Mal on the Street

Verbal Prankster Mal Sharpe and his partner, Jim Coyle, bushwacked San Francisco in the early '60s, posing absurd man-in-the street questions to the unsuspecting. Taping the encounters, the dup invented a shtick that was part comedy, part performance art

A A A Comments By Jack Boulware Wednesday, May 24 1995

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To give himself a reason to get out of bed on Sunday, Sharpe co-hosts a live morning radio show with Alicia Clancy on KCSM-FM, mixing comedy, jazz and listener phone calls. He rounds out his Sundays by playing trombone with his jazz band, Big Money in Dixieland, at Sausalito's No Name Bar. The band, which includes professional musicians, plumbers and writers, also taps the toes Friday nights at Enrico's on Broadway. After all the years sticking a microphone in someone's face, it somehow seems apropos that Sharpe bring his horn back to the jazz clubs of North Beach.

Frank Zamacona imagines the 59-year-old Sharpe in a rest home someday, but as a spry 80-year-old organizing the fun.

"I don't care if he's in a wheelchair or not. He'd get a variety show together," says Zamacona. "He would be the emcee. He'd have men and women singing, and doing sketches. Taking his mike through the rest home. He'd have a ball."

"The problem is, I like what I do," sighs Sharpe. "It's kind of pleasant. It's much better than sitting home, getting nervous or something."

And somewhere in the afterlife, Max Weiss is gritting his teeth. He threw out the wrong tapes.

For Coyle and Sharpe info, write to: 213CD, P.O. Box 1910, Los Angeles,