Joke Man Jackie Martling puts his finger on what's funny

Look closely at the kid holding the sign in the 1961 school photo of Miss Beglin's eighth-grade class at the Vernon School in East Norwich, Long Island, N.Y. He is a handsome young man, hiply attired in a vest, tie and striped jacket.

Wait, though. Look at his right hand, resting on the sign. The middle finger. Yes, a bit subtle, but . . . oh my God.

"I used to put that on the wall, as a poster, when I first did my comedy act - it was on my first CD cover," said Jackie Martling, giggling, of his adolescent beginnings as the legendary Joke Man. "I guess I knew I would be telling dirty jokes for a living even then."

Martling will be part of Trump Marina's comedy series tomorrow night in Atlantic City. Though he left Howard Stern's show in 2001 after 15 years - he was both head comedy writer and part of the act - he doesn't rue his name always being associated with Stern's.

"Look, that show gave me a great platform, and I helped that show as well," he said. "It was good for everyone."

Martling was less the class clown than the somewhat conscientious son growing up on Long Island. Because he thought his dad would be impressed if he took difficult courses, he majored in engineering at Michigan State University.

"I sure wasn't the typical engineering major," he recalled. "Most of them wore clean white shirts and pocket protectors, and I would walk around with a pony tail and bare feet - and they would cheat off my papers."

But, after graduation he wanted to play music, so he went with a friend first to Denver, then back to New York.

He would tell jokes in between songs.

"I remember when I was a little kid, and my cousin was telling a joke to the family," said Martling. "Everyone was spellbound. I was hooked.

"Finally, when the band broke up, I started working in clubs, and I was in heaven."

He used a few self-recorded CDs to get Stern's attention when the shock jock came to do radio in New York. Stern liked them, and knew he needed a writer in his new, fast-paced market, so Martling had a real paying job doing what he wanted to do and, apparently, was good at.

"I could always remember jokes," Martling said. "I don't really know what it is, because it doesn't relate to music or kings of England or anything else. I guess I just like hearing and telling jokes."

He started doing "Stump the Joke Man" on the Stern show and still uses it in his stand-up act. If someone from the audience can stump him on a punch line, he or she gets a T-shirt. He's happy to add any of the good, dirty jokes to the repertoire.

"I don't know anyone who doesn't like a good, dirty joke," said Martling. "You get two grandparents and they look at each other, then they start rolling in the aisles." Unlike a lot of comics these days, who like to tell stories interspersed with humor, Martling is a throwback to the Henny Youngman days.

"Joke, joke, joke, joke and joke. I do an hour of jokes and then Stump the Joke Man. People know what they are coming to see, and I love to provide it for them."

Martling also sells joke-related items from his Web site, www.jokeland.com. There is a talking comedy calculator for $29.95, for instance, and a mirror for $19.95 that insults whoever looks into it.

Martling also is unafraid of his audiences. He gives out his e-mail address (jokeland@aol.com) at gigs.

"I want to hear from everybody," he said. "Hey, they might have that one joke I don't know." *

Trump Marina, Huron Avenue and Brigantine Boulevard, 9 p.m. tomorrow, $28.75, 800-777-847, trumpmarina.com.