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Before Colbert, before Randy Rainbow, there was Mark Russell, a musical "editorial cartoonist". RIP [1]
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Date: 2023-03-30
Mark Russell, Washington’s social-political satirist and stand-up comic who spoofed, teased and laughed at celebrities, politicians, politics and popular culture for more than 50 years from behind his star-spangled piano, died March 30 at his home in D.C. He was 90. …. In 1976, when Rep. Wayne Hays (D-Ohio), the powerful chairman of the House Administration Committee, became ensnared in a sex scandal involving a secretary who by her own admission could neither type nor answer telephones, Mr. Russell sang to the tune of “The Rain in Spain”: “The Reign of Wayne seems plainly down the drain.” Two decades later, Mr. Russell wrote a song tribute to a special prosecutor during the era of President Bill Clinton: “When You Wish Upon Ken Starr.” When the Rev. Jesse Jackson was running for president as a Democrat in 1984 and invoked a multicolored patchwork quilt to symbolize his “rainbow coalition,” Mr. Russell countered that Republicans had their own quilt. He pulled a white cloth out of a bag and asked viewers to note all the shades of vanilla, ivory and cream. www.washingtonpost.com/...
For a moment, before he gets into the good stuff, Mark Russell might have been cloned from a Capitol Hill bureaucrat. The first impression is not show biz boffo. It is congressional. He might be the senator or congressman from Bad Axe, Mich., strolling out in a three-piece dark suit to introduce a bill in a resonant voice, a bill resolving that George Bush should be "retired to a home for the chronically preppy," or that the "Republican Party demand that John Anderson take a saliva test." …. Now that Mark Russell has gone national as a humorist, with his own shows on public television, a regular slot on NBC's "Real People," a syndicated column, a daily spot on NBC radio, and an autobiography to be published next fall, the Washington image is still part of his success. It began when he first started out nearly two decades ago, doing a gig at a Capitol Hill club known as the Carroll Arms. It was frequented by congressmen, senators, and their staffs. He says the look was unconscious at first. "Every once in a while someone would ask me who I worked for on the Hill. They thought I was some guy who got up at the piano for a lark.They thought I looked like somebody's administrative assistant. I did when I was younger. Now I suppose I look like a senator or congressman." …. Russell says the performers who've influenced him have been Mort Sahl and singing satirist Tom Lehrer; Russell's antic parodies of well-known songs, sung in a jaunty baritone at an upright piano, are reminiscent of Lehrer's. Russell's nuclear folk song, for instance, begins: "This uranium is your uranium , this uranium is my uranium, from California. . . ." Other performers he enjoys although "they don't do anything remotely connected with what I do," are Dick Shawn, Lily Tomlin, the English comedy duo Flanders and Swann, and radio's Gene Sheperd. www.csmonitor.com/...
Russell's song parodies use melodies from old standards with new humorous lyrics pertinent to the subject matter. For example, in 1990, following the execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Russell did a parody song on his show to the tune of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". ("Pardon me, boys / Are you the cats who shot Ceauşescu?") Russell himself admits that most of his jokes and songs are very topical and have "a shelf life shorter than cottage cheese" In 1994, Russell found himself unexpectedly allied with the rap group 2 Live Crew when the group was sued for copyright infringement for their parody of the song "Oh, Pretty Woman". The case went to the Supreme Court, where Russell and the members of 2 Live Crew argued that song parodies were protected under fair use. The Supreme Court agreed and ruled in favor of Russell and 2 Live Crew en.wikipedia.org/...
x #RIP Mark Russell ...
On August 16, 1990, the @PressClubDC named a sandwich after him ... pic.twitter.com/ycAxcV30JJ — Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 30, 2023
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