Jackie Martling
Encyclopedia
John Coger "Jackie" Martling, Jr. (born February 14, 1948) is an American comedian
, comedy writer
and radio personality
. He is best known for being a writer on The Howard Stern Show from 1983 to 2001.
, on Long Island
. He attended Oyster Bay High School and lived in East Norwich, New York, earning a mechanical engineering degree
from Michigan State University
in 1971. Martling is of English
, French
, and Dutch
ancestry.
Martling began his show business career as a musician on Long Island, New York, playing with an original music and comedy trio, "The Off Hour Rockers," until the late 1970s, when he began telling jokes on stage solo. Jackie's partners in "The Off Hour Rockers" were Chris Bates on guitar and Herbie Werner on keyboards. In 1979 he segued into performing full time as a standup comedian.
Jackie's breakthrough into major radio came in 1981 when longtime writer/producer of the Rick Dees
Morning Show on KIIS-FM, Los Angeles, Dave Lipson, discovered Jackie's "Use Your Finger! (516) 922-WINE" telephone service. Each day's offerings were recorded and aired daily on the Dees morning show, eventually leading to Jackie recording daily joke segments just for Dees' shows. That's when Dees suggested Jackie be referred to on his show as "The Joke Man." This turned out to be one of the most popular bits on Dees' legendary morning show. Lipson always spoke quite fondly of Martling, who in late 1981 invited him to his home in Long Island for a barbecue dinner and an evening of laughs.
Martling has a vast knowledge of jokes. In his standup routine, and during his tenure on The Howard Stern Show, they often played "Stump The Joke Man," where audience members are challenged to start a joke that Martling can't provide the punch line to. If they successfully "Stump The Joke Man," they win a T-shirt.
, "What Did You Expect?!," "Goin' Ape," and "Normal People Are People You Don't Know That Well." Martling mailed the lp's to Howard Stern
at WNBC-AM when Stern first arrived in New York City
in 1982. The records led to his being asked to make a guest appearance on Stern's radio show in February 1983, which led to his eventual hiring as a cast member when the show went to morning drive on K-Rock in NYC in 1986.
When Howard Stern got his own TV show, Martling was head writer.
Martling and Fred Norris wrote all of the bits and song parodies for The Howard Stern Show, many of Howard Stern's punch lines, and most of the material for the infamous "Jackie puppet," which was voiced by Billy West
. West has said how surreal it was to sit behind Martling, viciously attacking him as the Jackie puppet, with lines that Jackie had just written for him.
Martling left the Stern show in March 2001 over a salary disagreement with the show's employer, WXRK
.
Martling's chair on The Howard Stern Show was eventually filled by former MADtv
cast member Artie Lange
, who has since also left the show.
Martling appears the feature-length comedy documentary "The Aristocrats," the films "Venus & Vegas," "Mail Order Bride" and "White Irish Drinkers" among others, and appeared on the TNT television show "Leverage."
Since leaving the Stern show, Martling has pursued acting and music, as well as standup comedy. He wrote and performed an off-off Broadway one-man show, "JokeLand On Broadway," featuring music & stories & jokes, in New York City in Summer 2010. He also continues to expand his line of electronic joke products that he co-created with EB-Excalibur, and his "Mini JokeMaster Jr." keychain is currently available at all Bed, Bath & Beyond locations.
Martling returned to radio by joining the Howard 100/101 Sirius Radio channels with "Jackie's Joke Hunt." The weekly one-hour show, co-hosted by fellow friar
Ian "McKean" Karr, premiered on October 3, 2006, at 7 p.m. EST, and in October 2011 began its sixth year. It continues to air live 7-8pm EST every Tuesday on SiriusXM Howard 101, and replays Thursday nights at 12 midnight EST and Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. EST.
Martling can also frequently be heard on SiriusXM's Raw Dog Uncensored Comedy 99.
Martling appeared on The Howard Stern Show's last show on terrestrial radio, and on March 13, 2007, Martling made a long-awaited guest appearance on Howard's SiriusXM show. Since that time, Martling has made several additional guest appearances, both in the studio and by phone.
In addition to his standup career, Martling has released five joke CDs
, three videos, a DVD ("A Safe Distance From Genius"), five joke books, an iPod app, and, in April 2007, released his first musical CD, Happy Endings
. He appears in the full-length comedy documentary The Aristocrats
. He has also appeared in over a dozen other independent films in his career. In August 2007, Jackie filmed the pilot episode for the sitcom The Pikers in Los Angeles.
