The Joke Man: Bow to Stern

by Jackie Martling, Artie Lange (Foreword)

In The Joke Bow to Stern, Jackie tells of his beginnings as a working comedian and writer and his climb to the top on The Howard Stern Show. Jackie saw it all, and in The Joke Bow to Stern he shares personal stories as well a look from behind the scenes at one of the highest-rated radio shows of all time. You’ll also get his take on his falling out with Howard and the show, and plenty of the raunchy, laugh-out–loud humor that Jackie “The Joke Man” is famous for. So sit back, relax, and enjoy as “The Joke Man” riffs on his one-of-a-kind career in show business, Howard Stern and the gang, and his very unique life—an American success story like no other.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor

324 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2017

Reviews

[Frank]

In THE JOKE MAN: BOW TO STERN you can exactly what you would expect. This is a book as related by Jackie Martling and transcribed by a writer-for-hire. The prose is conversational. The stories probably only have appeal to anyone who knows Jack The Joke Man from The Howard Stern years. I can't imagine much appeal beyond that.

The book is a biography. It starts out with Jackie's childhood years, his development into comedy and the when the book gets to the meat of the matter, the Stern years. Most of the stories are interesting and/or entertaining. Some stuff gets related repeatedly, an homage to the fact that I wager this was a transcription of audio recordings. The stories reveal Jackie's side of things but there are no jaw dropping revelations or mudslinging. Jackie has nothing buy nice things to say of his long time radio cohorts.

THE JOKE MAN is a fun read, an entertaining read. If you know who Jackie The Joke Man is, its worth the read. All hail Jackie Puppet!

[Conor Smith]

I was glad that he acknowledged at the start of the book that people were reading for his Stern stories and that he would focus on exactly that, but he proceeded to do the complete opposite. Nothing especially new was revealed regarding his time on Stern but he did make sure to include long-winded excuses for the contract negotiation.

He failed to delve into the more meaningful topics such as his marital breakdown and relations with his family until the very end of the book which felt rushed and poorly structured.

Overall, followers of the Stern show will glean little new information from this memoir.

[Lucas Foster]

The joke man’s brother was a research chemist who shot himself in the head.

[Jason Weber]

4.5 Stars. Really enjoyed Jackie’s stories throughout his career!

[Keith]

