#101 Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling is Crossing The Streams (Celebrity Bonus Ep10)

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

Hey everybody, it is Jeff Dwoskin Hope all is great. Welcome to the bonus episode. This is gonna be the most bone of fistic episode ever. It's a very special episode of making up words. That's how special it is. I know why you're here. You're here for TV binge watching suggestions and you're gonna get them normally this episode is a collection of live segments from our live show that we do every Wednesday 9:30pm Eastern time on Facebook, Twitter and the YouTube by this bonus episode is an extra special one just for you. That's right this is a celebrity edition of crossing the streams Jackie the joke man martling returns to the podcast to share an update on the documentary about his life called joke man give us a little insider's look at that documentary. And also Jackie the joke man shares some awesome TV binge watching suggestions and why Whitney that's why you're here. So if you on a watch TV like a celebrity, get ready and enjoy this chat with Jackie the joke man Marley Get your pan out so you can write down all the TV shows he recommends. And that's coming up right now. All right, well, welcome to a celebrity edition of crossing the streams with me today. For the third time Jackie the joke man martling

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 1:51

Ah, never get sick of being referred to as a celebrity even decades after I even was close. But thank you, Jeffrey. Thank you.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:01

You are a celebrity after all you've done you've earned the moniker were proud, sir, you've got your

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 2:08

cue I, I accept.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:10

So you've got exciting news. You got a documentary ready to roll.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 2:15

It's so fun. The documentary was finished just before the pandemic shifted into high gear. So it's been ready forever. itself. It took so long. Artie Lange was going to be in the podcast, I mean in the documentary and then before they got to him, he screwed up he got beat up he wound up in the hospital wound up in jail I was like oh there goes that but the damn pot I was a part of that document it took so long to get together that he was cleaned up fixed and out we got to go and interview him for it it just took so long that we want to get an RD it's been roundly it's just soundly rejected by every every film festival nowadays is so Whoa. And you know so weird. And we got rejected from all the film festivals but they only take very few documentaries and they're also serious I'm like, Well wouldn't you want a funny documentary to kind of sprinkle in there you know that a little spice but the good news is we I'm not going to say where but there's a really good chance for on getting on a major one of the major cable networks which is which will be huge for me, you know a huge thing. We screened at once on Long Island. Everybody loved it and was screened it on on February 12 on Lincoln's birthday, literally a half mile from Bill Clinton's house in Chappaqua. So I'm hoping Bill and Hillary stop by to have a look. But that's exciting. It's called joke, man. Two words joke, man. And it's got Artie Lange, Penn Jillette, Willie Nelson, Mark Cuban stuttering John, Billy West, Steve Grillo from the old show. I mean, everybody in his mother is in this except for Howard, Robin, Gary and Fred. None of them are in it at all, which is you know, but that's it. That's interesting. You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 4:02

it's did they now want to did you not ask them or of course,

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 4:06

I asked them you know, Fred said I'd love to be in it. But you know, I can't Gary said no, I don't know how he said no, Robin, I think ignored it and I'm not even sure I bothered to ask Howard it that's neither here nor there. And it's interesting, you know, I have a very odd life and it's it's an odd series of events, my life and everybody seems to really like it. But no one your family and friends go to a screening and they all love it. That's not really that's not a real good litmus test. Yep. You know, I mean, it's like, Oh, everybody loved it. My mother, my father, my uncle, you know, a lot of people get a real kick out of it, you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 4:41

cool. And then is it your your whole career or is it like,

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 4:45

it's my It's soup to nuts, you know, from God created heaven and earth and the joke, man, it's the whole journey. You know, the whole journey. I had a whole horrible life before I had my horrible Howard Stern life and all horrible life. It's everything you know, it's a little embarrassing and a little funny and I promise you'll get a kick out of it. I promise you.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:07

I watched it. You shared it with me. You shared me at least a rough cut of it. Last time we talked. I enjoyed it a lot, right? Yeah, I'd like to you're hanging with Willie Nelson telling jokes in a diner. There's a lot a lot of great intimate

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 5:21

diner that was Willie's? That's Willie's bus. Oh, that was really spice. A little Formica tables in his bus. Yeah, I've been in there like a dozen times. She'll sit with him getting stoned and telling stupid jokes and laugh and he's a great character. Just a great, great, great character.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:36

That's awesome. That's awesome. And then footage of Rodney Dangerfield?