In May 2007, the Stern Show aired a two-day salute to Martling on SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Stern 100. The show contained dozens of classic Jackie moments intercut with new interviews with Martling and others. During the time Martling served on The Howard Stern Show staff, many fans who called in, other show staff members, and Howard himself frequently would throw out the off-the-wall remark "F. Jackie" (short for "Fuck Jackie," a reference to the opening line in the chapter about Jackie in Stern's second book 'Miss America'). Often, many calls to the radio show would end in the expression "F. Jackie." Notably, these were the last two words Howard said at the very end of his final broadcast on terrestrial radio.
In October 2008, Martling and former American Idol
runner-up Bo Bice
toured Kuwait and Iraq, entertaining the U.S. troops.
Jackie occasionally appears on SiriusXM's The Opie and Anthony Show and the tri-state area's "The Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show" on Q-104.
and smoking beer
." In December 2005, he announced that he was sober and had not had a drink in five years.
His sobriety, however, does not include marijuana. He recently shot and posted two videos on YouTube
that show him smoking the plant, and he is often a guest at events for the Marijuana Policy Project.
Martling is legally separated from wife Nancy Sirianni
. He currently resides in Manhattan and in Bayville, New York
.
He is a longtime member of the New York Friars' Club
. He's actively involved with The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, Inc., The Wounded Warriors and Tuesday's Children.
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, comedy writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and radio personality
Radio personality
A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
. He is best known for being a writer on The Howard Stern Show from 1983 to 2001.
Early life and career
Jackie Martling was born in Mineola, New YorkMineola, New York
Mineola is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning a "pleasant place"....
, on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. He attended Oyster Bay High School and lived in East Norwich, New York, earning a mechanical engineering degree
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
from Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
in 1971. Martling is of English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, and Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
ancestry.
Martling began his show business career as a musician on Long Island, New York, playing with an original music and comedy trio, "The Off Hour Rockers," until the late 1970s, when he began telling jokes on stage solo. Jackie's partners in "The Off Hour Rockers" were Chris Bates on guitar and Herbie Werner on keyboards. In 1979 he segued into performing full time as a standup comedian.
Jackie's breakthrough into major radio came in 1981 when longtime writer/producer of the Rick Dees
Rick Dees
Rigdon Osmond "Rick" Dees III is an American comedic performer, entertainer, and radio personality, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the novelty song "Disco Duck." He is a People's Choice Award recipient, a Grammy-nominated...
Morning Show on KIIS-FM, Los Angeles, Dave Lipson, discovered Jackie's "Use Your Finger! (516) 922-WINE" telephone service. Each day's offerings were recorded and aired daily on the Dees morning show, eventually leading to Jackie recording daily joke segments just for Dees' shows. That's when Dees suggested Jackie be referred to on his show as "The Joke Man." This turned out to be one of the most popular bits on Dees' legendary morning show. Lipson always spoke quite fondly of Martling, who in late 1981 invited him to his home in Long Island for a barbecue dinner and an evening of laughs.
Martling has a vast knowledge of jokes. In his standup routine, and during his tenure on The Howard Stern Show, they often played "Stump The Joke Man," where audience members are challenged to start a joke that Martling can't provide the punch line to. If they successfully "Stump The Joke Man," they win a T-shirt.
The Howard Stern Show
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Martling recorded several joke LP recordsLP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, "What Did You Expect?!," "Goin' Ape," and "Normal People Are People You Don't Know That Well." Martling mailed the lp's to Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
at WNBC-AM when Stern first arrived in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1982. The records led to his being asked to make a guest appearance on Stern's radio show in February 1983, which led to his eventual hiring as a cast member when the show went to morning drive on K-Rock in NYC in 1986.
When Howard Stern got his own TV show, Martling was head writer.
Martling and Fred Norris wrote all of the bits and song parodies for The Howard Stern Show, many of Howard Stern's punch lines, and most of the material for the infamous "Jackie puppet," which was voiced by Billy West
Billy West
William Richard "Billy" West is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival...
. West has said how surreal it was to sit behind Martling, viciously attacking him as the Jackie puppet, with lines that Jackie had just written for him.
Martling left the Stern show in March 2001 over a salary disagreement with the show's employer, WXRK
WFNY-FM
WXRK , known on-air as "92.3 Now", is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, WXRK broadcasts a Contemporary Hit Radio format with a rhythmic lean...
.
Martling's chair on The Howard Stern Show was eventually filled by former MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
cast member Artie Lange
Artie Lange
Arthur Steven "Artie" Lange, Jr. is an American actor, comedian and radio personality best known for his tenures with the The Howard Stern Show and the comedy sketch series MADtv....
, who has since also left the show.
Martling appears the feature-length comedy documentary "The Aristocrats," the films "Venus & Vegas," "Mail Order Bride" and "White Irish Drinkers" among others, and appeared on the TNT television show "Leverage."