I didn’t exactly have high hopes for this, but since I’m a HUGE Howard Stern fan, I figured what the fuck, why not, I might learn a thing or two about the Howard Stern Show, which I did, so it was worth reading. When I began listening to the show in 1997, I wasn’t exactly that aware of Jackie because Jackie was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who fed Howard little jokes and lines throughout the show. Yes, I knew who Jackie was but he wasn’t as vocal as Artie Lange, who replaced Jackie in 2001 after Jackie quit the show, was. He was just a guy who chimed in every now and again with something to say and was frequently somebody that Howard would goof on. And then four years after I started listening, boom, Jackie was off the show. So I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Jackie, so to speak. In fact, it’s only been since Howard’s move to SiriusXM that I’ve heard the backlog of shows and Jackie’s contributions to them, which is why I wanted to read his memoir. The book starts off with Jackie’s childhood, progresses through his teenage and college years, and then goes on to his time on Howard. I’ll admit I wasn’t THAT interested in Jackie’s formative years because, really, who gives a shit? I wanted to hear about his time on Howard - THAT was why I bought the book. But Jackie’s formative years comprised only 50-ish pages of the book so it wasn’t a huge deal. And the stories he told were ones that I was familiar with from hearing bits of them on Howard - Jackie accidentally throwing his piss in his mom’s face, Jackie banging the girl with the prosthetic leg, etc., so those were fun. The one thing that I did find really interesting about Jackie’s pre-Howard years was that Jackie is a fucking workhorse. I mean, he hustled his ass off to set up 922-WINE, his joke hotline, which he still keeps running to this day, and to record, edit, and package his first few joke albums, which he then sent off to everybody under the sun, Howard Stern being one of them. Jackie also sent a bunch of jokes to Rodney Dangerfield, who liked them so much that Jackie became a sort-of-regular joke writer for Rodney. Rodney even brought Jackie on vacation with him a couple times. It just proves that while Jackie isn’t the best comedian, he worked his fucking ass off to get noticed and it worked magnificently. The bulk of the book was Jackie’s memories of working on the Stern Show, and many of the stories I was already familiar with, such as Jackie paying Rodney back with jokes (which actually sounds quasi-logical coming from Jackie without anybody interrupting him), the creation of the Jackie puppet, the Jessica Hahn bathtub incident, which led to the famous Jackie apology to his (now ex) wife, and so on. There were also some tidbits into the inner workings of the show, such as how Jackie began passing Howard notes and certain jokes that he came up with. (Speaking of which, it’s kind of funny that Jackie put all that note stuff in the book because for years Howard said that Jackie was always bitter that Jackie didn’t get more credit for writing (some of) the jokes that made Howard so funny. While Jackie doesn’t come off as bitter in the book, it is VERY obvious that he wants it known that he was feeding Howard jokes for all those years.) And Jackie also of course detailed why he left the show and what exactly went on during that time, which was REALLY interesting because there wasn’t a ton of detail on the show about it - all Howard ever said was that Jackie was offered a very nice sum of money and Jackie wanted more. Oddly, this is more or less what Jackie said, too - he was offered a salary of $650,000, with significant bumps every year for five years, so that at the end of the five years, Jackie would be making $900,000 a year. Which, by the way, is an AMAZING salary for busting balls five days a week on the best radio show on Earth. But Jackie wanted $800,000 for that first year and significant bumps so that at the end of five years, Jackie would be making $1.2 million a year. In Jackie’s mind, he deserved it since he was a key player but the station, 92.3 K-Rock, just didn’t have the money. And since Jackie was burned out (the fucking guy couldn’t get it together to get to bed early so that he’d be rested for the next day’s show so he was always tired - OF COURSE he was burned out), he quit. But then he began to realize that he’d never get another gig like the Stern Show in the sense that the show kept him on his toes, causing him to have to be razor sharp day after day. So he had second thoughts and tried to take the original offer. But he never got a call back, ostensibly because he’d made such a fuss about the money in the years prior to that particular contract negotiation. To hear Jackie tell it, it sounded like a death-by-cop situation wherein he didn’t really want to keep working because he was exhausted but if they offered him a shitload of money, he’d keep working. But it sounds like he had an inkling that they wouldn’t give him the money, so that was fine because he’d had enough. But that’s me playing pop psychologist. The last forty or so pages detail Jackie’s life after Howard, and while there wasn’t a ton of interesting stuff in that section, I will say that the chapter about Jackie’s sobriety really surprised me in that it was quite introspective and, well, un-Jackie. He talked about his parents and how they drank and how Jackie could remember his first drink and his various attempts at getting sober and failing, all of which were interesting. The thing that really struck me though was that Jackie actually realized and dealt with things that he’d never dealt with before - dark, negative thoughts that’d been drowned out with alcohol. And he had to really struggle with those things as he lived with his sobriety. It was unexpected because it was such a mature, self-analytical way to deal with sobriety, which is NOT something I’d ever expect from Jackie. I think that was actually the most eye-opening and interesting part of the book because it was so real - I experienced Jackie Martling the man, not the comedian, not the radio personality. You don’t think of Jackie as a guy who ever had to deal with demons and yet he is. While this book wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read and jumped around quite a bit, it was interesting and an easy enough read, and I certainly got through it pretty quickly. An editor or somebody could’ve tightened this thing up a bit though. Overall, however, it was an entertaining read, which is the point of a celebrity memoir.

