Bert Kreischer

Albert "Bert" "The Machine" Kreischer is an American stand-up comedian, actor and reality television host. In 1997, as a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, he was featured in Rolling Stone as "the top partier" at Florida State University, the "top party school in the US," while he was in his sixth year of college. The Rolling Stone article was the inspiration for the 2002 movie "Van Wilder."

From 2000 to 2001, he was the co-host of the FX Network variety show, "The X Show." A segment that aired on the show, "Ass Wax," where Kreischer had his hair removed with hot wax, led Kreischer to gain his own show on the FX Network, titled "Hurt Bert," in 2004. In the same year, he had a role in an episode of the police drama "The Shield."

Kreischer claims that on a college field trip to Russia, he drank with the Russian mob and even participated in a robbery while intoxicated.

Parts of Kreischer's stand-up routine were used in Comedy Central's animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties, which aired in 2004 and is now on DVD. In 2008, he participated in the Comedy Central reality show Reality Bites Back, where comedians competed in a variety of contests that were parodies of different reality shows. In 2009, he was given a one hour comedy special on Comedy Central titled "Bert Kreischer: Comfortably Dumb." Kreischer was formerly known as the fifth member of the Cowhead Radio Show in Tampa, Florida.

In 2010, he became the host of the Travel Channel reality show, "Bert the Conqueror." In the show, he is an "everyday guy" who travels across the United States to amusement parks and other entertainment venues to experience and promote various roller coasters, water rides and unusual sports.

On January 19, 2011, Kreischer appeared as a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience and revealed that the story of National Lampoon's Van Wilder was loosely based on his own life.

Kreischer's book "Life of the Party: Stories of a Perpetual Man-Child" was published by St. Martin's Press in May 2014.