14 Facts About Mark Russell

Joseph Marcus Ruslander, better known as Mark Russell, was an American political satirist and comedian.

Mark Russell is best known for his series of bimonthly comedy specials on PBS television between 1975 and 2004.

Mark Russell's routines were a mix of political stand-up humor covering current events and musical parodies in which he accompanied himself on his trademark American flag-themed piano.

Mark Russell was born Joseph Marcus Ruslander and grew up in Buffalo, New York, the son of Marie Elizabeth and Marcus Joseph Ruslander.

Mark Russell was a regular on the 1977 CBS variety show The Starland Vocal Band Show.

For example, in 1990, following the execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Mark Russell did a parody song on his show to the tune of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo".

Mark Russell himself admitted that most of his jokes and songs are very topical and have "a shelf life shorter than cottage cheese".

Mark Russell's humor was known for having skewered Democrats and Republicans, as well as third party, independent politicians and other prominent political figures.

For several years, on the Sunday before Labor Day, Mark Russell made annual appearances on Meet the Press, which was hosted from 1991 to 2008 by Tim Russert, a Canisius High graduate.

In 1994, Mark 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".

In 2010, Mark Russell announced his retirement from public performances and made his last public performance in July 2010 in Chautauqua, New York.

Mark Russell continued to write political humor for various venues and published jokes on his own website.

In later years, the opening sequence was a montage of a few of Mark Russell's monologues accompanied by a Dixieland jazz arrangement of "The Stars and Stripes Forever".

In 2004 Mark Russell was the recipient of the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame Buffalo Bob Award, which is awarded annually to a Buffalo native who has achieved success in broadcasting outside of the Niagara Frontier area.