Victoria Jackson

Victoria Jackson (born August 2, 1959) is an American comedian, actress, and singer best known as a cast member of the NBC television sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1986 to 1992.

Starting in 2008, she has appeared on various secular and Christian religious television shows, and has become active in the Tea Party movement. She has also received attention as a vocal critic of President Barack Obama, after calling him a "communist" and "the anti-Christ" on Fox News.

Early life
Jackson was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Marlene Esther (née Blackstad) and James McCaslin Jackson, a gym coach. Raised by devout Christian parents in a home without a television, she was trained in gymnastics by her father from ages 5 to 18. Jackson attended the private Dade Christian School, where she was a cheerleader and the Homecoming Queen. She subsequently attended Florida Bible College in Hollywood, Florida. Three years of gymnastics competitions led to a scholarship at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She also spent one year at Auburn University, before earning a degree in theatre from Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Appearing in summer stock in Alabama led to a chance meeting with Johnny Crawford (of the 1950s television series, The Rifleman), who cast her in his night club act. She moved to Los Angeles where she supported herself with various day jobs as a cigarette girl, a typist at the American Cancer Society, and a waitress, while she performed stand-up comedy at night. Her first big break was her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson where she performed what would become her signature act: doing a handstand while reciting poetry. She ultimately appeared on the show 20 times. Before being cast on SNL, she appeared on various television series including The Jeffersons and co-starred in the pilot W*A*L*T*E*R, a M*A*S*H spin-off.

Saturday Night Live
In 1986, Jackson was hired to join Saturday Night Live for its 12th season, following Lorne Michaels' firing of most of the 11th season's cast and writers. Jackson became most famous for her appearances on Weekend Update with Dennis Miller, again reciting poetry while doing back-bends or handstands on the desk, with Miller cracking a sexually suggestive comment at the end. In episodes hosted by Steve Martin and Demi Moore, she sang and danced on the Weekend Update desk. After many such appearances, Jackson began to read a poem, but stopped and said in a low, throaty voice, "I can't do this Victoria 'airhead' thing anymore." She then removed her blonde wig to reveal a short brunette wig, announcing that she could not believe people thought that her goofy routine was for real, and that she would be doing serious political commentary on the show from that point onward.

Recurring characters on SNL

 * Brenda Clark from Toonces the Driving Cat
 * Jenny Baker, a Christian girl who appears on "Church Chat"
 * Nancy Maloney, a nightclub singer for The Jungle Room
 * Susan Keister, the daughter of the Keister family (played by Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks)

Celebrity impersonations
Jackson's impersonations of celebrities and famous persons have included: Calamity Jane, Christina Applegate, Cyndi Lauper, Donna Rice, Eydie Gorme, Fawn Hall, LaToya Jackson, Linda Blair, Lulu, Rob Lowe, Roseanne Barr, Sally Struthers, Susan Olsen (as Cindy Brady), Tina Yothers (as Jennifer Keaton), Tipper Gore, and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Film roles
Jackson appeared in a number of films including Baby Boom with Diane Keaton, Family Business with Sean Connery, The Pick-up Artist, The Couch Trip and I Love You To Death during the time she was a cast member of Saturday Night Live. She had leading roles in Casual Sex? (with Lea Thompson) and UHF (with "Weird Al" Yankovic, whom she dated in 1990).

Post SNL
Following her departure from Saturday Night Live, Jackson starred in an X-Files episode "The Rain King" as the unrequited love of a small town man who can control the weather. She appeared in the movie No More Baths in 1998. She appeared in the Comedy Central series Strip Mall, in 2000. She had a recurring role in the Nickelodeon show Romeo!, with Lil' Romeo for its first two seasons, from 2003 to 2004, as the nanny, "Mrs. Rodgers." In 2005, Jackson starred in the second edition of the VH1 show Celebrity Fit Club. In 2006 she was cast as Lolita Dorchuck in the mockumentary 20Q directed by Benjamin Keith.

She continues to perform stand up, often appearing with other ex-SNL players (most frequently Joe Piscopo and Don Novello as "Father Guido Sarducci").

Jackson is a self-proclaimed devout Christian and has appeared on programs such as The 700 Club and Politically Incorrect. She also appears at Christian-oriented venues, and performed a stand up in a Christian comedy movie called "Thou Shalt Laugh 2: The Deuce" hosted by Tim Conway.

Political activities and positions
In 2010 Jackson wrote in an article in that she did not learn how to vote until the 2000 United States Presidential Election. She currently maintains a personal website containing numerous postings highlighting her conservative political views. She criticized Democrats during the 2008 general election campaign, particularly presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama and Minnesota U.S. senatorial candidate (and fellow SNL alumnus) Al Franken. In October 2008, she appeared with other celebrities in a National Republican Senatorial Committee advertisement poking fun at Franken, then followed up with an interview on The O'Reilly Factor, where she called Obama a "communist."

When Obama won the election, she wrote on her blog: "Voters in our last election did not base their decision on facts or knowledge, but on hype, emotion, peer pressure, and racial fervor. It didn't help that the liberally biased media blocked Americans access to the truth" and she said Fox News is "the only one we should watch."

In March 2009, Jackson appeared on the Fox News show, Hannity, reiterating her claim that Obama is a communist, and adding that he aspired to be like the dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro.

Personal life
In 1984, Jackson married Nisan Mark Eventoff, who was a fire-eater and magician. They had one daughter, Scarlet, and divorced in 1990. She was reunited in 1991 with her high school sweetheart, Paul Wessel, a police helicopter pilot for Dade County Florida. They were married and have a daughter, Aubrey. The family lives in California.