SATIRIST IS BRINGING HIS BARBS TO UCI

Piano-playing political satirist Mark Russell returns to UC Irvine Thursday armed--so to speak--with jokes and humorous songs about the Iranamuck controversy and other capital follies that have occurred since his last performance here in December, 1985.

When the bespectacled comedian takes the stage at the university’s Bren Events Center, odds are good that he’ll sing “My Teflon Lies Over the Ocean,” one of his many musical parodies penned in the wake of the Iran- contras affair.

Sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” it goes something like this:

My Ship of State’s having rough sailing ,

My trickle-down’s soggy and thick ,

My 3x5 memory is failing,

My Teflon is starting to stick . . . .

But the UCI show will probably not be an extended broadside at the Reagan Administration--and not just because Russell knows Orange County is overwhelmingly Republican territory full of staunch supporters of the President. Russell has a longstanding policy of keeping his barbs bipartisan.

Such evenhanded satire may help explain his lengthy stints as both performer and pundit. Russell, for example, has worked as the resident comedian at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington for 20 years; he has written a nationally syndicated column for more than a decade, and he has been host for the “Mark Russell Comedy Specials” on PBS for 12 years.

But his first priority, he maintains, is hitting the road for concert performances. A few days before his UCI appearance in 1985, Russell told the Times: “The most satisfying thing to do is a concert, like a college concert. You’ve got a cross-section in the audience, you just go out and do a big, long show without the disciplines of television.”

Russell’s concert--the first show at the Bren Events Center by a solo performer--will begin at 8 p.m. Call (714) 856-5000 for ticket information.