One might call Tim Mahoney the hardest- working man in show business.

Except that would be a bit misleading. Besides, there can only be one James Brown.

A better description would be the hardest- working man at People’s Bar and Grill.

At Mahoney’s last show at the club (tabbed by Playboy Magazine as one of top 100 in the country), when he wasn’t on stage crooning crowd favorites like “Talk To Me” and “Sexual Healing,” he could be found serving drinks behind the bar, carding eager show-goers at the door and even waiting on a table or two.

“It was interesting,” Mahoney said Monday from a Minneapolis recording studio where he was dishing out demos of his new material. “People would give me their order and then do a double take. ‘Weren’t you just on stage?'”

No, Mahoney’s not waiting tables to make extra cash. He’s got plenty of that.

His latest release, “Live,” is his best-selling record yet. At his People’s CD-release party last winter alone, Mahoney sold an amazing 150 copies.

No, Mahoney’s not trying to make friends with the bar owner. He already is.

At a Mahoney show in May, after partying with his guest of honor for a few hours, People’s owner Tom Zmolek joined his pal on stage for a tune and pulled a surprising stage-diving exit.

“He almost fell on his face,” Mahoney recalled.

Mahoney has no true explanation for why he found it just as fun to work at the bar as it was to perform at it. But, it is quite possible that it was his way of saying thanks.

More than five years ago, Mahoney’s band at the time, The Blue Meenies, played its first gig in Ames — a fraternity party during Veishea weekend.

It wasn’t exactly a raging success.

“People didn’t know us,” Mahoney said. “We knew from the start that it would take time.”

A year later, the Meenies debuted at People’s.

“Nobody liked it,” Mahoney said. “The first five or 10 shows were really tough. Ames is a really tough town to break into. People don’t clap or really get into the music unless they know it.”

Fortunately, the tough times are over for Mahoney. That was evident at last spring’s Wednesday night Veishea show in which Mahoney played. It was cold and rainy, and the stage had to be set up inside a tent.

“I was thinking like five people would show up,” Mahoney said. “With no liquor, I wasn’t optimistic.”

Mahoney was fortunately very wrong. Nearly 300 fans came and packed the tent for one of the singer’s most energetic Ames performances ever.

“Ames has definitely become a home away from home,” Mahoney said. And he and his bandmates are treating it that way.

His guitarist and drummer now follow Cyclone sports, while Mahoney has found places in Campustown he now claims as hang outs. Among them — Lost and Found and Pancheros.

“I really like that bar; it’s a cool little place,” he said. “And Pancheros, we always go eat at Pancheros. It’s good drunk food — that El Gordo thing. We don’t have Pancheros in Minneapolis.”

Mahoney also makes a point to hang out with Zmolek every time he is in town.

“Tom’s really cool, and there are a lot of owners who aren’t, which makes it that much cooler,” Mahoney said.

This time around, Mahoney plans to invade Ames during his three shows in three weeks with a few of his new, more mature songs. One of which, a funky pop number, can be heard on the singer’s official Web page, www.timmahoney.com.

“I would say the songs have the same kind of hooks that say, ‘Talk To Me’ has, but are more developed,” Mahoney said. “You get better the longer you do something.”

A new Mahoney record can be expected by early ’99.

Until then — order a drink. It’s on Tim.

Mahoney and the Meenies will perform on the Terrace of the Memorial Union Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. and then head over to People’s for a 10 p.m. to close show.

He will return Oct. 8 to play a show on Central Campus from 9:30 to midnight.