Americans got their first glimpse of Stuttering John at a press conference in 1992 when Gennifer Flowers revealed she had sexual relations with then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton.
In a room packed with America's most distinguished journalists, John asked Clinton if he had used a condom.
"I had the attention of the whole room," says John Melendez, a.k.a., Stuttering John. "Then when I asked if there was ever a threesome with other governors, even Gennifer started laughing."
Melendez says the press conference was one of the greatest moments of his career and just one of the many guerilla-style celebrity interviews he has conducted for the Howard Stern radio and television shows over the past 10 years.
Melendez's visit to the Tempe Improv this weekend comes shortly after local "shock jock" Beau Duran [97.9 KUPD-FM] enraged Phoenix listeners and made Stern look like a humanitarian.
Duran was fired this month for calling the widow of recently-deceased St. Louis Cardinal Darryl Kyle on the air and asking her if she needed a date to the Cardinals-Diamondbacks playoff game.
Melendez, who is notorious for causing a stir with ridiculous questions, says that although he has pissed a lot of people off, his questions always have an element of innocent humor.
"I think what [Duran] did was pretty moronic," he says.
This, coming from a guy who made Burt Reynolds so angry that he grabbed the microphone out of his hands and broke it?
"Yeah, I asked Burt Reynolds why there were so many Jews in Hollywood," he says. "But I didn't ask him if I could dance on his wife's grave. What that guy did wasn't even funny."
Some of Melendez's more humorous targets have been famous journalists. He asked Peter Jennings if he was ever sexually attracted to his own sister; Dan Rather if he checks after he's done wiping; and Barbara Walters if people who speak like Elmer Fudd should pursue careers in broadcasting.
Even the most trusted man in America hasn't been able to escape the burning questions of Melendez.
"There's this great clip from the show where I asked Walter Cronkite if he had ever farted during a newscast," Melendez says. "He wasn't very amused, but you can see Mike Wallace laughing in the background."
And then Melendez really brought Cronkite over the edge.
"I asked him a question and I used the word 'friggin,'" he says. "He went into this long lecture about how the state of journalism is so bad today because people like me are going around saying things like 'friggin'' when it's not even a real word."
Melendez has some advice for ASU students who might encounter the broadcasting legend at the annual Cronkite luncheon on Oct. 31.
"The next time you see him, say, 'Hey Walter, I haven't seen you in a friggin' long time!' and see what happens."
Perhaps Melendez has so much fun with journalists because he is one himself — or at least a warped version of one.
He has been known to crawl under people's legs or dress in drag for an event — just so he can find out the answers to burning issues, like which one of the Baldwin brothers has the biggest unit.
"I think I'm a journalist," Melendez says. "But I'm more like a National Lampoon journalist. I'm not Peter Jennings, but I ask the probing questions that people want to hear."
Melendez says that the exposure from the Gennifer Flowers conference led to a turning point in his career that even he wasn't prepared for.
"When the McLaughlin Group was talking about me, addressing me as Mr. Melendez, that's when I knew that I had really made it," he says.
Through the course of the interview, Stuttering John didn't s-s-s-stutter once, even when pressured for an explanation of his nickname.
"It's never been an act," he says. "It's a nervous stutter. One of the good things about having the word in my name is that it puts the issue upfront and takes the pressure off. But, I'm obviously going to be nervous when I'm asking a celebrity about their bowel movements."
Reach the reporter at joy.hepp@asu.edu.
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Stuttering John at the Tempe Improv, northeast corner of Rural Road and University Drive. 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $25. 480-921-9735. |
