![]() Star of bi-monthly television specials for PBS, 1975 - co-host of Real People, NBC, 1979-84 has provided political commentary during national nominating conventions for Good Morning, America, ABC. Began performing stand-up comedy with piano accompaniment at Carroll Arms Bar, Washington, DC, 1956 comedian at Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, 1961-81. Military service: United States Marine Corps, 1953-56.Ĭomedian and political satirist, 1956. He and For the Record …īorn Mark Ruslander, August 23, 1932, in Buffalo, NY changed name, 1956 son of Marcus Joseph and Marie Elizabeth (Perry) Ruslander married second wife, Alison Kaplan, Decemchildren: (first marriage) Monica, John, Matthew. In 1961 Russell moved to the Shoreham Hotel. “So I ’d say, ‘Here ’s Senator So-and-So. “Nobody in trouble would show up, of course, because they ’d risk becoming part of the act, ” Russell told the Arizona Republic. Politicians of every stripe took in the show. Word of Russell spread quickly in the capitol, and soon he was attracting the very crowd he debunked so relentlessly. Music remained integral to his routine, however -in his early years he often made up songs on the spot about the customers in his audience. He lists Mort Sahl and Tom Lehrer as early influences, along with black humorist Lenny Bruce. As a professional performer he expanded the role of comedy in his act until he became more comedian than musician. Russell had begun to work comedy into his routine when he was in the service. He was discharged in 1956 and returned to Washington, where he continued to work the piano bar circuit. ![]() In the early 1950s he served in the Marine Corps, principally as an entertainer in piano bars in Japan and Hawaii. when he was a teen, and he became fascinated by the apparatus of national government in the capitol. ”īorn Mark Ruslander in Buffalo, New York, Russell was a “class clown ” from a very early age. There ’s a very thin line between satire and the original event. He told the Los Angeles Daily News: “We don ’t need comedians. What does change in Russell ’s act is the cast of characters -each new president, each new national scandal provides him with a wealth of material from which to draw humor. As he bashes the political pundits, Russell accompanies himself on a star-spangled grand piano in an exaggerated, joyfully sloppy style. ![]() He delivers a stand-up monologue, punctuated by short musical parodies of popular tunes. Russell ’s routine is essentially the same today as it was when he entered show business thirty-five years ago. The affable comedian-songwriter also appears live in some 125 shows per year, a daunting schedule similar to that of the most popular professional musicians. ” Today Russell ’s brand of humor is a staple on the Public Broadcasting Service, where he performs six times a year in a half-hour musical comedy act. As Jeff Babineau put it in the Akron Beacon Journal, Russell has been a fixture in the capitol since 1961, “has monitored the pulse of the nation ’s political exploits … and has remained funny in doing so. Mark Russell is one of the nation ’s foremost political comedians, a piano-pounding satirist who skewers the Washington scene with word and song.
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