TIME TO FORGIVE IF NOT FORGET?
Jerry Seinfeld Tries To Help Michael Richards Find His Comic Voice Again
By Elizabeth C.
JERRY SEINFELD WRAPPED UP HIS FIRST SEASON OF COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE WITH a heart-to-heart with his old sitcom partner Michael Richards of “Cosmo Kramer” fame. The two friends ride a 1962 Volkswagen flatbed bus held together with nostalgia and duck tape enroute to The Malibu Kitchen for some java. And it’s there that Michaels opens up about his shockingly offensive “n—-r” attack on an audience member that heckled him in 2006. The Laugh Factory tirade was caught on tape and whipped up a furious backlash that cost Richards’ his standup career.
Six years later, Richards now reflects on his notorious stumble during his chat with Seinfeld toward the end of the 17-minute episode.
“I think I worked selfishly, and not selflessly,” Richards said of his work on Seinfeld. “It’s not about me, it’s about them (the audience). Now that’s a lesson I learned seven years ago when I blew it in the comedy club and lost my temper because somebody interrupted my act and said some things that hurt me and I lashed out in anger. I should have been working selflessly that evening.”
The ensuing firestorm was instant and unforgiving, and Richard hasn’t worked standup since. “I busted up after that event,” he tells Jerry. “It broke me down. It was a selfish response, I took it too personally. I should have said (to the hecklers), ‘You’re absolutely right, I’m not funny, I’m going to go home’ … Inside it still kicks me around a bit.”
And then he adds with heartfelt feeling: “And thanks for sticking by me. It meant a lot to me.”
The ever unflappable Seinfeld says steadily, “There’s no issue with with that” before like the best of friends advising Richards, “Well, that’s up to you to say you know what I’ve been carrying this bag enough. I’m going to put it down.”
The two friends then climb back into the beater where Seinfeld has some final words of encouragement for Richards:
“Well I hope that you do consider using your instrument again because it’s the most beautiful instrument I’ve ever seen,” Seinfeld says.
“Ah, Jerry. Thanks buddy.”
You can’t get much better friend than that.
