The Fire

At Pendant Publishing Kramer is discussing his idea of a coffee table book about coffee tables with Elaine and his new girlfriend, Elaine’s co-worker, Toby (Veanne Cox). Elaine finds Toby, as well as Kramer’s book, very annoying. George is dating Robin, (played by Melanie Chartoff whom Larry David knew from the time they worked on the short-lived sketch series Fridays), a woman with a young son. Jerry is preparing his act to impress a magazine critic.

Kramer invites Toby to see Jerry’s act, where she initially cheers him, but then she starts heckling, booing, and hissing him ceaselessly after a joke he tells offends her. As a result of the heckling, Jerry gets a bad review from the critic. George, attending Robin’s son’s birthday party, cannot understand how “Eric the Clown” (played by Jon Favreau) does not know who Bozo is and complains that “Eric” is not a good clown name. Later, George panics when a small fire breaks out and he rushes away, pushing down children, senior citizens, and the clown in the process. The attendees of the birthday party are extremely upset with him, so he tries to justify his behavior by saying how he acted bravely by pushing his way to the front, acting as their “leader”, an explanation that nobody buys. Eric saves the day by putting the fire out with one of his clown shoes.

Jerry takes the ultimate revenge for a comedian by appearing at Toby’s workplace to heckle her; crying, she runs out of her office and onto the street where her foot is run over by a street sweeper, which severs her pinky toe. Later, Kramer retells the story of how he found the toe, boarded a bus, and fought a gunman just to go to the hospital.

Toby got her toe reattached and was promoted instead of Elaine because her boss felt sorry for her because of the accident. At the club, Jerry convinced the critic to return to judge his performance again. Also in the club, George, inspired by Kramer’s story, asks Robin for a second chance. However, he panics and screams again at the sight of a comedian’s (Dom Irrera) prop gun and ruins Jerry’s act by having the audience evacuate because of the fake gun.

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