Since leaving the Stern show, Martling has pursued acting and music, as well as standup comedy. He wrote and performed an off-off Broadway one-man show, "JokeLand On Broadway," featuring music & stories & jokes, in New York City in Summer 2010. He also continues to expand his line of electronic joke products that he co-created with EB-Excalibur, and his "Mini JokeMaster Jr." keychain is currently available at all Bed, Bath & Beyond locations.
Martling returned to radio by joining the Howard 100/101 Sirius Radio channels with "Jackie's Joke Hunt." The weekly one-hour show, co-hosted by fellow friar
New York Friars' Club
The Friars Club is a private club in New York City, founded in 1904 and famous for its risqué celebrity roasts. The club's membership is composed mostly of comedians and other celebrities. It is located at 57 East 55th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in a building it calls the Monastery...
Ian "McKean" Karr, premiered on October 3, 2006, at 7 p.m. EST, and in October 2011 began its sixth year. It continues to air live 7-8pm EST every Tuesday on SiriusXM Howard 101, and replays Thursday nights at 12 midnight EST and Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. EST.
Martling can also frequently be heard on SiriusXM's Raw Dog Uncensored Comedy 99.
Martling appeared on The Howard Stern Show's last show on terrestrial radio, and on March 13, 2007, Martling made a long-awaited guest appearance on Howard's SiriusXM show. Since that time, Martling has made several additional guest appearances, both in the studio and by phone.
In addition to his standup career, Martling has released five joke CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, three videos, a DVD ("A Safe Distance From Genius"), five joke books, an iPod app, and, in April 2007, released his first musical CD, Happy Endings
Happy Endings (Jackie Martling album)
Happy Endings is an album by American comedian, comedy writer and radio personality Jackie Martling. The album was released in MP3 format by Martling's Jokeland, Inc...
. He appears in the full-length comedy documentary The Aristocrats
The Aristocrats (film)
The Aristocrats is a 2005 documentary film about the famous dirty joke of the same name. It was conceived and produced by comedians Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, edited by Emery Emery, and released to theaters by TH!NKFilm...
. He has also appeared in over a dozen other independent films in his career. In August 2007, Jackie filmed the pilot episode for the sitcom The Pikers in Los Angeles.
In May 2007, the Stern Show aired a two-day salute to Martling on SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Stern 100. The show contained dozens of classic Jackie moments intercut with new interviews with Martling and others. During the time Martling served on The Howard Stern Show staff, many fans who called in, other show staff members, and Howard himself frequently would throw out the off-the-wall remark "F. Jackie" (short for "Fuck Jackie," a reference to the opening line in the chapter about Jackie in Stern's second book 'Miss America'). Often, many calls to the radio show would end in the expression "F. Jackie." Notably, these were the last two words Howard said at the very end of his final broadcast on terrestrial radio.
In October 2008, Martling and former American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
runner-up Bo Bice
Bo Bice
Harold Elwin "Bo" Bice, Jr. is an American singer and musician who placed second to Carrie Underwood in the fourth season of American Idol. He has recorded three studio albums, including one on RCA Records...
toured Kuwait and Iraq, entertaining the U.S. troops.
Jackie occasionally appears on SiriusXM's The Opie and Anthony Show and the tri-state area's "The Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show" on Q-104.
Personal life
Over the years in his standup act and on the air, Martling has recounted wild tales of his partying days on the road and spoke publicly of his fondness for "drinking MarijuanaCannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
and smoking beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
." In December 2005, he announced that he was sober and had not had a drink in five years.
His sobriety, however, does not include marijuana. He recently shot and posted two videos on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
that show him smoking the plant, and he is often a guest at events for the Marijuana Policy Project.
Martling is legally separated from wife Nancy Sirianni
Nancy Sirianni
- Career :With her band, The Scoldees, Sirianni has performed at major festivals: Woodstock '99, and Mountain Stage New Song Festival, and well-known venues such as The Bottom Line and The Whisky A-Go-Go...
. He currently resides in Manhattan and in Bayville, New York
Bayville, New York
The Village of Bayville, often referred to as Pine Island, is a village located on Long Island Sound facing Greenwich, Connecticut, and within the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 6,669 at the 2010 census...
.
He is a longtime member of the New York Friars' Club
New York Friars' Club
The Friars Club is a private club in New York City, founded in 1904 and famous for its risqué celebrity roasts. The club's membership is composed mostly of comedians and other celebrities. It is located at 57 East 55th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in a building it calls the Monastery...
. He's actively involved with The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, Inc., The Wounded Warriors and Tuesday's Children.
External links
- Official website
- Official Web Site at Jokeland.com
- Jackie Martling: The Heeb Interview