Original Mover and Shaker

You know that recurring shtick in “Cheers,” where Sam slides a full beer down the bar and around the corner to Norm? Small potatoes--at least to John Bandy.

Bandy, bartender extraordinaire who works out of West Hills, is the guy who taught Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown how to shake it in the film “Cocktail.” “Sure, I trained them and choreographed all the bar scenes,” says Bandy, 29, a man with as many moves as Allied Vans. “I traveled with the movie on location: A month in New York, a month in Toronto, a month in Jamaica. We flipped, twirled, spun just about everything you can get your hands on behind the bar.”

Most of the moves Bandy “made up. I’ve seen other things in other places but I refine them, take them to the limit.” Among his standard maneuvers (generically, “splash and flash”) are “the ice toss, the bottle flip, the behind-the-head tin catch” (the “tin” is what bartenders call the cocktail shaker)--all of which are coming out within the month in a videocassette modestly titled “Olympic Bartending.”

Then there’s the “match slide.” “Say someone down the bar needs a light,” Bandy says. “With one hand, you open a match book, bend out one match, close the book, light the match and slide the whole thing down the bar before the guy can reach for his lighter.” (Don’t try this at home!)

Bandy, a former construction worker in Michigan, then Texas, got into bar tending “when I got tired of mayonnaise sandwiches.” He perfected his tricks at home, with friend (now agent) Don Foley, mainly because “it creates a fun atmosphere, like the chefs at Benihana. Going to a bar should be fun, and the tricks break the ice. People start talking to me, then among themselves. . . . “

As for pupils Cruise and Brown, “they’re both very coordinated, and real professionals.” Sure, but did they ever drop anything? “I’ll never tell,” Bandy says. “Let’s just say we always kept a broom nearby.”

Prizes Are Too Popular

It sounded like a publicity stunt--albeit an effective one--when Sheldon Kirshner offered a free wheel-locking device (retail value $25) to anyone who had his car stolen on Aug. 1. It turned out to be a little more than that.

Since the first of the month, no fewer than 24 stealees have claimed their booby prizes, and the contest remains open until Sept. 15. (Just send copy of the police report to Kirshner, president of Anes Electronics in Marina del Rey.)

Kirshner, who says a car is stolen in America “every 28 seconds, 24 hours a day,” further offers an annual prize of $1,000 to the major-city police department that makes the greatest inroads into auto-theft percentage. Last year’s winners were Houston’s finest, who reduced the city’s 1986 thefts by more than 1,000 cars by the simple expedient of staking out second-hand parts dealers.

“Most of the cars today are stolen for their parts,” says Kirshner, who manufactures auto-security products. “There was a time a while back when VWs were in demand; the rear engines were being reincarnated in dune buggies. And it’s still a supply-and-demand thing: bucket seats, wheels, bumpers, whatever people need or want to fix their own cars up.”

For the record, the most popular targets, according to the National Auto Theft Bureau: Pontiac Firebird, Chevrolet Camaro, Mazda RX-7, Chevy Corvette, Buick Riviera, Chevy Monte Carlo, Buick Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix. Tucker, anyone?