Interview: Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop — Carrying on the Legacy of Shari Lewis

When revered children’s entertainer Shari Lewis died in 1998 at the age of 65, the natural successor to carry the torch of Lamb Chop was Lewis’s daughter, Mallory. Mallory Lewis worked closely with her mother on her two late-career television shows, Lamb Chop’s Play-Along and The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, and has spent the last 26 years performing live and on social media, where the sassy six-year-old Lamb Chop has been discovered by a whole new fanbase.

This month, Lisa D’Apolito’s heartfelt documentary, Shari & Lamb Chop, hits select cinemas in New York, California, Florida, Delaware, Texas, and Canada. It introduces us to the woman behind the television persona, the one raised by a feminist mother and a father who was a Yeshiva professor who moonlit as a magician. D’Apolito shows the highs and lows of Lewis’s life and career, a testament to perseverance in the face of adversity, and gives us a look at the side of Lewis that we didn’t know.

Not only was she a ventriloquist, but Shari Lewis was an established orchestra conductor, a song-and-dance woman who starred in Funny Girl in stock opposite Molly Picon, and a workhorse who kept going until six weeks before her untimely death.

As for Mallory, she’s proud to carry on her mother’s legacy, while speaking out against injustice in her and Lamb Chop’s new home, Portugal.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

I grew up watching your mom and Lamb Chop, but seeing the documentary, I realized how much I didn’t know about her, between her versatility as a performer, and the almost subversive way she’d slip her politics into her act.
That’s why I wanted to make the movie. Lamb Chop and I have been working together for 26 years, and I am greeted with all the love that my mother earned. It is wonderful but people have the weirdest ideas about her. Mom was always very politically left. People are like, I don’t think your mom would think that or say that or feel that or do that, and I’m like “You didn’t know her.” You saw her in costume, in full makeup, on a scripted show.

I love the connection and that people are very protective of mom. But if you look at Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, we had children of every color, and it was before DEI, before political correctness. It always mattered to Mom. Mr. Rogers used to say, “You’re perfect the way you are.” Mom didn’t believe that anyone was perfect the way they are. They can always be better. They can work harder. They can learn something. She was anti-couch potato. She believed that the key to raising good kids is to say, “You can do it, here’s how.”

She was quite the little powerhouse, and I only say little because she was five feet tall, and that was probably counting her curls, which I come by naturally. And the color, which I come by the same way she did.

There’s a clip in the film from the 1950s where Shari, Lamb Chop, and Charlie Horse are talking about a female president, and I can’t believe that was something that she was able to get on the air back then.
Well, Lamb Chop was able to get away with saying things that Mom couldn’t. She very carefully crafted her. I think the reason she was so successful is because she was so authentic. People can tell if you’re full of it. Or, half the people, at any rate.

It was — it still is — really hard to be a woman in business, or a woman, full stop. Five years ago, I would have said “It’s much better now than it was then.” I don’t think I would say that anymore. That’s why I’m in Portugal.

You moved to get away from it all.
My husband and I are in our 60s. That’s your cue to say, “Oh, my God, you look so good.”

You do look so good.
Thank you. I have good doctors. But our kids are launched, we don’t have any grandchildren, I’m pretty much done touring. So I thought “Let’s just go someplace else.” I self-deported.

[Now, Lamb Chop appears with Mallory in their Zoom screen, also looking so good for someone who’s been six for 70 years.]

Lamb Chop: I self-deported, also.

Oh, hi, Lamb Chop!
Lamb Chop: Hi. It’s very nice to meet you.

It’s very nice to meet you too, Lamb Chop. What did you think of the film?
Lamb Chop: Oh, I thought it was poorly named. I thought it should have been Lamb Chop and Shari.

Mallory: You wanted top billing.

Lamb Chop: I did.

It should have been alphabetical billing.
Lamb Chop: I really like you, David. I’m suing. It should have been alphabeletical.

Mallory: Alphabeletical?

Lamb Chop: I like the movie, though, because it was really nice to see my friend, Shari. And it was really nice to see that I haven’t changed a bit since I was new. Same cute lashes, same adorable buttons, same cute little mittens, and sassy little mouth.

What do you remember about being on Broadway in 1994, Lamb Chop?
Lamb Chop: I remember that it was really a dream come true for Shari. She worked for it her whole life, and I was very happy that she got it.

Mallory, did your mom want to be a theater star?
Oh, yeah. Given a choice, she would have been the biggest Broadway star ever. She would never have left New York. She loved New York. She hated Los Angeles. She moved to LA because she had to for business. It wasn’t like now where you can just pop on a plane. You had to be where Hollywood was. She lived in Los Angeles for 30-odd years and never learned how to drive, because she was a New Yorker and New Yorkers don’t drive.

Was she raised to be a performer from birth?
She performed from the time that she was a very little girl. She was a magician then. My grandpa would put her on a train in New York and the head of the JCC of the location that she was going to would meet the train and take her and she would do her show. And then the head of the JCC or the temple would put her back on the train with her big performance case. She did that from the age of eight.

How meaningful is it for you to know the impact that you’ve made by carrying on the legacy?
It makes me very happy. The comments I get on my TikToks…”Your mom was the only bright light in a dark childhood.” “Thank you for staying on the right side of history.” “Right side of history” comes up so often, as does “dark childhood,” unfortunately. But it is very meaningful to continue to make people happy. It’s very meaningful to have a platform. I believe if you have a platform, you can’t not take a stand these days. Not taking a stand is siding with evil. So, I love having a platform, and if it pisses people off, they’re not my people.

And Lamb Chop’s not their people.
No. ‘Cause clearly they didn’t listen when they were watching.

Is there a frame of reference for Lamb Chop in Portugal?
No, but there’s a lot of expats. Lamb Chop spoke at the No Kings rally and the expats loved it. What’s interesting about Lamb Chop is you don’t have to know who she is to fall in love with her. That’s why she’s such a great character. It was funny watching the Portuguese people who had no idea who Lamb Chop was, and then when Lamb Chop spoke a little Portuguese, they were very happy. But not as happy as the Jews when Lamb Chop does the blessings.

It’s a really lovely movie, and I don’t want to say it’s a sad movie, because it is uplifting. But it’s sad in terms of the peaks and valleys of recognition and forgetfulness within the entertainment industry.
I think that could be a final lesson that my mom teaches. She taught so many lessons while being Shari Lewis on TV, but her life lessons are “Don’t give up and stay ready.” She used to say that the day begins the night before. If you have a big day, don’t go out drinking, go to bed early, lay your clothes out so they’re ready in the morning. This movie has all the life lessons of how to make your career endure. It’s a masterclass in how to have a wonderful career, and how to live a life of integrity.