Michael Richards played a strange character on Seinfeld, but now he is pulling off the bit in real life.? Michael Richards stunned a comedy club audience, shouting racial epithets at people who heckled him during a stand-up routine.

The 57-year-old actor-comedian, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld’s eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit TV show “Seinfeld,” was performing at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood Friday night when he launched into the verbal rampage, according to video posted on TMZ.com. The tirade apparently began after two black audience members started shouting at him that he wasn’t funny.?

Richards retorted: “Shut up! Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a?f*cking fork up your a**.”He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.“You can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now motherf*cker. Throw his?a** out. He’s a ni**er!” Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.While there is some audible chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping “Oh my God” and various people “ooh” after Richard uses the n-word.

Eventually someone says: ?It?s not funny. That?s why you?re a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. ?Seinfeld,? that?s it.?Richards performed the next night at the Laugh Factory without incident.Calls to Richards’ representatives were not immediately returned early Monday.He refused to comment on-camera when reached by CNN, but the network reported that he said off-camera he felt sorry for what had happened and had made amends.Seinfeld issued a statement Monday saying he was ?sick over this.?Story reported by Associated Press