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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Hot Dogs & Donuts

Jackie Martling

Oglio Records · Album · 1998 · 78 min

Over an hour of rapid-fire dirty jokes from the Stern Show veteran.

Jackie Martling approaches stand-up with a boundless supply of blue street jokes. Hot Dogs & Donuts is entirely devoid of vulnerable storytelling or deep observation. Instead, “The Joke Man” stands on stage and rapid-fires dirty punchlines for an hour, leaning entirely into his signature filth.

Released in 1998, the album catches Martling in the middle of his run as head writer for The Howard Stern Show. The audio compiles sets taped at Chuckles in Mineola, The Comedy Palace in Massachusetts, and David Brenner’s Laugh House in Philadelphia. The title itself was a concession of sorts. Telemarketers were refusing to say the name of his previous release, Sgt. Pecker, over the phone. Martling pivoted to Hot Dogs & Donuts, reasoning that if people read into it sexually, that was their problem. Grouped into aggressively alliterative tracks like “Poops & Probes” and “Semen & Showmen”, the material delivers the exact kind of relentless, low-brow payoff that built his radio reputation.

The set list

2 bits

  1. Motorcycle hoodlums

    Advises the audience early on that he purposely avoids making jokes targeted at motorcycle hoodlums

  2. Irish jokes

    Delivers classic off-color ethnic jokes as part of his rapid succession of material

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, off-color, dark, crude, and significantly dirty
On stage
Brash, crude, and tasteless shock comic known as 'The Joke Man'
Pace
Rapid-fire and relentless, blasting away at the audience with non-stop jokes
About
shock humor, sexual humor, bodily functions, off-color jokes

What the critics said

Reviewed with an A− grade by Daily Vault's Christopher Thelen, who praised Martling's ability to push envelopes with crude, tasteless, and off-color jokes that consistently hit their mark

In the room: High-buzz club atmosphere receptive to unfiltered and provocative shock humor

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: amazon.com, shop.bandwear.com, en.wikipedia.org, music.apple.com, dailyvault.com, allmusic.com.

Backstory

Third comedy CD from Martling's Howard Stern Show era; titled cryptically after telemarketers refused to say the name of his previous album, 'Sgt. Pecker'

Details

Released
Taped
The Comedy Palace, Andover
Runtime
78 min
Where
Oglio Records (album)
Topics

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