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 5:40

No, there's no footage of him just you know, like a picture of me or a couple of pictures of me with Dan and the story about him and the stories I tell about him. There's so many stories about him. I can do a whole documentary just the absurd stuff that every time he opened his mouth. That was funny. No, he wasn't trying to be funny. But it just that character is so set in stone. I got a podcast starting which is exciting. I don't know about you. I've never done one. Everybody's always do podcasts, do a podcast, do podcasts. And I call into a billion of them. You know how much I enjoy talking to you and talking to everybody and going on and on. But I've never really wanted to do one. And everybody's I do want to do one. And now I'm doing one. And like I'm scared to death. You know, you don't know if anyone's gonna listen, or they're gonna hate it, or they're gonna tell you go home. And it's the fear of failure is a wonderful thing. You know, like, you know, you got to go out there fail if you want to get anywhere. What's the name of your podcast? Checky stand up memories. It's me and Peter bales who actually used to come see my band in the 70s. And then he started hosting at the comic strip and he came up to me we did a show on Long Island to get long on Comedy going. And he's come out with the guys from the city because he had a car. And he said, You really should come into the comic strip. And we've been best friends ever since he started the comic strip at the same time as pull riser and Jerry Seinfeld and Larry Miller and Dennis wolfberg. That whole pack. That was his and Carol Leafa. That was his Rat Pack, you know Carolee Ferris. Yeah. You know, and we've been really dear pals ever since. And he's a history professor. And he's very dry. And he's kind of quiet, which makes me look like a bull in a china shop. And I was gonna do this podcast. He was the first guy interviewed. And I said, Man, this is great. And we wound up talking. We've done 20 shows. We haven't talked to another human being except each up. It's weird how that happens. It just flowed. You know the story about the fog of war. When the Elliott, God wonder what's his name? I'll think of it but the incredible documentarian, Eric, I don't know. He's gonna do a documentary on the Vietnam War. And he was going to interview all these different people. And he was hoping he'd get Robert McNamara for an hour, because that would be the PST resistance for his documentary. He got McNamara and he was smart enough to put them in a different room. So McNamara wasn't looking at him so he could open up and operate the camera for another room. McNamara talk for 24 hours in this documentary called The Fog of War is just Robert McNamara. And it is staggering. But that was not as planned going in. You don't I mean, it just the way things blossom. It's really amazing. You know, just just crazy crazy. I'm sorry, that's a little bit of a tangent. But the same thing would mean I'm sitting there talking to Peter, here we are 20 shows later, we haven't had a guest yet. I don't want to just have another, you know, have a comedian come on and say, you know, I don't want to talk to a guy like me. I started out in a very early age, you know, my family thought I was funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:36

What are you gonna do podcasts started February 2,

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 8:40

it's gonna start on Groundhog's Day. And we've got 20 shows that are like between, I don't know 15 and 30 minutes each, you know, we we just start yakking and then figure out a place to cut it's stuff that happened. And it's stories and history stories and comedy stories, and they never get old to me. And I think they're interesting how interesting. It is the average person, you know how many stories you got, you know, if you take 10 people and tell them all your stories, or nine people going to enjoy the stories or two people. There's no way to really know. And sometimes you just tell stories and on and on and say I'm sorry people that No, no, I there's been times on stage. I just do my act of jokes. But sometimes I just meander into a story and I get yakking and, you know, 15 minutes later, I realize I'm still telling the story. And then I'll tell people I'm sorry, I robbed give all those jokes. And I know that was the best part of the show and all sudden, like, what am I doing? Maybe I'm missing the boat here.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:36

People love stories. People love them. So how are you just gonna release weekly then?

