Joel Hodgson

Joel Gordon Hodgson(born February 20, 1960) is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. Hodgson was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1960. He began his career as a stage manager for Ashwaubenon High School, then moved on to prop-based stand-up comedy in the Twin Cities. As an avid amateur magician, a large number of his props utilized magic/illusion concepts. In 1981 he won the Campus Comedy Contest and then the first annual Twin Cities Comedy Invitational in 1982. In November of the same year Joel moved to Los Angeles where he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman three months later. He would later make four other appearances on the Letterman show, as well as four on Saturday Night Live. One of these SNL routines resulted in much chaos for Hodgson. He performed several minutes of his act on a November 12, 1983, airing of Saturday Night Live,... full article at wikipedia