COMEDY : 20 Years Under His Beltway, and Politics Still Surprises Him

Mark Russell, who performs Tuesday at UC Irvine, has been lampooning the Washington scene with song and satire for more than 20 years now, but politics still has the capacity to surprise him.

Take the current Whitewater flap, for instance.

“There’s new ground, and that is liberals attacking the media for being too tough on a Democratic president,” Russell said, wryly noting the turnaround from the Reagan-Bush years.

“It’s been months since I’ve heard the traditional Republican carping on the media.”

Barbra Streisand recently weighed in with a passionate defense of Hillary Rodham Clinton, and an excoriation of the press for pursuing her role in the financial scandal. Some have said the press is treating the First Lady harshly because she’s a woman, but Russell dismisses that argument.

“They’re attacking her because she’s an equal,” he said in a direct but friendly phone interview from his Washington home. “The god of politics is a eunuch.”

For his own part, Russell prides himself on going after all sides in political life with equal gusto, and his audience has come to expect as much: “The worst thing I can be accused of is being too soft.”

Russell began his career as a piano player in a Washington bar, where he began telling political jokes. That grew into his now-familiar mix of politically oriented song parodies and topical monologue, which he updates daily as events unfold (he continues to live in Washington “for the same reason a miner lives near the shaft”).

For 18 years now, Russell has been a regular on PBS, and he tours heavily, playing about 120 dates a year. If there is a role his humor plays, it is as “a sexy presentation of the First Amendment and a constant reminder of what we get away with in this country,” Russell said.

“I’ve played before five Presidents, two of whom have been entertained.”

Russell put himself in unexpected company last year when he instructed his attorney to urge the Supreme Court to review a ruling involving rappers 2 Live Crew and a song parody the group recorded. The court affirmed the group’s right to make fun of a popular song, a victory for all satirists. (“I pictured Sandra Day O’Connor high-fiving the Crew”).

“I could have used this when I was starting out,” Russell said. “As a newcomer, I would try to use this material (on television appearances), and they wouldn’t clear it.”

That changed with his PBS gig.

“In 18 years, not once have they ever wanted to look at a script or discuss the material,” he said.

Who: Mark Russell.

When: Tuesday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.

Where: UCI Bren Events Center.

Whereabouts: From the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway, exit on University Drive and head south. Turn right on Campus Drive and right again on Bridge Road.

Wherewithal: $15 general ($13 UCI staff and faculty, $6 UCI students).

Where to call: (714) 856-5000.

* COMEDY LISTINGS, Page 14