[Cathy Carroll]

Worth the read

First and foremost I have to admit that I've known Jackie since he was kid. The last time I saw him was when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in the late 60's. He and my younger brother were around the same age. He visited us for Easer Break. Need I say more.
We laughed for a solid week. Some of the antics are not repeatable.
His talent is a God given one. Sad to be reminded of so many that are now gone.
But one thing came through, my dislike for Howard stern, has been verified. He's a PRICK. Like I said Jackie talent is a Gift. Howard stern couldn't measure up to a pimple on Jackie's ass. Ever.

[Scott Egan]

A good read; I love Jackie!!

As a 30+ year Stern fan, love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge his contribution to the great show ever on radio.
This was more honest a telling then I expected...truly a fun read and account of Jackie’s life and of some his favorite times on the Stern show.

[Francesco A.]

I both read the book and listened to the audio book. It's a fun read, and it makes you laugh at times. It is a good insight into the Stern show, but it is also a very good insight into Jackie's life. He's pretty honest.

[Kevin Monsell]

I met Jackie years ago at one of his shows during the early days of his time on the Stern show. He was funny and a nice guy. This book was a nice trip down memory lane. He answered questions I didn’t know I had while telling what certainly felt like an honest telling of his life. Thanks Jackie!

[Evan Scott]

Jackie is so irrelevant.

[Eirik Hafskjold]

Nice read about one of my favorite entertainers time on my all time favorite radio show. A few good inside stories and a few good laughs.

[Angie]

Like many, I listened to Howard Stern in high school and college. I didn’t always like or agree with what I was hearing, but a lot of it was highly entertaining. It’s interesting to hear the back stories, the behind-the-scenes look at how the show was run. A lot of it was so gross and so inappropriate. But I do find that during the interviews with celebrities, they pulled out a lot of truth.

[Deyth Banger]

This guy is fucking funny you should check him out

[ArkNyer]

3.25 of 5.00 stars

[Drew Kenyon]

Interesting but I thought it would be funnier. Or at least funny.

[Michele]

I am a Howard Stern Show fan of more than 25 years. This book is terribly written and mostly a whining account of his time on the show. Jackie has zero ability to be honest about himself and what he brought to the show. He is an OK comic who was lucky enough to find a niche at the HSS but he threw it all away due to petty jealousy and greed. What a
fool. His stories do not come off well on paper so don’t bother with this book. I’m sure seeing him live would do him more justice, if you are a Jokeman fan.

[Michael]

THIS BOOK IS BACKWARDS!!

Is this a stupid joke? This book literally runs from right to left! I also downloading the companion audio so that makes it extra difficult. No wonder it was only 9.99. They better update and fix this quick or I will be making a QUICK return!
A shame too because Jackie is very funny and I was looking forward to reading this and laughing. What a crock!
(As of 10/28/2017)

[Claudia H]

Wow I guess I haven't been on in a while. I finished this some time ago. I didn't really learn anything new about Jackie in this book. The entire time I was reading it, though, all I could hear were Jackie's laughs and guffaws from the Stern show, which made reading this book much more enjoyable.

[Jerry Geleff]

Jackie is a favorite, from back in the day when Howard was listenable. His insights of those days, his departure from the Stern show, and revelations about an icon's motivations are worth the listen. 

[Theresa]

I wish Jackie well. I used to listen to the Howard Stern show in the late 80's and early 90's. Robin and Howard were always negative toward Martling. They would pile on Gary but it was different and mean with Jackie. They left Fred alone. I don't know what went on behind the scenes but Jackie always seemed like a good sport and they all put him down. It was sad that he wanted more money and they didn't work with him or call him back. When you put your heart and soul into something for 15 years and they don't call you back like that, it's got to hurt. It says something about Stern. Hind Site is 20/20. Maybe Martling should have worked with Stern's manager.

[bryan immergluck]

Funny guy

Pure honesty from one of the funniest men on this planet. Great stern references from all of jackies days with Howard.