In tomorrow’s Sun ... Movie critic Liz Braun tells us whether or not the new Russell Brand and Jonah Hill comedy Get Him to the Greek rocks. Kramer vs. Kramer MARIE-JOELLE PARENT much better looking, c’mon,” his personal phone number, QMI Agency the real one says as he sits 1-800-KRAMERS. He has across from me wearing a also been known to use the NEW YORK — I have the pink shirt and a baseball cap number to pick up women in most famous neighbour in tel- turned backwards over his city bars. evision history sitting in front long, hippie-length grey hair. Born in the Bronx, Kramer of me: e man who inspired e upright hairstyle from the describes himself as a prod- the world-renowned charac- show’s Kramer is the only part uct of the psychedelic revolu- ter of Cosmo Kramer in the missing. tion of the 1960s. “I’m really sitcom Seinfeld. Kenny and Larry lived next good-for-nothing,” he says. Kenny Kramer tells me to each other for six years. He left school at age 17, sold there’s only one difference Just like the show, their doors magazines door to door, was a between him and the TV stayed open all the time and drummer in a band and had a character he inspired: “I don’t there was constant traffic stint as a stand-up comedian. burst into rooms.” back and forth between each But it was his line of glow-in- It’s hard to imagine a more other’s apartments. “The dif- the-dark electronic disco jew- typically New York moment ference was that the food was elry that really took off — a than this. Showing up at one at my place,” Kramer explains very “Kramer” kind of idea. of the many delis in Midtown over his cup of peppermint Kenny Kramer even ran Manhattan for coffee with tea. The two men are friends for mayor of New York City. the “real Kramer” is nothing to this day. “I had a campaign with crazy short of surrealistic. I can’t When Jerry Seinfeld kinds of ideas like giving fake help thinking about the recur- approached Larry David in cellphones to schizophren- ring restaurant scene in every 1988 with a series pitch for ics so they wouldn’t freak episode of the show. Kenny NBC, he stumbled into their out tourists when they talk Kramer is where fact meets nutty day-to-day existence. to themselves,” he recalls.  ction. An example: “We really did Kramer managed to get 2,600 The life of the real Kramer, ask the Chinese delivery man votes in a race against Michael 67, changed in 1977 when he to help us order a cream for The “real” Kramer, Bloomberg’s $78-million cam- moved into a cheap apart- baldness. Just like in the show, Kenny Kramer, in paign juggernaut. ment building popular with we  lmed Larry’s head to see Manhattan. About 15 years ago, he artists in Hell’s Kitchen (43rd the di erence after. I still have started giving guided tours of St. and 10th Ave.). The build- the tape. We were also banned the show’s most recognizable ing is still there, 33 years later. from the fruit stand on the MARIE-JOELLE PARENT/QMI AGENCY locations in his Kramer Reality Back then, Kramer had no idea corner,” he says. “Everything Tour. Jerry Seinfeld used the that the guy across the hall, in the show is true.” ing to pay him for the rights. as good as him. He added a directories from the ’70s in the tour as the basis for the epi- Larry David, the show’s co-cre- Larry David asked his “I can’t say how much — it’s very physical side to the role.” library and found me!” sode, e Mu n Tops. e cir- ator, would end up using him neighbour’s permission to confidential — but it wasn’t Fans of Seinfeld discovered There were times dur- cle was complete. Once again, to create one of the four main use his character before the much,” Kramer says. the real Kramer after Rolling ing the 1990s when Kramer Kenny Kramer proved he’s characters in Seinfeld. show got rolling. “I just said Looking back, Kramer Stone magazine published an could count on getting thou- the halfway point between TV The resemblance between yes, as long as they hired me admits Michael Richards was article on him in 1991. “A jour- sands of calls for interviews and reality. the real Kramer and fictional as a comedian.” NBC turned a good choice for his charac- nalist from the New York Post every week, especially after Kramer is striking. “But I’m down that idea, instead o er- ter. “I never would have been went through old telephone the New York Times printed [email protected] There are places we remember It was 20 years ago this week show, even though the building real McCoy. Soup Kitchen International, that TV viewers got their fi rst we see is actually in Los Angeles. n The Soup Nazi, 259 W 55th closed in 2006 but the sign is taste of Seinfeld, the NBC show The real Upper West Side St. and 8th Ave. still there. about nothing that ended up apartment is also where the Yes, the Soup Nazi is real. n New York Health & Racquet running nine seasons. comedian lived when he was just His name is Al Yeganeh and, Club, 24 E 13th St. The very fi rst episode, The starting out in the Big Apple. even now, it’s not unusual to This health club was where Stake Out, aired on the network n Tom’s Restaurant, 112th St. hear him shout his famous line, George urinated in the showers on May 31, 1990. The indoor and Broadway “No soup for you!” Seinfeld and shoe salesman Jimmy scenes were fi lmed in California Probably the show’s most got the idea for the episode insisted on speaking in the third but the outside footage was famous location, the restaurant when he visited the restaurant person. shot on location in New York where the group met most during the eighth season of the n NBC Studios, 30 Rockefeller businesses that are still cashing often was renamed Monk’s show. Yeganeh was known for Plaza in on the show’s success. Here Cafe in Seinfeld. The interior his strict rules, which include This is where Jerry and are fi ve: shots were done in a California having your money ready and George pitch their idea for a n 129 W 81st St., Apt. 5A studio, but there are numerous moving to the left immediately show about nothing. This is Jerry’s address in the photos of the actors inside the after ordering. His restaurant, — Marie-Joelle Parent