Beetlejuice (entertainer)

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice on The Howard Stern Show
Born Lester Napoleon Green
(1968-06-02) June 2, 1968
Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Comedian, actor
Height 4 ft 2 in (1.27 m)
Website jollydwarf.com

Lester Napoleon Green (born June 2, 1968), better known by his stage name Beetlejuice (often abbreviated to Beetle or Beet), is a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show and a member of Stern's Wack Pack. In 2015, the Howard Stern Show named Beetlejuice the greatest Wack Packer of all time.[1] He has appeared in feature films as well as performed voice-over work.[2] Beetlejuice has performed with various Howard Stern Show related comedians, including those that perform under The Killers of Comedy Tour banner.[3]

Personal life

Beetlejuice (Lester Green) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Christopher Palid and Laura Green. Christopher, whose brother earned $20,000 a year working as a circus freak, tried to get Lester hired by the Ringling Brothers circus in 1975, but Laura opted to provide a proper education for her son. The couple divorced in 1976 and Laura married Kevin Bourque, a local evangelical preacher and radio host. They had three children together and are still married.

Beetlejuice is a dwarf, standing about 4 feet 2 inches tall.[4] He also has microcephaly, which gives him his characteristic small head relative to his already small body. He had to be taught how to bathe himself by his manager while working on The Howard Stern Show.[5] Lester's nickname was given to him by children in Marion Garden projects in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he lived with his sister Lisa. The children used to pick on him because of a scene in the film Beetlejuice featuring a character's shrunken head.

On the October 2, 2007 broadcast of The Howard Stern Show, Jerry O'Connell revealed that he knew Lester while he was growing up. O'Connell's mother was Beetle's special-ed teacher, and Beetle was such a good student that he did special work as her "assistant".[6]

Beetle is managed by former boxer Bobby Rooney. Prior to Bobby, Beetle was managed by Bobby's brother Sean Rooney, Beetlejuice's original manager who died in July 2009. Beetle moved to Georgia circa 2012.

Career

"This Is Beetle", also known as "The Beetlejuice Song", was sung by Beetlejuice for The Howard Stern Show in late 2004.[7] The song was recorded by Stern show producer Richard Christy, who then wrote music to accompany Beetle's raw vocals and engineered it into the full song.[8] The key lyrics to the song are "This is Beetle, he's bad as can and he knows he's the best."[9] The song, which Beetle created spontaneously in the recording studio, has been covered by the rock group Staind,[10] who included the song on special editions of their album Chapter V. On September 19, 2005, Blues Traveler played their version of "This Is Beetle" on The Howard Stern Show.[9][11]

Initially, Stern was unable to broadcast this recording on his Sirius Satellite Radio program because CBS Radio owned the copyright to all of Stern's shows from K-Rock.[12] Stern and his producing staff recreated many of the more popular segments from his days on K-Rock, but attempts to recreate "This Is Beetle" were unsuccessful. However, in May 2006, Stern, Sirius, and CBS reached an agreement to sell the rights for all his K-Rock broadcasts to Sirius, thus enabling Stern to play the song.[12] There was also a controversy around the share of potential profits from the song where Beetlejuice's manager at the time, Sean Rooney, got into an argument with Gary Dell'Abate, the executive producer of The Howard Stern Show. The argument was around the percentage share of the profits between Beetlejuice and Richard Christy.[13]

Beetlejuice appeared in the 2002 N.O.R.E. music video "Grimey"[14] and was featured on three tracks of the hip hop group Smut Peddlers' debut album Porn Again (2001) on the tracks "Beetlejuice Intro", "Pimpology by Beetlejuice", and "Beetlejuice Outtakes"[15] on Rawkus Records.[16]

Filmography

Year Title Role
2012 Girls Gone Dead Himself
2005 True Crime: New York City (Video Game) Zeke (Voice)
2001 Scary Movie 2 Shorty's Brain/Himself
Bubble Boy Lil' Zip

Television

Year Title Role
2009 This is Beetle Himself
2003 Doggy Fizzle Televizzle Himself and Super Juice
2000 WCW Monday Nitro Himself

See also

References

  1. http://www.howardstern.com/howard-on-air/howard-100-101/2015-03-18
  2. "Beetlejuice". Internet Movie Database. Internet Movie Database. 2007-02-09. Archived from the original on 2005-09-20. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  3. "The Killers of Comedy". The Killers of Comedy. Ego Logic Creations. 2007-02-03. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  4. "Bio (Beet)". Jolly Dwarf. JollyDwarf.com – The Official Beetlejuice Website. 2006-03-29. Archived from the original on 2006-03-07. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  5. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-06-16). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  6. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2007-10-02). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  7. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2004-12-03). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  8. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-06-17). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  9. 1 2 Kaufman, Gil (2005-10-28). "Stern's Beetlejuice: The Jolly Dwarf With Staind, Blues Traveler In His Corner". MTV News. MTV. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  10. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-08-10). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  11. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-09-19). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  12. 1 2 "Stern Gets Old Tapes, CBS Gets $2M". CBS News. 2006-05-25. Archived from the original on 19 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-26.
  13. "The Beetle Song Controversy (Part 3 - Sean Straightens Things Out)". Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  14. Jake, Paine (2007-06-27). "N.O.R.E: Hood Dreams". AllHipHop.com. Infinity, Allhiphop.com, Inc. Archived from the original on 28 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-04. AllHipHop.com: To close on a funnier note: one of my favorite rap video moments from of yours is in "Grimey," when Beetle Juice throws the cereal boxes off the shelf. Tell me, was that your idea to put him in the video? N.O.R.E: Yo, man, let me tell you somethin': nobody got my idea of Beetle Juice first off.
  15. "Smut Peddlers: Porn Again" (MP3). Eastern Conference (Amazon.com). 2001. ASIN B000QR38N8. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
  16. "Shabooty Interview Series: Cage (Chris Palko)". shabooty.com. 2007-11-04. Retrieved 2012-11-02.

External links

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