You remember Mark Malkoff, right? The man who visited 171 Starbucks in a day, lived in an IKEA, and rode a Big Wheel trike down 42nd Street? The comedian's latest stunt is a bit more involved—over the course of 14 hours, he raced all over the city in a single taxi to pick up passengers who requested rides via Facebook and Twitter. The passengers didn't pay, because Malkoff somehow convinced a cabbie to leave the meter running for 14 hours straight, eventually racking up a $468.10 tab. In the process, he manages to end a stranger's relationship, get a shave, and possibly find true love. The taxi, meanwhile, suffered the indignities of being filled with popcorn (literally) and getting plastered with Tony Danza's face. The video:
When we asked Malkoff where this idea came from, he explained: "With the current state of the economy a lot of my friends in NYC that are either unemployed or cutting back financially have stopped taking cabs. I figured since so many other New Yorkers were in the same situation giving out free cab rides for a day would be a nice gift."
His favorite passenger was Lisa Birnbach, the author of the Preppy Handbook. "She tweeted me for a cab ride from her Upper East Side apartment to a meeting in Chelsea. She randomly saw on Twitter that I was offering cab rides. I had no clue until she got in the cab she was a public figure and a well known author. The ironic thing was of course that she easily could have afforded the ride."
And what became of the poor cab driver? "As of now I actually haven't tipped the driver anything!" says Malkoff. "That's horrible, I know. I'm definitely going to give him something. I'm still asking myself what is customary to tip on a $468.10 cab ride." Might we suggest something a little above and beyond the standard 20 percent?
