"To deal with stares and inevitable questions, he developed a defensive shtick of one-liners. If someone asks what happened, he tells them, "My meth lab blew up." When nervous waiters and waitresses ask his wife how she likes her steak, he answers, "Well done, like her men."

In 2009, he joined an open mike night at a comedy club. His act? What else? "Actually this is a birth defect," he told the audience, pointing to his face. "My mother worked at the circus as a fire-eater when she was pregnant."