Coil and Shark

I was introduced to "James" at a New Years Eve party in 1985. He opened
with
"Would it be interesting if you lit two cigarettes at once, one in each
hand?"
In a gentle American accent.

A little later I helped myself to a meatball from his plate. He liked
that.

He told me how he spotted a man whom he suspected of recently burgling
his house.
"I pretended to be an American lost in Cambridge and got him to show me
the way to Market Square (where the police were having an exhibition).
As we arrived they were just leaving an I shrieked 'Arrest this man'
and they did."

Later on he said
"My partner and I went into a drug store and pretended that I wanted to
operate on him. The druggist was wonderful and fell for it completely.
Unfortunately, once we explained and played tape back, he was too sharp
for us and we could never get him to sign release."

His wife sat in the corner smoking a pipe and would suddenly demand
"Derivation James!"
and he would pause, backtrack mentally and reply
"It's from the Greek meaning..."
etc.

I wondered who this curious person could be and made a wild guess
"Are you James Thurber?"
This amused him.

I discovered later that he was James Coil (sic).

Ten years later I remembered and tried unsuccessfully to find some
reference to him on the internet.

Then, on the radio, quite by chance, I heard a guest on Desert Island
Discs say "... and I am a fan of Coil and Shark too." Could this be the
same? But again I failed to find any "Coil and Shark" on Google.

Then my wife suggested that Coil is spelt Coyle and voila

www.coyleandsharpe.com

But the most amazing thing is this

http://www.coyleandsharpe.com/mp3/index.html

The first mp3 free download is "The Druggist"

Cheers
Robin