Early Life and Career
Hodgson was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1960. He began his career in seventh grade as a magician and ventriloquist. Joel performed for local events in his hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and attended Ashwaubenon High School. Upon graduation, Joel moved to Minneapolis to attend Bethel College to study Theatre and Mass Media. While there, Joel further developed his magic act by adding comedy and began opening for musical acts at Bethel as well as performing in coffee houses and comedy clubs. Joel cites a Theatre of the Absurd class at Bethel for helping him crystallize the meaning of his comedy. 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 became a regular performer at the Comedy Store and the Hollywood Magic Castle, as well as the Comedy Magic Club. At the Comedy Magic Club, Joel was spotted by Late Night with David Letterman producer Barry Sand and three months later at age 22 had his network television debut. He later made four other appearances on the Letterman show, as well as four on Saturday Night Live as a guest act. Joel also was a featured performer on HBO’s "Eighth annual Young Comedians special hosted by John Candy" along with Bill Maher, Paula Poundstone, and the Amazing Johnathan.
He worked at the Comedy Store while in LA, also doing traveling stand-up in San Jose, San Francisco, Detroit, Kansas City and Minneapolis. Joel left stand-up in 1985, citing the need for a creative sabbatical, and moved back to Minneapolis.
Between 1984 and 1988, Joel's 'official' return to comedy, he built and sold sculptures, worked at a T-shirt factory, designed toys, and began designing and building props (including robots) for other comedians. In 1986 he co-wrote an HBO special with Jerry Seinfeld. He was also considered for the role of Woody Boyd in "Cheers". He met Jim Mallon in 1987, and Mallon became production manager at the St. Paul UHF station KTMA Channel 23 in 1988. Hodgson was the first choice to portray "Philo" in the "Weird Al" Yankovic film UHF, but at the time of the filming (1988), he had begun the production of a new form of television program for KTMA.
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