Whenever Mark Russell is down, he opens the newspaper and immediately cheers up. Practically everything he sees strikes him as funny. “Some days,” he says, “the jokes jump off the pages and write themselves.” Mark has spent most of the past 30 years on Public Television. The Mark Russell Comedy Specials consistently were among the top-rated shows on that network. He works live, fresh and topical, performing stand-up comedy while accompanying himself on the piano. Mark Russell readily admits that when he was a kid he dodged the draft. He did it by joining the Marines. After serving his full hitch, he found himself in the smoke-filled bars of Washington, DC, singing his funny songs. When he got a job in a Capitol Hill bar, the first thing he thought was “I’ve started at the bottom, but I’ve managed to work my way down.” Around the time the New Frontier was invading Washington, Mark Russell invaded the Shoreham Hotel for a risky two-week gig. It lasted for twenty years. Eventually, The Marquee Lounge became the place where politicians would come to hear Mark’s jokes about the things they’d done that day. His syndicated column is enjoyed all over America, as are his CDs. Mark Russell’s answer to the frequently asked question, “Do you have any writers?” is “Oh, yes…I have 535 writers. One hundred in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives.” Mark Russell is something to behold. He’s history!
