The alter-ego of cable celebrity Rich Kornfeld, a former computer programmer who starred as the host in a short series called TIGHTLINE (a parody of ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE) on community public access in Minneapolis in the 1990s. Doctor Sphincter was so tense and repressed that he made Richard Nixon look like Richard Simmons.
Dressed in a gray suit with his shirt tightly buttoned about his neck, Dr. Sphincter questioned his guests as his forehead sweated and his face strained like a constipated person on a toilet.
Dr. Sphincter’s worry-wart mentality forced him to ponder “Why people were so sloppy?…so lax?”, “Why they don’t clean up?,” and “Why they don’t produce?” His conclusion? “I think the answer is tightness!” He warned his viewers that we “must keep aware at all times of how loose we can become.”
Kornfeld created the Dr. Sphincter character in college. He continued producing the program with the assistance of his close friends who met weekly at a restaurant to brainstorm for ideas the day before the show was to be recorded.
The Dr. Sphincter character has appeared on public service announcements and industrial films.
Born in Philadelphia, Jerome Alphonse Holst worked 30 years as a librarian. He has since retired and lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. Holst is also the author of the children’s books “Norman the Troll,” "Norman the Troll and the Haunted House," and "Gretchen and the Gremlins." In addition, he penned the fantasy novel “The Adventures of Glinda Gale,” a retelling of “The Wizard of Oz" and the reference text “The Encyclopedia of Movie and TV Insults.” .
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