Hee! And here I’d been wondering how he was going to follow up on his “171 Starbucks” success . . .
From Design Notebook (Austin-American Statesman):
Livin’ large in IKEA
By Melanie Spencer | Wednesday, January 2, 2008, 11:34 AMIf I could pick a home furnishing store in which to live, I don’t think IKEA would be my choice. No offense, but if I’m going for it, I’ll go for luxury rather than economy. Well, filmmaker and comedian Mark Malkoff went for economy.
Malkoff is going to live in a Paramus, N.J., IKEA store for a week starting Monday, Jan. 7. For those unfamiliar with Malkoff, he is the producer and star of the short video, “171 Starbucks” (he visited and consumed purchases at all 171 Starbucks locations in Manhattan in one day) and has been the audience coordinator on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”
The 31-year-old comedian, who says he is not being paid and has been given complete creative freedom by IKEA, offered this explanation in a press release; “My apartment has to be fumigated, and I need to move out for several days,” he says. “All of my friends have tiny studio apartments. Hotels in the city are too expensive. My apartment is 80 percent IKEA products anyway. Moving into an IKEA store makes sense.”
Malkoff will post daily video recaps at www.MarkLivesInIkea.com, which will be available for viewing starting Monday.
It should be an interesting experiment. Hmm, I wonder whether I can persuade Rachell Ashwell to let me live in one of her Shabby Chic stores?
Have fun, Mark; we’ll be watching!
EDIT
Here’s more reports on Mark’s activities:
But who’s going to wrangle the audience next week?!
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Is that link broken? to marklivesinikea ?
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Oh, this is hilarious! Mark’s the greatest!
@M – Don’t worry, I think he’s got a number of interns to take care of it.
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@ barenjager,
No, the link is fine. As mentioned in the article, it will be available for viewing starting Monday; that’s why you can’t get in now.
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Ohhhh….lol Reading is such a bother, really.
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Well, this sounds interesting. I’ll be watching!
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Oh man, that’s like a dream of mine. I’ve always considered that idea whenever I go to Ikea.
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Didn’t Jon do a photoshoot in an IKEA like 10 years ago or something?
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lmao. Wow, I can’t wait to see the videos.
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OMG! I just caught the “171 Starbucks” video for the first time — that’s freakin’ hilarious! I can’t wait to see what happens at IKEA.
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Yeah, I sounded like a complete trivia genius just the other day when my friend (who knows my fondness for Starbucks) said, “Do you know there’s a guy that went to all the Starbucks in Manhattan in one day?” He had just read it somewhere. Why yes, I do. His name is Mark Malkoff. ;)
Anyway, it will be great fun to check in on Mark. Do you think he’ll try and live in “all” of the pre-designed rooms?
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I’m definitely going to visit him! I love being a few towns over from this. Also: he is pretty much amazing / my hero. Yay. =]
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