If you’re looking for some good inspiration today, check out this article by Vulture on all the side gigs Kramer tried out on Seinfeld over the 9 year run ;)
All of Kramer’s Jobs and Schemes on Seinfeld
Too funny!!
And can you believe it only ran for 9 years?? Seems like it’s been on forever, right? That’s because it’s been syndicated throughout the past 20+ years, and turns out it was a great move to quit when they did!
Per The Independent in 2013:
Ending Seinfeld at its peak has proved the most lucrative decision comic Jerry Seinfeld ever made. The sitcom has generated $3.1billion (£2.05 billion) in repeat fees since the final episode was screened 15 years ago. The comedy “about nothing” was a huge hit for the NBC network, running for nine years from 1989. Since then the 180 episodes have continued to generate huge revenues through syndication deals for repeat showings on local US television channels.
So wild…
Also pretty wild – 8 of Kramer’s 50 or so gigs we’ve featured here on Budgets Are Sexy! :)
- Gambler
- Modeler
- Movie extra
- Playing Santa Claus!
- Selling vintage clothes
- Writing books
- Lifeguarding
- Planning parties (well, he organized a Jewish singles dance whereas our hustler planned group cruises, but kinda along the same vein?)
You’ll have to check out the full article where they link to all the clips of Kramer actually DOING all of these, but in the meantime here were some of the more outrageous gigs he tried over the years…
I swear – if any of you have ever tried any of these you better let me know!! Especially if you were successful! (Unlike Kramer in most instances, lol…)
- Beauty-pageant coach
- Police lineup stand-in
- Tennis ball boy
- Bottle exporter (tried to recycle bottles in Michigan where the refund rate per container is double New York’s, haha… I’ve always wondered about doing this too!!)
- Culinary entrepreneur (conceptualized a chain of make-your-own-pizza parlors and a restaurant that only serves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches called “P B and Js”)
- Specialty sightseeing tour creator (“Peterman Reality Tour”)
- Condiment inventor (brainstorms bottle that integrates ketchup and mustard)
- Plaintiff (multiple times)
- Television host
Such a good show, man….
And speaking of not always being successful, here were some past hustlers on the blog who also didn’t fair too well in their endeavors! Sometimes it takes a while to find The One :)
- I couldn’t part with my art
- I failed at being a sperm donor
- I failed at buying a rental property
- I hated working a phonathon
At any rate, here’s the full list again if you want to try and milk some motivation out of it –> All of Kramer’s Jobs and Schemes on Seinfeld
You really do gotta keep going when you hit a wall… Took me 37 tries to finally stumble across the blogging world, and even then it was accidental! :)
But when it clicks you’ll know! And the hustle is worth it in the end!
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Kramer was also a fragrance inventor. What do you think about a fragrance that smells like the beach?
Hahaha…. Classic
LMAO. I remember that recycling episode. It was so ridiculous. I never thought of Kramer as the OG hustler. He certainly had a lot of gigs.
Now you’ll forever associate him with hustling! :)
I do environmental regulation & enforcement for a state agency. I receive a monthly email listing state and federal environmental enforcement activities nationwide. Last year, there was a case where an individual was arrested for ‘recycling’ fraud for transporting bottles from one state to another state where deposits were reimbursed. At the time..I thought of Kramer and Newman. Thanks for all the great articles.
Is that a crime?!
(Glad you’re enjoying the blog!! :))
Didn’t Kramer once get paid to act as a patient at a med school? He would describe his symptoms and students had to guess what illness he had.
Haha…. Def sounds like something he would do.
I once did the med school test subject thing my last year at college. It was at U of M (I went to a cheaper less prestigious university one city over) and it was way harder than you would think. You would just get a call or email saying that they would need you the next day. You would show up and they would give you a script of symptoms and put you in a room and then all the students would come in and ask you stuff and try to guess what was wrong. You would be shocked at the bruising you would get from 30 overzealous med students pushing on your stomach when you had to fake appendicitis. My favorite were the research studies for some of the other departments but I never got a chance to do a lot of them because I didn’t fit their specific criteria. The pay wasn’t great but it helped float me while I was trying to finish up my degree and had an erratic class schedule that a normal job couldn’t accommodate.
Oh yeah – flexibility can be KEY with side hustles! The more you show up the more you tend to get too if you can pull it off time and time again…