Mark Russell at the Omni

Mark Russell for $20 ($22 with tax).

Yes, he’s worth it, political aficionados.

At the Omni Shoreham Hotel on Calvert Street…two shows every Monday night, at 7 and at 9.

For about 75 minutes (show started promptly on time when we went) he regaled the crowd in the private, masculine (but don’t let that deter you, ladies; the crowd was half men and half women) bar named after him where he plays the piano while telling jokes and singing original lyrics to the tunes of familiar numbers.

No politician escapes, especially Joe Lieberman, featured the day we went on the front page of the New York Times, and the New Yorker for its non-satirical cover everyone was talking about.

Barbs were cast on both sides of the aisle.

Samples:

“Where will John McCain place his hand to take the oath of office?
Atop the New Yorker.”

“When Democrats tell lies before Congress, it’s called ‘perjury’;
when Republicans tell lies before Congress, it’s called ‘State of the Union.’”

The baby boomers? Who cares about the likes of them? Everybody! What a nation of whiners, indeed! (Mark Russell, a baby boomer – NOT, complained about the lack of attention he’s received: “Nobody cared about me when I turned 60,” he boomed. Wikipedia says he is 75.)

As a sure sign that Buzh is OUT, there were few wisecracks made about him, but, lo, Hillary and Bill? Aplenty.

McCain’s age? Sure. Obama’s ‘flip-flops’? Yes.

An attentive waitstaff serves drinks ($$; it is the Omni), and there is plentiful (free) popcorn.

The night we originally wanted to go was sold out, and when we got a reservation a week later, the bar was about half filled with tourists and residents (he asked), ages from teens to 90-somethings. (True! One in my group, 90, could pass for 70-something.)

For a few bucks, it’s an evening’s pleasure to spend with your political friends in a beautiful setting, the Omni, and hear content which will make even the silent, howl.