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.
Biography
Early life and career
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.
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 were challenged to start a joke that Martling couldn't provide the punch line to. If they successfully were able to "Stump The Joke Man," they would win a T-shirt. Rarely was Martling stumped.
The Howard Stern Show
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Martling recorded several comedy albums, including What Did You Expect?!, Goin' Ape, and Normal People Are People You Don't Know That Well. Although album sales were anemic, Martling mailed the albums to Howard Stern at WNBC-AM when Stern first arrived in New York City in 1982. A guest appearance on Stern's radio show in February 1983 led to his eventual hiring as a cast member when the show moved to morning drive on K-Rock in 1986.
Along with Fred Norris, Martling wrote bits, song parodies, and material for the infamous "Jackie puppet” for The Howard Stern Show. Billy West, who voiced the puppet, said how surreal it was to sit behind Martling, and viciously attack him with lines Jackie had just written for him. Martling demanded the billing "head writer" for Howard Stern’s TV show which aired on WWOR and also was nationally syndicated 1991-1992.
Martling left the Stern show in March 2001 after his salary demands were not met. In mid-August, 2001 Jackie was quoted in a newpaper article as saying he wants to come back to the show but Howard insists that he blew it when he walked off the show. Howard says it's better if they just go their separate ways and leave it at that. Martling's chair on The Howard Stern Show was eventually filled by former MADtv cast member Artie Lange, who has also since left the show. Martling appeared on Stern's second-to-last last show on terrestrial radio on December 16, 2005, and on his last show the following day, Howard Stern's last two words on terrestrial radio were, "F. Jackie."
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 remark, "F. Jackie,” short for "Fuck Jackie," a reference to the opening line in the chapter about Jackie in Stern's 1995 book, Howard Stern Miss America. Often, many calls to the show would end in the expression "F. Jackie." As previously mentioned, notably, these were the last two words Howard said at the very end of his final broadcast on terrestrial radio.
"Jackie's Joke Hunt" & SiriusXM
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 a fellow member of the legendary Friar's Club, Ian "McKean" Karr, premiered on October 3, 2006, at 7 p.m. EST, and in October 2012 began its seventh year. It continues to air live 5-6 EST every Tuesday on SiriusXM Howard 101, and replays Tuesday nights at 8pm, Wednesday mornings at 2am & 5am, Saturdays at 2am & 10pm and Sundays at 6am & midnight (all EST).
Martling can also frequently be heard on SiriusXM's Raw Dog Uncensored Comedy 99. On March 13, 2007, Martling made a long-awaited guest appearance on Stern's SiriusXM show. Since that time, Martling has made several additional guest appearances, both in the studio and by phone. In May 2007, Stern aired a two-day salute to Martling on SiriusXM's Howard 100. The show contained dozens of classic moments, intercut with new interviews with Martling and others.
JokeLand products
Martling started expanding on his standup comedy career very early, self-prodcing three dirty joke lp's in 1979, 1980 & 1981. Since 1993, he has released six 78-minute dirty joke CDs, three videos, a DVD (A Safe Distance From Genius), five joke books including 1998's best-selling Simon & Schuster title, Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling's Disgustingly Dirty Joke Book, and the iPhone app The Jackie Button. He also co-created a line of electronic joke products with EB-Excalibur, and their MiniJokeMaster Jr. keychain is sold through various retailers. In April 2007, he released his first musical CD, Happy Endings, co-produced by guitar great Frank Vignola.
Jackie in the movies
Martling has appeared in many films during his career, including the comedy documentary The Aristocrats, Venus & Vegas, Mail Order Bride and White Irish Drinkers. He appeared on the TNT television show Leverage and in August 2007, Jackie filmed the pilot episode for the sitcom The Pikers in Los Angeles. He wrote and performed a one-man show, JokeLand On Broadway in summer 2010 in New York City. In 2012, he appeared in Fred Carpenter's "Send No Flowers," the short film "My Cross To Bear," and voiced two puppets in 2013's human/puppet movie "The Fuzz."
In October 2008, Martling and former American Idol runner-up Bo Bice entertained U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq. Jackie occasionally appears on The Mark Simone Show on WABC-AM, SiriusXM's The Opie and Anthony Show, the tri-state area's The Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show on Q-104 and Wake Up With The Wolf in Albany, New York.
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 marijuana and smoking beer." In March 2013, he announced that he was sober and had not had a drink in eleven 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.[4][5]
Martling has been divorced from Nancy Sirianni since 2008. He is currently single and resides in Manhattan and in Bayville, New York.
He is a longtime member of the New York Friars' Club. He's a board member of the anti-poverty think tank Rock and Wrap It Up, and is actively involved with The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, Inc., The Wounded Warriors and an organization to help the families of the victims of 9/11, Tuesday's Children.
References
External links
