Watching Mark Russell

Sept. 4, 1988

So what do you do when you work nights and your VCR is all set to time-shift the Emmys and a brief lightning-caused power blink shuts off the timer control so nothing is recorded?

You thank the merciful gods of weather for saving you three hours of your miserably short life, and you write about a show that is worth six hours of Emmys in entertainment.

Once a month, WMHT treats us to the Mark Russell Comedy Special, an uneven but worthwhile 30 minutes of political satire and musical ridicule of Washington's most visible.  Appearing on a raised dais with a piano decorated in patriotic colors, and surrounded by an appreciative audience, Russell becomes the quintessential stand-up comic, even to playing that piano on his feet.

No question, his gags, especially during the first half of this show, are right close to the mark.

In his show of Aug. 24 he starts in on Dan Quayle, admittedly an easy target, early.  Imitating a head delegate's response to the roll call at the Republican convention, he intones:  "Madame secretary, ...Indiana, not one square foot of which fell to the Viet Cong when Dan Quayle was in the National Guard...,"  and later he adds that the Republican ticket consists of two combat veterans, George Bush who was shot down in the Pacific, and Dan Quayle who was bombed in New Orleans.

Like cartoonist Pat Oliphant, Russell seems to hate everybody, pointing out that the Democrats are the party that would continue aid only to contras with dependent children, and that the Miracle of Massachusetts is that Michael Dukakis was able to come up with a running mate who generates less electricity than he does.  I'd love to say that his musical burlesques are a high point, but they are not.  Though not a singer, Russell can carry a decent tune, and some of his ditties are cute (especially one about how Democrats never use the T-word, T for taxes of course).  But he never achieves the impact of the early satires by Tom Leher, of whom Russell is the spiritual descendant.  His piano playing is workmanlike and energetic, and energy is what carries his show, energy and the force of his personality.

Russell, who has done comedy for some three decades, does have two failings.  One, he gives each gag, each quip, each song the same amount of stridency, and not all material rates it.  And second, he uses all his big artillery at the start, and has only BB gun material at the finish.  The studio audience, caught up in his live presence, feeling his punch at close range, laughs heartily at everything, but we, the TV audience, are glad the show doesn't struggle on for more than a half hour.  The first 15 minutes has the meat.

And when he is good, he's outstanding!  During the height of the Iran-contra affair, he asked, in response to Reagan's assertion that the administration was trying to create ties with moderate Iranians, "What is a moderate Iranian?  Is that an Iranian who takes hostages but doesn't eat them?"  The Mark Russell Comedy Special plays on the forth Wednesday of every month at 9 p.m. on WMHT, Channel 17.
                                          *****

                                    Consumer alert

The worst thing you can do to your VCR is to play off-brand tapes through it.  Cheaply made videotape will clog and scratch the heads that pick up the magnetic signal, and the heads will have to be replaced, at a cost that will flatten your wallet.  And some technicians say that to replace the heads of a machine more than four or five years old is just not worth it.

First, make certain that the tape you buy has the VHS or Beta logo on the spine of the box.  If it does not, then the manufacturer has not been licensed by JVC (in the case of VHS), or Sony (the originator of Beta).

Though the absence of a logo is a certain warning, apparently the presence of one is not a sure sign that the tape is OK.  Video Review magazine's September issue has test of cheap tapes all of which carry the VHS logo, and find that Chandi, HMC, Keystone, Monexe, Nippon, Silver Shadow Spectrum, and Swire are well below JVC's standards, and that some of these tapes are so bad they leave magnetic coating on the heads and other parts of the test VCR.  Whether JVC is not enforcing it's standards, or whether some makers are using VHS logo without authorization, the author of the article couldn't say because JVC would not furnish a list of licensees.

So what is a customer to do?  I would buy only the following brands, tested by Consumer Reports in the September issue.  Listed alphabetically, they are:  BASF, Certron, FUGI, GE, JC Penney, JVC, Kodak Konica, Maxell, Memorex, Panasonic, Poaroid, RCA, Radio Shack, SKC, Scotch, Sony, TDK, and Zenith.  Though these manufacturers make many grades of tape at many prices, no tape made by them should damage your machine.

Watch out for names that look like the familiar:  Monexe looks a lot like Memorex to the hasty shopper.  And, finally, if a tape is a lot cheaper than the others on the rack, be suspicious.

Mac Rush works in the Banner's composing room.

Just a quick note that as far as my dad was concerned, consumer reports was the final word on quality.