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Randy Hodgins and Steve McLellan’s lifelong love of comedy was kindled when they met more than 40 years ago in graduate school in Seattle. While managing family and professional work responsibilities, they hosted a one hour comedy radio program on Saturday mornings for 10 years on a small radio station in Olympia, WA and also co-authored two books on northwest popular culture – Seattle on Film (1995) and Wet and Wired (2000). Stuck at home during the early days of the pandemic with hundreds of comedy albums, cassettes and CD’s gathering dust on their shelves, they launched Laugh Tracks Legends of Comedy in May 2020, a weekly mini-program featuring a different comedy icon, with biographical bits and a nice slice of the comedy that made them famous. From standup stars, to stellar sketch teams, to novelty music maestros -- they are all part of our Legends.
Episodes
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
With a style that owed a lot to vaudeville -- using sheer enthusiasm to blow past limited piano and singing skills -- Mark Russell playfully roasted politics and pop culture for over 60 years. Setting up shop at Washington DC's Shoreham Hotel in the 1960s, Mark came from an era in which a politician could take a joke and he gleefully doled them out, often on one of his regular PBS television specials or as a special guest on Good Morning America or as a co-host on Real People in the 1980s. Find more Mark Russell clips below, and thanks for sharing our shows.
Want more Mark Russell?
Mark Russell got his comedy inspiration from the newspaper which kept his act fresh. This is a good example. When Libyan strongman Muammar Gadaffi announced he was imposing a 'line of death' it sent military strategists and international political analysts scrambling for a policy response. It sent Mark to his trusty piano for his more tuneful response. https://youtu.be/oZczL-P_5Ps
Mark's satire was often more playful than pointed which led to him being satirized by Saturday Night Live in this clip from 1986.https://youtu.be/Pk5AAHvb71Y
Mark Russell tried retiring in 2013 -- but he couldn't resist being a musical smartass and unretired shortly thereafter. This clip, from 2018, has Mark giving his patented "Old McDonald" treatment to the then-current White House occupant. And we can add Mark to our "comedy keeps you young" list -- this show was recorded when he was 86! https://youtu.be/hGXp-xkpfIg
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