For nearly 25 years, Joe Raiola has been performing his unique brand of biting social satire and autobiographical humor.

His controversial one-man show, Almost Obscene, was the hit of the 2002 NYC International Fringe Festival and hailed by the New York Times as "a ruefully amusing lament for the ineradicable hypocrisy of humanity." He continues to perform an updated version of the show at regional theaters around the country and will be appearing at the 2004 Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

As a public speaker, he remains a favorite on the lecture circuit at professional conferences and colleges. The Joy Of Censorship, his critically acclaimed program on the first amendment, has been aired nationally on C-SPAN's American Perspectives.

Joe Raiola joined the Theatre Within Workshop in 1979 and made his New York stage debut two years later in Call Me Lunatic, the first of his six one-man shows directed by workshop founder, Alec Rubin. Their subsequent collaborations included Lost In The New Age, based loosely on Joe's Whole Life Magazine humor column of the same name, and Confessions Of An Ex-Standup.

Joe's professional comedy writing career began in 1984 when he teamed up with National Lampoon alumni for a series of classic magazine spoofs, including Cosmoparody, Penthouse Parody and Like A Rolling Stone.

The following year he joined the legendary "Usual Gang Of Idiots" at MAD Magazine, quickly becoming one of their most prized contributors, churning out irreverent satire, ad parodies and inspired silliness. He's been a member of the MAD editorial staff ever since and is currently Senior Editor, a title which he insists "means nothing since I work at the only place in America where if you mature, you get fired."

Named Associate Director of the Theatre Within in 1991, Joe has since directed many workshop performances, most recently Fatherlands: Stories Of The Men Who Shaped Our Lives and the Annual Lennon Tribute. Continuing in the tradition forged by Alec Rubin, he leads workshops in authentic improvisation, creativity and project development for solo performers, actors and dancers.

A graduate of Adelphi University, where he developed a love for radio at WBAU, Joe can currently be heard as a frequent co-host on the Woodstock Round Table, broadcast Sunday mornings from 8 AM to 10 AM on WDST, 100.1 FM, in Woodstock, New York.

During his off-time you might find him bushwhacking in the Shawangunk Mountains or backpacking as "Bandanna Man" on the Appalachian Trail.

He is married to the love of his life, Lisa.

Image and biographical sketch courtesy of joeraiola.com.