Steve Hytner at the Davenport RiverCenter -- December 11.
Thursday, December 11, 7:30 p.m.
Davenport RiverCenter, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
Beloved for playing the obsequious standup Kenny Bania, one of Jerry's many nemeses, on the sitcom smash Seinfeld, touring comedian Steve Hytner kicks off the 2025-26 "Laugh QC" Thursday Night Comedy Series in the Davenport RiverCenter's Mississippi Hall, his December 11 show treating fans to a night with the funnyman also seen on such Emmy-winning series as Modern Family, Friends, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1959, Hytner joined the company of Lexington Conservatory Theatre in Lexington, New Work in 1979, serving as a technical assistant. He soon appeared onstage in an intern performance of Mark Medoff's The Wager, and his first professional on-stage appearance came a year later, in George M. Cohan's The Tavern, the debut production of Capital Repertory Theatre.
Hytner appeared as a regular in The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage, Hardball, and Working, in several episodes of Roswell, and also in occasional episodes of the Emmy-winning CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He has also been seen in Friends, The King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg, The X-Files, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, That's So Raven, George Lopez, The Bill Engvall Show, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and Mike & Molly, and voiced Ty Parsec in two episodes of The Adventures of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
In addition, Hytner performed in the Disney Channel original series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody as Herman Spatz, in Good Luck Charlie as Marvin the bellman, and in Sonny with a Chance as Murphy, the troublesome security guard. He plays a motivational workshop instructor in the HBO series Hung, and as Joseph the coroner, Hytner is one of two actors (the other being Christopher Walken) to appear in each of the first three films of The Prophecy series.
Yet Hytner is no doubt best remembered for Seinfeld, in which, over the course of seven episodes, he played Kenny Bania, a stand-up comedian considered a "hack" by Jerry and other comedians. Jerry especially dislikes him because he uses Jerry's act to warm up his audience. Though his profession plays no role in his first appearance in "The Soup," Seinfeld felt it was important to the character, since Bania's indomitable self-confidence is characteristic of a certain type of club comedian. Ovaltine is a main topic of his acts. (Jerry: "He thinks anything that dissolves in milk is funny.") Rolling Stone placed him at number 17 in their list of the "100 Best Seinfeld Characters," close behind the stars and such fan favorites as Newman, David Puddy, Frank Costanza, J. Peterman, and Dr. Tim Whatley. Rolling Stone notes that Bania wants Jerry's approval so badly he'll do anything to gain it, and "also had a knack for putting a positive spin on almost everything. But all these traits, including the comedian's litany of jokes about things that dissolve in milk, made Seinfeld loathe him.
Steve Hytner appears in the Davenport RiverCenter's “Laugh QC” Thursday Night Comedy Series on December 11, admission to the 7:30 p.m. show in the venue's Mississippi Hall starts at $26, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting DavenportLive.com/the-rivercenter.
