Steve Hytner Switched Up His ‘Seinfeld’ Audtion to Land Part of Annoying Kenny Bania

Kenny Bania, an irksome stand-up contemporary of Jerry’s on Seinfeld, was a meta joke when he was introduced in the show’s sixth season, according to Seinfeldia. The mediocre comic who generally went on right after Jerry at the comedy club was a “time-slot hit” — a success because of where he landed in the night’s schedule. Bania was a subtle slam aimed at all of the mediocre sitcoms that NBC aired between bigger hits like Friends and Seinfeld. Nestled in those cozy time slots, shows like Suddenly Susan and The Single Guy got top 10 ratings — until they moved to another night and died.

But the Bania character was a bigger hit than any of those mediocre comedies, appearing on six different episodes over the final four seasons of Seinfeld. Steve Hytner was guest-starring on a lot of TV shows at the time he got the call to read for the sitcom, he told Yakov Smirnoff on his Comedy Couch podcast. He read for three different roles — and didn’t get them — before he got the chance to audition for Bania. 

The character description didn’t give Hytner much to work with. It simply read, “The most annoying person in the world.” And as the actor waited outside the casting room for his chance to be irritating, he could hear his competition doing their best to bring Bania to life. “Because it said ‘annoying,’ they were doing him as mean,” Hytner observed. “Like, ‘Hey, you owe me! I gave you that suit and you owe me a meal!’”

But that interpretation didn’t feel right to Hytner. “Anger can’t be funny that long,” he figured. So while waiting for his chance to audition, the actor decided “on a dime” to change his approach. “What if he’s annoying because he adores Jerry?”

With all the irate tryouts out of the way, Hytner walked in with a different attitude. “I did that puppy dog thing of ‘Hey, Jerry!’” he explained. “They literally fell off the couch. Because they were sick of hearing all that anger. I just did this upbeat thing.”

The “awful comedian” was supposed to be a one-off character, but Jerry loved him, Hytner said. That’s why Bania kept coming back, finally landing his own signature catchphrase on one of his last appearances. The two comics are riffing, and Jerry offers up a hacky observation about Ovaltine. Bania can’t believe the joke’s brilliance: “That’s gold, Jerry, gold!”

Bania was the role Hytner landed, but what about the Seinfeld roles he didn’t get? The actor said he gets the question a lot, but he only remembers one of the lost parts for sure. The episode when Kramer has an idea for a cologne that smells like the beach? Hytner tried out for the head of a cologne company. 

“I’m glad I didn’t book that,” he laughed. “Guess I didn’t smell right.”