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 9:40

Oh, yeah, we're gonna do a show, I think a show a week. Maybe more than one the first week that you know, there's still this is a place called tied in media. And it's tied in studios and the guy who started this media company is a very, very wealthy guy. Very young. very wealthy. He's in real estate and he's in, I'm not sure if I should say what he does or what his name is. He's a great guy and does incredible charity on Long Island. And I met him years ago, you know, it's always through a weird connection. I met him through Joey Reynolds, who was been a disc jockey. He was he was the first he was a shock jock, before that term existed, right. And he like FAT file Polit, Howard, and us and NBC. When we left, he did the whole Star Wars campaign when he worked at Warner Brothers. And he just dragged me to this pink tie.org event. I was one of a zillion, B, and C and D celebrities, you know what they get at these charity things. And I hit it off with this guy. And he always said he wanted to do a media company. Now he's got this media company. And we're the first podcast that's being launched on this. So nobody really knows what we're doing yet. Because it's all virgin territory. But we've got that full support. You know, it's not like we got to worry about getting fired. Because with you,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:02

you are the product. Hey, well, everyone will check that out. And then we'll look for the joke man documentary when that's ready so much

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 11:09

by ik collective, and it will be announced all over joke land.com anybody ever wants to know what I'm doing? It's joke land.com. And it's interesting. And I still got my joke line. I'm still tweeting like crazy, all these jokes. So if I have to do something, at least I got away to wait to get to.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:27

You got to fall back. You got to fall back.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 11:29

I got a full book.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:31

So in keeping with theme of this episode, what are some of the TV shows that you're watching? Like, what do you stream?

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 11:39

Well, I will tell you, when I first started in comedy, and actually, you know, in the Rock and Roll days, you know, work the other end of the clock, so you're home at one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock. And in the late 70s. It was so funny, all the comics, and musicians, it was like when you got home late at night, you would turn on channel 11, or channel nine here in New York, and you would watch three episodes of Mary Tyler Moore, and then two episodes of the old Newhart Show. And then the word on the street was, here's Lucy, is God's way of telling comedians to go to bed. After watching all those great sitcoms, here's Lucy would come on and be like, you couldn't turn the TV off quick enough. And it's so nostalgic. And what we've been doing is the best $9.99 I ever spent in my life was I bought season seven, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I guess it's on prime. I got you know, the whole thing of West Wing. And it's just like going through movies, we watched an episode or two America more, which is so brilliant. And if you're a comic or a writer, and any of you know, you weren't all, I never stopped being flabbergasted how perfectly that is written in the way it intersects. It's the characters the writing is just spectacular. And I just you know, I don't laugh at anything. And I'm sitting there laughing out loud. Ted Knight is such a magnificent, so he just the best. And then watch however, many episodes of West Wing, and my girlfriend will fall asleep and I'll watch a few more because you can come and go into it. It's just so good. It reminds you when there was a country and it's just as liberal and it's just I'm sure people would say that's the crappy Well, I mean, I watch a lot of stuff but those are the things that I make sure I just discovered this man for on the high tower which is on the High Castle which is beyond frightening and and I like all the stuff that's been out you know, I was following billions I kind of dropped off the billions I love I love succession. Succession.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:44

Succession. We're obsessed.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 13:47

That's so great. What's the other? The Magnificent, the John Goodman.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:53

Oh, the righteous gemstones.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 13:55

