Key Takeaways
- Earl David Reed roasted Stuttering John Melendez’s 2018 memoir on the Point Dabble Point podcast, asking how a publisher didn’t dismiss it as “a piece of sh*t.”
- Reed mocked Melendez’s account of meeting ex-wife Suzanna Keller, including his comments about her looks, his decision about whether to pursue her or her friend, and his insecurity about her history with Adam Sandler.
- Melendez rose to fame on The Howard Stern Show before leaving for The Tonight Show in 2004, and he later sued SiriusXM and podcasters, including Point Dabble Point host Karl Heberger.
Earl David Reed joined the Point Dabble Point podcast to revisit Stuttering John Melendez’s account of meeting his former wife, Suzanna Keller. The September 14 stream turned into a critique of what Melendez chose to put in his memoir: judgments about Keller’s looks, concern over her past with Adam Sandler, and repeated detours into his relationship with Howard Stern.
Reed, however, was characteristically blunt about the writing. “How does someone bring this back to a publisher and they just don’t go, ‘It’s a piece of sh*t’?” he asked.
The passage comes from Easy for You to Say, Melendez’s 2018 book. He describes meeting Keller while they worked on the Off-Broadway production Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. After she introduced herself, he writes, “I reluctantly said, ‘Hi’ back.”
Later, he recalls choosing whether to pursue Keller or her friend at a party: “I didn’t know who I should hit on first.”
Reed compared the chapter’s writing to something a parent might put on the refrigerator after a child brought it home from school.
The book’s account gets more personal. Melendez writes that he told his therapist he thought Keller was “just okay looking.”
He also recounts learning that she had dated Sandler at NYU, asking her which of them was funnier and worrying about dating someone who had been with a bigger celebrity.
Melendez’s history helps explain why a 2018 book chapter drew a live audience. As “Stuttering John,” he became a fixture of The Howard Stern Show by asking celebrities confrontational questions. He left in 2004 to announce The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, a move that caused a public rift with Stern.
Years later, Melendez sued SiriusXM over its use of Stern-era recordings featuring him and lost his appeal. In 2025, he also sued podcasters including Point Dabble Point host Karl Heberger and former Stern colleague Shuli Egar.
Stern’s world is also reaching new viewers through a weekly HBO Max video edition of his SiriusXM show, which debuted September 17.
