Jackie The Joke Man

Larry King: the man who will never retire

When Larry King ’s CNN show ended last year, his friends did wonder how he would cope with semi-retirement. For 25 years, he was the face of the news station, sitting down five nights a week with presidents, beauty queens and kidnap victims, invariably greeting them with his old-school brand of gently discursive, non-judgmental chat. “When you drive by the Watergate,” he asked Richard Nixon, “do you feel weird?”

“I always wanted to be a broadcaster,” he declares in his signature emphatic baritone. “Ever since I was six, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.” King is sitting on his vast sofa, watching baseball on television while his wife gets changed upstairs for the photo shoot. It’s the middle of the day in the middle of the week and he’s 77 years old.

“Semi-retirement,” he muses, “is more difficult than I thought.” The Kings’ house, in the flat section of Beverly Hills, is opulent in the faux-Tuscan mega-mansion style favoured by reality television stars such as the Kardashians. There is a double staircase and grand piano, and vacuuming maids in the background. Aesthetically promiscuous art on the walls along with a treasure trove of career mementoes. King’s trophy room is one of the finest I’ve seen in Hollywood. A floor-to-ceiling array of awards, citations, and star-studded photos spanning more than 50 years. There are snaps with Marlon Brando, Christmas cards from the Clintons, thank-you notes from various Kennedys.

It’s a mighty collage and testament to his Zelig-like ability to be present for so many key moments of American history. King narrated OJ Simpson ’s epic car chase live. He had his own car pranged by JFK years before he ran for president. He was with Bill Clinton in the White House on the night Clinton’s aide Vince Foster killed himself. It was on King’s show that Ross Perot announced his presidential candidacy. And he became part of the story himself when he lost almost $3million in the Bernie Madoff swindle.

Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling is Now Making Kids Laugh … Former ...

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) November 8, 2006

When you've already proven you can wow a comedy club full of adults from New York, to Vegas to LA with a unique sense of humor and comedic timing, what do you do for an encore? Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling is making children of all ages laugh with his two new comedy releases for Kids, JokeMaster Jr. and GrossMaster Jr. on the Oglio Comedy label.

Jackie notes, "I know ... I've always known ... that kids love jokes. I did, everyone did. And kids still do, because kids will always be kids. I did some research and found there are no kids' joke CDs. And kids, though they love to tell jokes, like their parents, rarely have any to tell. I made a kids' talking joke machine, with my voice sped up for "the chipmunk effect," and I think the kids will go nuts for it. A CD with the jokes was a logical next step. Books, DVDs, and a cartoon show are planned for the future."

The two individually released discs each contain 99 tracks full of kid friendly jokes. Known primarily for his "blue" humor, Jackie has the kids laughing at home, school and in the minivan with his side-splitting kid-friendly fare.

He adds, "I know and love jokes of all kinds. Many of the jokes on these two CDs are the classic jokes we all eventually learned as kids. But the jokes on these CDs are the end product of an exhaustive search that includes all of them and then some."

Jackie recently launched the successful JokeMaster Jr. series of handheld joke machines, selling 150,000 to mainstream retailers across the country. And for the first time, all of Jackie's jokes will be available on iTunes, including the vast back catalog of Oglio CDs.

Oglio Comedy's President and CEO Carl Caprioglio said, "I have been working with Jackie for over 10 years now and I am constantly amazed at his talent and his unique sense of direction. These titles are our 6th and 7th collaboration between Jackie and Oglio Comedy but they feel as fresh as the first day we started working together.

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