Mark Malkoff Races a NYC Bus (on a Big Wheel)

Mark Malkoff is not one to back away from a challenge. This is the guy, after all, that lived for an entire month on an AirTran airplane, visited and consumed purchases at all 171 Starbucks locations in Manhattan in one day, had complete strangers carry him on their back the entire length of Manhattan, and even lived out of an IKEA for thirty days.

His work is almost a genre of its own, somewhere between comedy and feats of human endurance, as he congers up original methods of gently hacking the modern infrastructure around us. His latest video, “Big Wheel vs. Bus” (below) went live today on My Damn Channel, with Malkoff lining up to race a New York City MTA crosstown bus for one mile on 42nd Street.

“New York City buses can be very slow at times, so I decided to race a NYC bus one mile on 42nd street from 10th Ave to Madison Ave on a child’s Big Wheel,” Malkoff told us. “I was maybe 2 feet off the ground, and I had to ride in traffic, since it’s illegal to drive it on the sidewalk.”

Comparatively, this was a easier shoot for Malkoff in terms of hours, though not necessarily the feats of strength part. “My legs were in massive pain for some time,” said Malkoff. “But on a personal note, I’m happy that it didn’t take hours and hours to film.”

His “Carried in New York City” video (below) took 19 hours to film (in 11 degree weather) and visiting all 171 Manhattan Starbucks took over 27 hours. This race was just under 15 minutes, though tack on a few hours of pick up shots to bring the total to around 3 hours.

The video is distributed on comedy network My Damn Channel, as part of a deal Malkoff has with the network. “My Damn Channel is a great fit for comedian that really want to take chances,” said Malkoff.

Despite the elaborate challenges that border on being outright pranks, Malkoff shoots for the more PG version of say, Jackass. “I like to do what is funny, but that is family friendly,” he added. “My favorite emails to get are from parents with their kids and I love the fact that parents can watch them with their kids.”

The IKEA experiment remains his most popular yet, garnering all kinds of media attention. “I would wake up from a nap [in the store] and 30 people would be taking pictures staring at me like an animal in a zoo,” said Malkoff. This was followed up at the Streamy Awards last year as Malkoff hosted the red carpet pre-show—from an IKEA bedroom set right on the carpet.

Sometimes he even surprises himself with his offbeat ideas. “The most surprisinging one was asking Mayors for the key to their city. Big cities like Milwaukee, Tampa, Baltimore gave me their keys—all together 95 keys from mayors,” he said. “I would just wake up in the morning and cold call mayors.”

Next up for Malkoff? He’s going to take on those hard-to-believe claims on the cover of every Men’s health magazine promising to deliver you “Six-pack Abs in 30 days!” On top of that he makes an acting appearance in a scripted web series, playing himself, in Episode 2 of Casters due out later this month.