur Days, Fur Days. IT WAS MOVING SO FAST, AND SO WHEN I WOURT SEE APISODE, I’D SAY, ‘OH, I COULD HAVE DONE THIS,’ OR I COULD HAVE DONE THAT. Moved on. ”

That attitude changed Three Years Ago WHEN HE AND GOLD STARTED PUTING The MEMOIR TOGETCHER. “I SAID, ‘I’V GOT toing FAMILIAR CACK After SO Many Years, I Sat with My, at the Time, 9-YEAR-ELD SON, AND WATCHED THE SHOWS IN SEQUENCE Just Watching Seinfeld Episodes. I was so enjoying it because now i’m distant enough. I’m not in it. I Could See Them Objectively. I was going, ‘oh my god, this is, wow.’ I was so happy that i was a part of it because the ensemble is so just so rich. ALL THESE SEMI-REGULAR ACTORS, IT WAS LIKE The GREAT Second Bench of the Chicago Bulls. ”

His Favorite Scene He Nailed in One Take Durying the Q&A Poction of the Evening, Richards Was Asked to Name His Favorite Seinfeld Episode, and he cited “The Revenge,” the Seventh of the Scond Season. Specifically, he loves a scene that Finds Kramer Teaming up to with Jerry to get revenge on a laundromat Owner (for Allegedly Stealing Money from Jerry) by the. “That was the first show that i introduceted some fity comedy,“ HE said. “I DON’T SAY THIS OUT of conceit, but i did it in one take. I had it all visualized. The Director Was Opped to It. HE SAYS, ‘IT’S GOING to TAKE TOO MUCH TIME.’ They don’nt to take the Time to Do Physical Comedy Because You have to set it up, rehearse it, and it’s going to be over there and we wouldn But I KNEW WHERE The LAUGHS WERE. I Wanted to Show That We Can Do This, We Can Get It Done and We Can Move on Very Quickly. I had it all planned out. They Even Let Me Design The Set. That was a delight for me. ”

He Also Noted How He Loved “The Statue,” the Sixth Episode from the Same Season. “That’s The FIRST TIME KRAMER GOT to be A Character, Playing A Character, and You Could See How How His Imagination Is Ramp. The Physical Comedy With and The Ten Pouring Cement Into. Episodes Back to Back, Man, That Was The Birth of Kramer. ”

“IT’s like sitting in a new escalade” Playing Kramer Looked Like It Could Be Hazardous to Richards’ Health Due to the Sheer Number of Pratfolls Over the Years. But he was wel -protected. “I HAD A PAD KIT. I HAD HIP PADS, KNEE PADS, Elbow Pads. I HAD PADS All Over The Place,” He Said with A Smile. HE RECALLED A SPECIFIC SCENE WITH DANNY WOODBURN (“Such An Open-Hearted Guy”) from “The Wait Out,” Episode 21 from Season 7. Woodburn W W WOODBURN MICEED MICK ACTING SCENE BUT KRAMER’S PANTS ARE TOO TIGT THAT HE Can’T SIT DOWN. Mickey Races Over and Tackles Kramer. “I HAD A WONDERFUL BRACE ON ALL The WAY UP to PROTECT MY SPINE,“ Richards SAID. “IT WAS LIKE SITING IN A NEW ESCALADE.”

Kramer Communicated with Richards About His Wardrobe Choices Beyond Back Braces, Richards Said He Went to Great Lengths to Find a Wardrobe That Fit Kramer’s Vibe. “I’ll just say that Character Talked to me. I felt like i was told to go to Thrift Shops,” He Said, Revealing that the Character Communicated Directly to Him. “Kramer, whore do you get your cloths? Thrift Shops. All the Cloths he Wears, that’s the reason kind of the pants are a little short because thoss are the cloths he’s alway. Out that It Was Rather Hip. ” Richards Spent His Summer Hiatus by Scouring the Racks, at One Point Accuumulating “Over 90 Shirts” for His Character. “That Stuff Was All Out of the Early ’60s. I Made A Point of Making Sure that All Those Cloths Were Out of the Early’ 60s, Never Went Into The ’50s.” Years Later, A Man Approached Him to Say Howch Hwch He Loved His Work On SeinfeldClaiming that HE Made $ 18 Million by Manufacting Shirts in the style of kramer. “I said, ‘god, i should have been in on that.’ I Didn’t Think Business Wise, But It Just Turned Out Those $ 1.50 Shirts Could Be Sold for A Whole Lot More. ”

HE LIT A TIE ON FIRE AND WAS SAVED by Jay Leno Richards and Gold Repeatedly Touched on the Improvisation, The Unpredictability of Life, The “Value of the Irrational” and How It All Adds Color to One’s Experience. Jumping Off from that Point, Richards Recalled How How Has On Stage on and Found HimSelf Moved to Try Something Wildly Unpredictable. “I didn’t Really Get the Respons and Wanted,” He Said in Starting the Story. “I Said, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, i’m Going to Sacrifice MySelf to The Comedy Gods. I’M Going to Light MySelf On Fire.’ I FLAME TO MY TIE AND JUST STODERE THINKING, How am i Going to Get Out of This? I KNOW, The FLAMES Are Coming up to My Face. ” Just then, Jay Leno Jumped Up on Stage and Dooused Him With Water. “He Turned to the Audience and Said Something, and We Got A Huge Laugh, Huge, And I Said, ‘Thank You, Jay. That’s Our Routine. We’ve Been Working on Thoter. Maybe a Little Bit Earlier Next Time.

Watermelon Stand-Up Experiment Fell Flat Richards Talked About Up Being Inspired by Comedy Greats, People Like Andy Kaufman, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Sam Kinison and George Carlin. HE SPENT TIME SPECIFICALLY PRAINING KAUFMAN WHO ALSO HAD An Unpredictable Style, EvidenCed by the Time That Has Waled Cloths and Read a Magazine while Richards felt heeded to experiment with an exercise of his own but the one he has picked out of Turned Out not to be that Sweet. “I Brough Out A Big Watermelon and I Just Sat there,“ He Said. “I OPENED UP The WATER, HANDED OUT SLICES OF WATERMELON TO POOPLE, AND THEN I BURPED AND I LEFT.” The “Big-Time Manager” he have at the time was not Impressed. “HE Said, ‘Michael, I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING UP THERE.’ I said, ‘i’m getting acquainted with the audience, that’s what i’m doing.’ HE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO WITH THAT. The tonight Show and he said, ‘you don’h have anything i can do that with if you’re just eating watermelon.’ ”