Friday, April 4, 2003 | 8:42 a.m.
Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Monday. Reach her at [email protected].
It may be "A New Day ..." in terms of entertainment options on the Strip. Still, it's good to know some things never change, including the top-notch laughs waiting to be had at area comedy clubs.
Las Vegas has long been a Mecca for comedic talent (there's a reason this town is synonymous with guys named Shecky, folks). It's here that up-and-coming comics pay their dues; megastars perform sold-out, one-night stands in showrooms; and comedy legends make last grasps at greatness in the twilight of their careers.
The "big rooms" are reserved for comedy's heaviest hitters -- the Ray Romanos, Chris Rocks and Jerry Seinfelds of the business. It's easy to forget that such giants cut their teeth years ago trading jabs with hammered hecklers in comedy clubs throughout the country, including Las Vegas.
Each week in this column we'll be turning a much-deserved spotlight on club comics of all shticks and sizes. Here's a chance to get to know these jokesters before -- and after -- they rub elbows with Jay, Dave and Conan; land a coveted sitcom deal or HBO special; and become household names.
For a while, anyway, Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling was a household name -- at least in homes where the raunchy, off-color antics of radio's "The Howard Stern Show" are served each morning with frosted flakes.
Martling, a stand-up comic since 1978, was shock-jock Stern's gag writer and one of his on-air sidekicks for more than a decade. The daily a.m. drivetime exposure to millions of fanatical Stern fans from coast to coast afforded Martling instant audiences whenever he took his old-school, barroom-style humor on the road.
He played to packed houses, including annual stops at the Riviera's spacious Top of the Riv venue, where he pummeled crowds with his Henny Youngman/Redd Foxx-inspired one-liners. Each set wrapped with his wildly popular "Stump the Joke Man" segment, where showgoers tried -- usually unsuccessfully -- to beat Martling at his own game.
But fame faded in 2001 when Martling parted ways with the Stern show following a contract dispute that played out over the airwaves. "The Joke Man" quickly slipped beneath the pop-culture radar -- a fact not lost on the 55-year-old New Yorker who performs tonight through Sunday at the Riviera, this time at the casino's Comedy Club.
"I probably fell off the show business map as far as (people) being able to know where I am and what I'm doing," Martling explained in a call from his Big Apple apartment. "Stern's show was such a goldfish bowl."
Martling recently found himself swimming among the fishes again when his name was mentioned in media reports about the $100 million lawsuit Stern filed last month against ABC and producers of the reality TV show, "Are You Hot?"
Stern claims the TV show -- produced by the former executive producer of Stern's late-night series on E! Entertainment Network -- ripped off a similar segment featured on his radio show.
Martling was not named in the suit, though he did serve as a consultant on "Are You Hot?" He chooses not to comment on the suit, nor on his years spent with Stern, except to say, "I loved the (Stern) show, and I still love the people involved and, of course, I miss it."
Minus his lucrative radio gig, one might assume Martling has spent the past two post-Stern years shticking for his supper. But that's not the case. Sure, he works occasional stand-up gigs, most often at clubs along the East Coast, spewing obscenity-laced zingers about sex acts, bodily functions and ethnic stereotypes at rapid-fire pace.
"I do exactly what I've always done, just tell joke after joke after joke," Martling says."Nobody does that anymore ... It's always amazed me because I make a real good living doing it. You'd think somebody would say, 'Hey, I can do that, too.' They don't."
The content of Martling's act rarely, if ever, changes. His guidelines: Steer clear of current events and racial slurs. "A lot more sensitivity goes into my act than anybody would ever guess," he says. "It's not a be-mean-to-everyone act; it's a pick-on-everybody act, and there really is a difference."
Martling's set always ends with "Stump the Joke Man." Despite having an unimaginable number of jokes committed to memory, stumping does occasionally occur because, he explains, "Somebody will say something that for some reason I can't remember, or I can't figure out, or it's a kid's joke that I've forgotten."
He recalls a woman who stumped him not once but twice at separate shows two years apart using the same joke. "I always say, 'They stumped me, but they only do it once.' It's not true." (The off-color joke is not fit for print.)
Stand-up gigs aren't how Martling is paying his rent these days, however. He recently entered the electronics business, lending his voice and gems from his vast joke archives for a line of digital "joke boxes" that he intends to hawk next month on -- of all places -- cable's Home Shopping Network.
Martling teamed with Excalibur Electronics on five gizmos, including a Palm Pilot-esque "Dirty Joke Machine," featuring 1,100 crude jokes; a comedy calculator; and a talking joke box for kids. (The devices are also available at excaliburelectronics.com/homeplay2.)
Meanwhile Martling is penning "Jokeland the Movie," a flick about his life story. Through the creative process, he hopes to answer the essential question: When did he become funny?
"I'm still trying to figure it out ... It's the big question I've been asking myself forever," he says. "I enjoyed making people laugh, but I'm sure it was because it made me feel good -- it wasn't totally altruistic. But I'll also never know."
Consider the "The Joke Man" stumped.
Out for laughs
See who's holding down the fort this weekend at Las Vegas' six hotel-casino comedy clubs: Check out complete listings on page 3E.
Funny ladies will have a monopoly on The Improv at Harrah's in coming weeks: Kathleen Madigan (Tuesday through April 13); Wendy Liebman (May 6-May 11); "Coach" co-star Pam Stone (June 3-June 8); Maryellen Hooper (June 17-June 22); and Judy Gold (June 24-June 29).
The spirit of legendary Senor Wences lives on in Las Vegas comedian/ventriloquist Michele LaFong, opening for Jackie Mason through Wednesday at MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre. LaFong, who formerly headlined her own show at Bourbon Street, was bequeathed several of Wences' original hand puppets.
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