Featured Book

Featured Articles

Travel Safety

Featured Advertisers

Hotel Savoy Prague

Sea Kayak Advenures

Search

go

Search By Country:


Search Now:

Experiences

go

Kramer Reality Tour


NEW YORK — Yes Newman, there really is a Kramer. Kenny Kramer, that is. And he is well and alive and living in New York City.

©Judy Bannister This is the real Kramer who is now showing fans the origins of the TV comedy based on the real-life antics of Kenny and his friend Larry. That is Larry as in Larry David, co-creator and (now retired) head writer of Seinfeld. Kenny Kramer is the inspiration for actor Michael Richards’ portrayal of the electric-haired Cosmo Kramer ("a brilliant physical comedian," says the original Kramer.)

The Kramer Reality Tour, at $37.50 per person, is a must for anyone who watches the show. Rabid Seinfeld fan or occasional viewer, this is likely the most fun you will ever have on any three-hour tour. What better way could there be to see the Big Apple than with an experienced guide, a celebrity and a former mayoralty candidate (he decided campaigning was just too much work) all rolled into one? Oh, and did I mention all-round character? Get ready to meet Kramer!

Every Saturday and Sunday at noon, a small group gathers at the Pulse Theatre at 432 W. 42nd St. (between 9th and 10th) where Kenny and his buddy Bobby Allen Brooks, introduce you to the background of Larry, Kenny, various unnamed friends and their years of fun-filled 'nothing' that spawned TV's Seinfeld.

The characters simply mirror the life and antics of Kenny and Larry, who lived next door to each other for many years, as do TV's Cosmo Kramer and Jerry Seinfeld.

Affectionately described by Kenny as a "total neurotic," Larry David was asked by Jerry Seinfeld to help create the sitcom because he felt Larry's comedic talents would supply "that weird edge" that the show required. It is an edge that has become even sharper and more darkly comic over the past nine top-of-the-ratings seasons.

In fact, to demonstrate how perceptively neurotic he is, Larry David actually wrote himself into the cast as the self-absorbed neurotic George Costanza. Who in his right mind would admit to being George? (Actually both Kenny and Larry bear a striking resemblance to their TV personas – except Kenny sports long flowing hair, not the electric shock look of the TV Kramer.) Over the years, Larry and Kenny would talk a couple of times each week so the writer could keep in touch with his New York roots and discuss those memories which appear weekly in the show.

After a very funny warm up session, with background stories by Kenny and a 1984 videotape of Larry David performing a monologue for comedy host Richard Beltzer, the happy crowd fills the deluxe 57-seat Neoplan coach for a tour of Seinfeld sites.

©Judy Bannister Their ears are ringing with the famous line from the classic Seinfeld show: "You think you can just treat your body like an amusement park." They are welcomed aboard with a video message from (Hizzoner) NYC Mayor, Rudy Guilianni.

Kenny takes you to the scenes of the actual misadventures – these are the show's recognizable exterior shots later meshed with tapings made in a California studio. "See right here?" Kenny points out: "Joe's Fruits? That's where the TV Kramer was banned for trying to return some plums. It is also the same market that Larry was expelled from for squeezing the fruit. Yup, he and Joe, the owner, had a big shouting match right on the street."

Then there is the Manhattan Plaza Racquet Club, where Elaine loaned and lost a borrowed racquet to a book editor she was trying to impress; the West Side YMCA where Jerry met Baseball's Keith Hernandez; the lot at 11th and 45th where George finally found a parking space – and Kramer was arrested on pimping charges.

We pass by Champagne Video where George first saw the now-departed Susan; the Sony Theaters where they all seem to meet for various movie misadventures – be it spilling mustard or winning cappuccino for life. And who could forget the Roosevelt Hospital where Baby Seven was born, where Kramer met the "pig-faced boy," where Elaine had her rabies shot, and Kramer popped the Junior Mint into a patient on the operating table.

(Kenny, the tour guide, hands out Junior Mints to all his passengers. They are a palpable reminder of what was, perhaps, the funniest sitcom episode in the history of television.)

The best is yet to come, however: a visit to the show's most famous landmark on the corner of Broadway and 112 Street – Tom's Restaurant - the TV gang's favorite meeting spot. Though the camera only shows the exterior sign 'Restaurant,’ every Seinfeld aficionado knows this is Tom's, which is really run by a guy named Pete (Panagiotis Papaharalambous) known in the show as Monk.