Got so fantastic. Oh my god, it's fantastic. You know, they're all so good. But But what I never miss because sometimes you got to wait for the next episode or they'll skip a couple weeks. But Mary Tyler Moore and West Wing are always right there. And I got to introduce west to West Wing in the greatest way. It's funny, my wife and I started watching my swing and it was a second season. And we're like, holy crap. This is great. And there was a whole season of this already. And I had made fun, made fun made friends with George Clooney, his assistant Amy Cohen, because she she did a solid boy Gary hook me up with her and they got us a missing episode of er, which was a pivotal episode and I actually got a VHS of it from her. We became fast friends and went out there and had drinks with George Baba Baba. So I called her and said, Is there any way we could see the first episode of the first season of West Wing? This is you know, long before streaming or any of that crap. She mailed me all 22 episodes on individual VHS tapes with no commercial So it's just like when you watch it now it goes to black and comes up and goes the black comes up. It was like we would od we would watch 2345 at a time and you just couldn't get enough spots the soundcheck to watch it but it's so good and that's so well written and and like God did I really used to care about the country this much it was like, you know, I sound like a sloppy old liberal but I don't really care. I'm gonna be me 74 On Valentine's Day, so I don't have to answer nobody. That's my advice. Mary Tyler Moore if you don't think it's the funniest thing in the world, email me joke. land@aol.com J Okay. E la nd@aol.com. I give out my email just everywhere. And Jeff, you wouldn't believe I get emails from 23 year old guys and 27 year old women saying how much they love the Stern show and the old version. But they weren't even alive. When I quit. You know the God bless the internet. You know, it keeps things just afloat in ARM talk about

Jeff Dwoskin 15:57

I love how how connected you are with your fans. It's wonderful, then I love you too. Yeah, yeah. Both of them. Both of them. Yeah. It's, it's both. But you know, the interesting thing about the West Wing and Mary Tyler Moore Show, they both have a stellar lineup of top top top actors and actresses and both of us

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 16:20

are unbelievable. And you know, you would think in retrospect, going back Well, three of them are good and the other is a loser. They're everybody is perfect. Everybody is perfect. You know, it's like I don't know what they do the target around the dark, but it's great. It's great. I'm glad you agree with man.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:37

Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, Valerie Harper, Gavin MacLeod, Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Knight, Georgia angle Cloris Leachman, Betty White, and of course, John Amos. It's like insane, insane amount of talent right there.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 16:51

You know, so funny, I started taking acting lessons in the very early 2000s. And I had one coach and another, you know, a teacher and, you know, you float around trying to find somebody and I, you meet some incredible people, just wonderful people, and most of them will do that. No, oh, it's Jackie the joke, man, because they're in a completely different world. They could have cared less. I had no idea who I was, which made it really great. You know, at the time, I was pretty well known. I started with this attractive woman and her I would say she might have been 40 She might have been 35. She might have been 50. I don't know, but she was blonde and very attractive. And you know, married no idea, no sex thing happening. But when somebody I wouldn't say attractive woman, it just said just, it steps up your game. They know I'm a comedian. And so you know, the opening, you have to stand up and do a little monologue and say who you are, blah, blah. And so, you know, I went to acting classes for like a month, and at the end of like, maybe, you know, three weeks or a month, you go in and have a one on one with the teacher so she can assess how you're doing. And I go in and sit with this woman Elise. She says, you know, I've always had, you know, of course have an affinity for comedians. You know, I said, Oh, that's I have no idea. And she's yes as well. My father was a comedian. And her name is Elise Knight. And, you know, I know most comedians, you know, and I'm going through my rolodex, I don't know that name. And she sees like quizzical look on my face, she does well, is more of a comic actor. Jeff, I went white. I said, you're not going to tell me that. I'm trying to be funny. In the class of the daughter of Ted night. She said, Yeah, who's you know, he's a great guy, unlike, you know, I wanted to kiss a fee. I said, That guy is beyond, beyond wonderful. And it was just, it was just very, it was a very, very odd thing. You know, very cool. You know, I would have never made that connection. If you take Ted Knight, and George Costanza, and Hank, from Larry Sanders. The reason to me that all three of those guys are so spectacular is whenever you see them in the back your mind, you're so worried that that's a little bit you know, no, no, no. I'm not George because then I'm not a hank that pompous, self righteous. Non Warrington ego. Yeah, just unbelievable. I get going. I should never have a cup of coffee before I talk to anybody.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:13

