Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 85

MUSIC Ringo a star among stars "PROM LE Big hair, big hopes Michael Richards looks beyond the world of Kramer Aj By Barry Koltnow The Orange County Register LOS ANGELES This is not the first time I have interviewed Michael Richards, so I knew what to expect. I knew what not to expect. I knew not to expect to laugh hysterically when Richards flew, fell or flopped into the room. I knew not to expect Richards to try to sell me on some hare-brained, get-rich-quick scheme that involved making people cook their own pizzas or a cologne that smells like the beach. I knew not to expect Richards to entice me with the exquisite taste of a rare piece of fruit or the tantalizing aroma of a fine Cuban cigar.

In short, I knew not to expect Kramer. Still, there was this part of me that held out hope, albeit a faint hope, that the actor would reveal accidentally or not some tiny part of the character that has become a pop-culture icon on the hit TV show. "Seinfeld." Maybe he would say something like Kramer perhaps he would be wearing one of those quintessential Kramer shirts. There was always a chance that his crazy, curly hair would be running amok and pointed defiantly to the heavens. I had to settle for the big hair.

Otherwise, it was the soft-spoken, thoughtful, laid-back Richards who greeted me in his Los Angeles hotel suite to discuss his first starring role in a feature film, "Trial and Error." In it, he plays a wacky, out-of-work actor, whose plans to throw a wild bachelor party for his boyhood friend (Jeff Daniels), now a big-shot attorney about to marry the boss' daughter, are thwarted when his friend is shipped to a small desert town to defend one of the law firm's morally bankrupt clients (Rip Torn). When his friend is unable to make an appearance in court, Richards fills in for him, thinking of the experience as a quick, easy acting job. He soon learns that it is a major acting role for which he is underqualified. Although he performed admirably in a small role in Diane Kea-ton's directorial effort, "Unstrung Heroes," and has appeared in other small films, this is Richards' first chance to see if all that Kramer-re-lafed attention the past eight years will rub off on the big screen. "I guess this is the big test to see if people think I can carry a picture," the actor said.

"That part doesn't scare me. What scares me a little is knowing that the studio is putting millions and millions of dollars into promoting this picture. Now we have to make back that much more money. "I'd feel a lot more comfortable right now if I had one or two more pictures ready to be released in a few months. But with the 'Seinfeld' shooting schedule, I only have time to make one movie a year.

"Eventually, I'd like to get away from television completely so I can concentrate on making features." That won't come right away. Richards and "Seinfeld's" other supporting players jason Alcx- Review by Ed Masley Post-Gazette Staff Writer Thirty years down the road from the Summer of Pepper, the Beatle Most Likely to Tour on a Regular Basis is still getting by with a little help from his friends only this time, instead of the "Free as a Bird" crew, he's rounded up members of Cream, Procul Harum, Bad Company and, on guitar, Peter Frampton, who played Billy Shears in the ill-fated screen adaptation of "Pepper" in 78. OK, so it isn't exactly the Beatles. As summer revival tours go, though, a person could do a lot worse than the show Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band played for a crowd of 3,922 in the rain last night at the I.C. Light Amphitheatre.

Sure, it was wet. This is Pittsburgh. It rains. As for Ringo, the deal was exactly the same as it's been at his previous All-Starr gigs, which means in addition to having a "Blast From Your Past" with a Beatle, you will get an earful of hits from the other musicians. In this case, it meant Gary Brooker pouring his soul into Procul I larum's "Whiter Shade of Pale," Jack Bruce on "White Room," "I Feel Free" and "Sunshine of Your and Simon Kirke, who always did a fine job drumming in Free and Bad Company, trying his hand at singing the hits and doing an OK job on "All Right Now." It was Frampton who nearly stole the show out from under the affable Beatle with "Show Me The Way," "Baby I Love Your Way" and the one without "Way" in the title, an epic, 17-minute "Do You Feel Like We Do." It's no wonder the man made his mark with a double-live album.

The crowd was clearly there for Ringo, though. In a crushed velvet jacket in some variation on mustard, he bounced on stage waving peace signs in time to his earliest solo hit, "It Don't Come Easy." "It is really cool that you came out on a night like this," he said. "But look at it this way. If you hadn't, you would have missed it." I lis humor was evident through out the set. After singing "Happy Birthday" to Brooker, he joked that "Gary will always remember where he spent his 21st birthday." Later, he danced in circles and sang an impromptu chorus of "Sin-gin' In the Rain." Other highlights included "Photograph," "I'm the Greatest," "You're Sixteen" and a hard-rocking cover of "Boys" from the first Beatles' album.

On "Boys," Ringo actually sang and played drums at the same time. For most of the set, when he sang, he let Kirke do the drumming. plays a guy named Kramer." An agent granted him an interview and then flatly refused to represent him, saying that the agency "already has somebody like you." A short time later, Richards won a spot on the cast of a "Saturday Night Live" knockoff called "Fridays," and he immediately sent one of his network publicjty photos to the same agent who earlier had turned him down. "Got anybody like this?" he wrote on the photo. Richards, now more mature and the divorced father of a college-age daughter, said he is more interested in his career than in avenging slights by agents.

"We had a great season on so we're all excited about going back," he said. "But I'll be ready to put Kramer to rest after the series ends. "It's not that I don't appreciate the character, although it may take a few years for me to fully appreciate and understand Kramer and what impact he's had on people. But I would like to get to a point where people stop seeing me only as Kramer. I know that's their gut reaction when they see me on the street, to yell 'Hey, that's but I hope the films will make people see me as more than one character.

"I don't see myself as that one character, and I'm sure other actors don't see themselves as one character. I'm sure Mel Gibson doesn't look in the mirror and say, 'I'm and I'm sure Harrison Ford doesn't look in the mirror and say, "Hey, I'm Indiana "If they did, no one would want to be around them, and that's all I'm trying to say. I'm glad you like Kramer, but remember that I'm just an actor who plays a guy named Kramer." Michael Richards: "I'm just an actor who ander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus recently reached an agreement with NBC to return for a ninth season. The trio will make, according to reports, about $600,000 an episode, or $13 million for the season. Richards, 46, said he first dreamed about the magic of movie-making when he was growing up in Culver City and sneaking into the backlot at the MGM studio near his home.

He and his friends would explore the deserted sets and play typical childhood games among the props. But Richards said he often returned alone after his friends went home. "I didn't walk around there alone and think about being an actor one day," he said. "I just loved all that neat stuff and thought it was all so wonderful and magical. "I always felt this secret kinship to Hollywood because I was born and raised in Los Angeles.

I used to watch those old Laurel Hardy comedies and everything Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton did and look to see if I recognized the locations. A lot of those films were done near my home and I did recognize most of the streets and buildings. "I think comedy is so special to me because of watching those old films." At Los Angeles Valley College, he and best friend Ed Begley Jr. formed their own comedy team and started performing at local nightclubs, such as the Troubadour in West Hollywood. He took a break from performing to complete a stint in the Army and then moved to San Diego, where he joined the San Diego Repertory Theater.

At about this time, Richards walked into a large talent agency in Hollywood seeking representation. eenend, May 9.