Oct 06 2024 30 mins
Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel, October 10-12
This week, Ira spoke with Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling, headlining in the A Stars Comedy Show at the Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel, October 10-12. In this episode of “Talk About Las Vegas With Ira,” Jackie talks about why there’s nothing better than an “elevator gig”; his long history with Las Vegas; his success with Cameo; what makes him laugh; his famous dirty joke line; why he’s all about the laugh, not being mean; how he had no intention of being a comedian; why he stumbled into comedy; his two different skill sets (telling jokes and writing jokes on the fly for Howard Stern); why he answers all of his emails; and, of course, his famous laugh.
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Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling, for 18 years (1983-2001) a fixture of radio & television’s Howard Stern Show, was born and raised in East Norwich, a tiny hamlet on the glorious North Shore of Long Island, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Oyster Bay High School and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1971.
As he was accumulating the world’s most extensive collection of jokes, Jackie toiled in the music business until abandoning it in 1979, saying farewell to his beloved trio “The Off Hour Rockers,” to give his punch lines a shot on the not-yet-existent Long Island comedy stages.
To promote Long Island’s first comedy show that he and fellow fledgling comedian Richie Minervini partnered in producing at the bar-restaurant “Cinnamon” in Huntington, Long Island, in March, 1979, he created a dirty joke line, “Use Your Finger! Dial (516) 922-WINE!,” which has been in uninterrupted operation since 1979 [516-922-9463].
The jokes worked. Jackie released three self-produced comedy albums, 1979’s “What Did You Expect?,” 1980’s “Goin’ Ape!,” and 1981’s “Normal People Are People You Don’t Know That Well” on his own label, OHR Records.
In 1982, after founding “Governor’s Comedy Shop” in Levittown on Long Island and touring as a national headliner, on a suggestion from a Washington DC comedy club owner, he blindly sent his three albums to Howard Stern upon Howard’s arrival at WNBC-AM in New York City. Howard called him to make a guest appearance on his radio show. In 1986, Jackie became a full-time cast member and the head writer of Stern’s show, and as they say, the rest is history.
Jackie left the Stern show in 2001 after fifteen-year run as head writer of the radio show, four television series, and three Pay-Per-Views. He’s released six dirty joke CD’s … “The Joke Man,” “Sgt. Pecker,” “Hot Dogs & Donuts,” Come Again?!,” F. jackie,” and “snart,” as well as three videos, five joke books and countless joke gadgets of all kinds, for children as well as adults.
In 2006 he released a CD of his original music entitled “Happy Endings,” that he co-produced with guitar legend Frank Vignola.
From 2007-2014, Jackie wrote and performed his own radio show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, “Jackie’s Joke Hunt,” and he wrote the joke page for Penthouse magazine for 17 years.
Jackie is featured in the comedy documentary, “The Aristocrats,” over a dozen other independent films and has appeared on many television shows.
He still works all around the country performing his solo act of rapid-fire filthy jokes and the classic finale, “Stump The Joke Man.” and is a guest on many of the top national radio shows and podcasts.