No, you're great. No, that was great stories and great pics. That's Those are amazing.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 19:18

I think everybody should try him and Mary Tyler Moore, that actually cost money it cost 999. And I think you know, I think I bought two seasons so far. You know, we started in the middle, because we wanted Betty White there because, you know, for obvious reasons. She was great. I still have my 12 jokes that I wrote for the Betty White roast that nobody used and now I'm so ashamed of them because it's so disgraceful. You know, when the friars roasted on dias, but she was so old that her first diaphragm was made out of bark. Which is a great line as

Jeff Dwoskin 19:52

you know, I was watching the Dean Martin roast, one of the older Dean Martin roasts, and she was on the panel and They were making fun of her for being old then and she was only 50.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 20:03

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, she, she she was there and back. She had the first woman's she was a talk show host in 1949. The guide she would she was on a talk show and the guy she worked with got fired and it became her show. Yeah. 5949 No, probably two TVs you know? I can't get enough of that crap. I love that crap.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:26

She's amazing. She is a and you are amazing to Jackie so much going on. I'm excited about your podcast can wait. When this airs, it will have debuted yesterday. So whatever. And we'll check that out. We'll look for your documentary so much. And also your book.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 20:42

Stand up memories.com By then it should be right there. We can just click on it stand up. memories.com Yeah, people are still buying my book. Joke, man bow to stern. Like, I don't know when we talk. But I got a huge bump in sales that I did. We already talked about that.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:57

Yeah, I think you told me when Howard released something and then you've got a huge book. Yeah. People have

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 21:02

bought this book also bought this book. It was a nice bump. Yeah, well, we're not selling any books. Anything's a bump

Jeff Dwoskin 21:10

gratulations on your three book sales, the Jagga you are now my first guest to appear in every year that I've done the podcast. So thank you for that.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 21:20

I am special. Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:24

So I did I

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 21:25

met you. I'm sure we discussed this. You know who was that? That showed that? We discussed that?

Jeff Dwoskin 21:30

Yeah, pig vomit. You told me that pig vomit Pig Virus Pig Virus Pig Virus. Okay.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 21:35

That you know, they for some reason, I had to switch it for the movie, which is still interesting to me. Oh, virus in the band was pig vomit. And then he was pig vomit in the movie. Somebody probably has Howard for $14 and he balked at it.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:50

Jackie, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much for hanging with me again.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 21:54

Every I see you over and over and over on Twitter and all this stuff. I'm like, when's he gonna call me again? So don't lose my number. Call me back.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:02

You always have an open invitation to be on my show. You're one of my favorites. Thank you, sir. Good

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 22:07

guy. And anybody out there please drop me an email. I promise I'll respond and you take care of Detroit. You're being safe. I hope

Jeff Dwoskin 22:14

we're all being safe. You stay safe to my friend.

Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling 22:17

Why not? I appreciate Jeff. I really do. My pleasure.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:21

Always. Thank you so much

All right, everyone. That was Jackie the joke man martling with some amazing TV binge watching suggestions. Can you really go wrong with Mary Tyler Moore Show The West Wing and even just a throwaway ones he mentioned billion succession the righteous gemstones. You guys got your money's worth with this episode. I'll tell you that right now. Oh, yeah. And then also check out the joke man documentary. When that comes to your town or when it's streaming. If I find out before you do. I'll mention it on the podcast, of course. Well, that's it that marks the end of the first celebrity edition of crossing the streams. Hope you enjoyed it. Perhaps we'll have future celebrity editions. In the meantime, you've got a lot to do. Go turn on the TV, grab your favorite spot in the couch, cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 23:23

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