Steve, Pete and Kenny. © Judy Bannister The interior is all Hollywood studio. The real Tom's serves up great coffee and burgers. And, of course, a salad for Kramer.

For the best food, though, wait for the next stop – the Nazi's Soup Kitchen. Oh yes, it does exist. A little hole-in-the-wall at 55th & 8th, filled with huge 4-foot-high gleaming soup pots and run by – just like his TV counterpart – the very unfriendly, unsmiling, (and proud of it) Al "the Soup Guy."

He does, however, make terrific soup – the Portobello mushroom I had was thick, rich and tangy – but then for US$6 for a small coffeecup-size serving, it had better be good. You can also get fruit and a roll if you know the proper way of ordering from Al. For that secret you will have to ask Kramer.

Then finally, back to Kenny's apartment complex at the Manhattan Plaza – a subsidized project for those in the performing arts – for an "Original Kramer's vegetarian pizza," a Snickers bar and Coke at the Café Saint Francis (drop in anytime!) where the tour ends with a video of some fabulously funny Seinfeld out-takes.

These are just a few of the highlights of the tour, but nothing can adequately describe the fun you will have and the stories you will hear with Kenny and buddy Bobby on the Kramer Reality Tour. The next time you are headed to the Big Apple, book this tour in advance. Actually, book the tour first – before it gets filled – and then plan everything else you want to do during your trip to New York. Reservations are a must. People from all over the world take this tour.

Every fan knows by now that Seinfeld wrapped its run in the Spring of 1998, but syndication has guaranteed that the show will continue to be a global success in perpetuity. The tour seems destined to continue just as long.

After all, there is only one real Kramer and only one really terrific Kramer Reality Tour.

To book tickets for the Kramer Reality Tour, call (800) KRAMERS in the U.S. Outside the U.S. the number is (212) 268-5525. Pick up tickets and meet at the Pulse Theatre, 432 W. 42nd St., New York. Kramer’s e-mail address is kramer@bway.net. His homepage is on the Web at www.kennykramer.com.

The best is yet to come, however: a visit to the show's most famous landmark on the corner of Broadway and 112 Street – Tom's Restaurant - the TV gang's favorite meeting spot. Though the camera only shows the exterior sign 'Restaurant,’ every Seinfeld aficionado knows this is Tom's, which is really run by a guy named Pete (Panagiotis Papaharalambous) known in the show as Monk.

Steve, Pete and Kenny. © Judy Bannister The interior is all Hollywood studio. The real Tom's serves up great coffee and burgers. And, of course, a salad for Kramer.

For the best food, though, wait for the next stop – the Nazi's Soup Kitchen. Oh yes, it does exist. A little hole-in-the-wall at 55th & 8th, filled with huge 4-foot-high gleaming soup pots and run by – just like his TV counterpart – the very unfriendly, unsmiling, (and proud of it) Al "the Soup Guy."

He does, however, make terrific soup – the Portobello mushroom I had was thick, rich and tangy – but then for US$6 for a small coffeecup-size serving, it had better be good. You can also get fruit and a roll if you know the proper way of ordering from Al. For that secret you will have to ask Kramer.

Then finally, back to Kenny's apartment complex at the Manhattan Plaza – a subsidized project for those in the performing arts – for an "Original Kramer's vegetarian pizza," a Snickers bar and Coke at the Café Saint Francis (drop in anytime!) where the tour ends with a video of some fabulously funny Seinfeld out-takes.

These are just a few of the highlights of the tour, but nothing can adequately describe the fun you will have and the stories you will hear with Kenny and buddy Bobby on the Kramer Reality Tour. The next time you are headed to the Big Apple, book this tour in advance. Actually, book the tour first – before it gets filled – and then plan everything else you want to do during your trip to New York. Reservations are a must. People from all over the world take this tour.

Every fan knows by now that Seinfeld wrapped its run in the Spring of 1998, but syndication has guaranteed that the show will continue to be a global success in perpetuity. The tour seems destined to continue just as long.

After all, there is only one real Kramer and only one really terrific Kramer Reality Tour.

To book tickets for the Kramer Reality Tour, call (800) KRAMERS in the U.S. Outside the U.S. the number is (212) 268-5525. Pick up tickets and meet at the Pulse Theatre, 432 W. 42nd St., New York. Kramer’s e-mail address is kramer@bway.net. His homepage is on the Web at www.kennykramer.com.