Larry Thomas knew he was a permanent part of pop culture history when the catchphrase he made famous began to transcend the show it originally appeared on.
More than two decades have passed since Thomas, in the role of the Soup Nazi on the ’90s hit sitcom “Seinfeld,” yelled out, “No soup for you!” in an episode that centered around the way he rudely addressed customers inside a fictional New York restaurant. For a long time, only fans of the show would recognize him, but Thomas said at some point that started to change.
LAUGHS FOR LIONS
WHERE:
Mamiya Theatre
WHEN:
Party and auction begin at 5:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Saturday
COST:
$50, $150 VIP
INFO:
528-1073, laughsforlions.com
NOTE:
All tickets must be purchased in advance; no ticket sales at door.
“Some people have never seen (the episode), but they’ll know the line,” Thomas said of his fans during a phone call last week from Southern California. “They just don’t know where it came from.”
Thomas is among the special guests signed up to return to Honolulu this week for Laughs for Lions, an annual fundraiser presented by the Kamehameha Lions Club to raise money for scholarships at Sacred Hearts Academy, La Pietra — Hawaii School for Girls, Kalani High School and Saint Louis School. He’ll be joined by headlining comedians Paul Ogata, Steve Byrne and Dat Phan; Tony Calabrese, Kurt Swan and Michelle Welch will open the night.
“We’re going to serve some soup and definitely have some fun and mess around,” said Thomas, who continues to work full time as an actor and director on a variety of independent and mainstream Hollywood projects. “But I don’t really insult anybody. That would be really bad. We really try to have a good time with everyone.”
What some fans might not realize is that Thomas, while he is a trained actor, is also an accomplished home cook and known among his friends for his culinary abilities. In 2014 he released “Confessions of a Soup Nazi: An Adventure in Acting and Cooking,” but insisted it’s not just a regular cookbook.
“My friends have been bugging me to write a cookbook for a long time,” he said. “But I’ve always said the trouble with doing that is I don’t want people to think I got cast on ‘Seinfeld’ because I’m a cook and not an actor. So what the book became was a memoir of my career, plus a lot of talking about food and traveling. It’s not just recipes. It’s talking about different ways you can make things a bit healthier.”
