STANDING AT a star-spangled grand piano, political satirist Mark Russell entertained an appreciative-and, judging by response, bipartisan-luncheon crowd during this year’s Direct Marketing Days in New York, held in May at the Hilton New York and Towers.
Russell began his set with sly pokes at his hosts, introducing himself as “another white man from the head table.” The other featured luncheon speaker fared no better. “Every time I come to New York I learn something,” said Russell. “Today I learned who the postmaster general was.” Turning to Postmaster General William J. Henderson, Russell quipped: “Thanks for the Christmas cards. They arrived yesterday.”
Shortly thereafter, the man from Washington (“Where the truth is a second language”) performed a song-and-stand-up set that left no prominent national figure unscathed. After noting that, thanks to DM, we can now mail atomic secrets directly to the Chinese government and eliminate the middleman, his monologue turned from direct marketing to his specialty, politics.
Russell’s set included commentary on the situation in Kosovo (where “another bomb went astray and accidentally killed some Serbian soldiers”) and a proposed Senate campaign song for Hillary Rodham Clinton (“She’ll Take Manhattan”). The blandness of potential presidential candidates Al Gore (whose fundraising mechanism was derailed when the United States accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Kosovo) and George W. Bush (“Compassionate conservatism-when will he make up his mind?”) also provided grist for Russell’s mill.-RHL
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