| Jackie Martling | |
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Jackie Martling at The Record Collector Store in Bordentown, New Jersey in May 2010. |
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| Pseudonym | "The Joke Man" |
| Birth name | John Coger Martling, Jr. |
| Born | February 14, 1948 [1] Mineola, Long Island, New York |
| Medium | Stand-up, radio, television, film |
| Nationality | United States |
| Website | www.jokeland.com |
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.
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Jackie Martling was born in Mineola, New York, 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.[2] Martling is of English, French, and Dutch ancestry.[3]
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.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Martling recorded several joke LP records, "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.[4]
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.[5]
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.
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 Marijuana 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.[6][7]
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.
| Preceded by Al Rosenberg |
The Howard Stern Show the Jackie chair 1986-2001 |
Succeeded by Artie Lange |
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