Street musician Sam Schildkraut and his sidekick, Yorkie-Chihuahua (YoWaWa) mix Gangsta, will celebrate their 1,001st performance outside Skechers shoes at 4475 Mission Blvd. from 9 to 11 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 9. “We’ll both be dressed in our tuxes,” said Schildkraut of the special occasion.
It’s been a year since the unlikely pair was first featured in the Beach & Bay Press. Both remain active, vital and increasingly familiar in their adopted beach community.
Sam has gained notoriety for playing his sax while accompanied by Gangsta. And Gangsta is making friends, like his new buddy “Taco,” whom he hangs out with now whenever Taco’s owner Doug DePrima drops by.
DePrima said Taco and Gangsta are “homies.”
“They go wild for each other,” DePrima said, adding the two pet owners and their charges met at McDonald’s and have been friends ever since.
DePrima gives kudos to Schildkraut for spending time with and promoting his “sidekick.”
“Sam takes Gangsta to L.A. to take pictures with movie stars; he’s very busy with him,” DePrima said.
DePrima hopes some of Gangsta’s “street cred” will rub off on Taco. In fact, some of it already has.
“Taco does a dance on his hind legs that makes people laugh. That would make me rich if I were able to get him to do it on command,” said DePrima. “He’s the kind of dog who walks down the boardwalk and people just crack a smile when they see him.”
A transplant from New York, Schildkraut came to San Diego to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. He’d always wanted a dog. He found one in Gangsta, a “furry frankfurter” he encountered while in a San Bernardino hotel parking lot and ultimately adopted after finding out he was a stray.
Though strangers in a strange land, the man and his “son,” as Schildkraut refers to Gangsta, have found their niche in PB performing nightly outside the corner shoe store. It’s an experience that’s schooled Schildkraut on the human condition.
The saxophone player said he’s witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly in people standing on the corner of Garnet Avenue and Mission Boulevard.
“People will tip you or chat with you even if they can’t tip — that’s all good,” Schildkraut said. “But then I’ve had people, men and women, who’ve shoved me or wanted to throw their weight around or looked down at me.”
Earning his living as a street musician has not dissuaded Schildkraut from his ultimate goals, which not only includes personal improvement and success but gaining notoriety for Gangsta as well.
Schildkraut wants to pen a book about Gangsta, in a format yet to be determined, with the title “Gangsta: A three-pound puppy lost in the ‘hood.”
With a Gangsta tome in the works, Schildkraut is forging ahead with his Gangsta “calendars,” which feature the mutt mugging with more than 100 famous folks, including the likes of astronaut Buzz Aldrin as well as actors like Sylvester Stallone, Cheech Marin and Barbara Eden of “I Dream of Jeannie” fame.
Schildkraut is also looking forward to celebrating his 1,001st night as a street saxophone player.
“If people have ever appreciated my work, hopefully they’ll come by and say hi,” he said.