Russ Dembin was born between the years of 1984 and 1986 after nine lengthy months of living inside the stomach of one of his parents (his mother). After looking around and deciding that this new place would be a sufficient atmosphere for comedy and music, Russ began to learn to read and grow eyelashes that have caused many a middle-aged woman to exclaim, May I have your eyelashes, Russ Dembin! Russ was nursed not on milk and baby food, but on the books of Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl , the music of Pete Seeger and the Beatles , the radio personality of Garrison Keillor , and on the intricacies being a punster.
Mr. Dembin grew in the next few years to be a somewhat typical Long Island boy, learning to speak with a thick Long Island accent, which he would then choose to lose some years later. In the summer of 1998, Russ played in his first full-length theatrical production at the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts and developed a group of friends that has been instrumental in Russs creativity. During the summer of 1999, Russ developed an alter ego known as Travolta in the superhero team and musical group, The Soul Men : Practitioners of Thespionage, with the aformentioned Usdan friends.
Concurrently, Russ began learning guitar with Ms. Mary Roof, also at the Usdan Center. It was soon after that Russ obtained his first acoustic-electric guitar, which Russ affectionately named Alvy Singer, after the Woody Allen character and the fact that the guitar was an Alvarez with which Russ sang. Thanks to his novel ability to play the instrument not known to the Japanese as la chitarra, the attainment of the new Alvarez dreadnought, and Russs love of language, Russ wrote his first official song, The Bathroom Song in the summer between camp and his freshman year of high school.
While attending Usdan in the summertime, Russ went on to Sanford H. Calhoun High School where he cultivated his ability to write rhetorically and satirically. Also at Calhoun, Russ won awards for his numerous performances and gained notoriety for his impressions and his talent as a dialectician. There too, Russ met Eli Maniscalco with whom he formed the comic folk duo Russ & Eli , of which Russ is half, and also with whom Russ composed the hit Thinway musical Two Straight Men Dancing. The duo performed at their high schools talent show in 2003 with Eli on double bass and Russ on guitar, and the rest is mystery.
After high school, Russ began attending the State University of New York at New Paltz in the fall of 2004, where he is currently a double major in Theatre Arts and Adolescent Education-English. At the end of Russ's first year, he started taking banjo lessons with the legendary Dave Sear. In Russ's sophomore year, he rewrote his theatre sea chantey, What Do We Do When Its 7:30? to be a more universally acceptable, What Do We Do When Its Eight in the Evening? In the same year at New Paltz, Russ united with Mr. Evan Teich, with whom Russ began performing songs of Flight of the Conchords and wreaking general havoc, incessantly demanding more cowbell. Their antics led to Mr. Teichs nomination and election to the prestigious position of co-host of Midnight Theatre, a latenight semi-semester evening of laughs and music overseen by New Paltz Players. Beginning in Spring 2007, Russ has been a frequent guest on Tim Light and Ben Clark's radio program " Beggars Can Be Choosers ," on WFNP The Edge, SUNY New Paltz radio; appearing as several characters, including Christopher Walken, George W. Bush, and Coach Puscatella, an original character. In the same semester, Russ became one of the founding members of To Be Announced , a New Paltz improvisational comedy troupe. Also in junior year, Russ received the prestigious Joe and Jean Badalucco scholarship for excellence in theatre and academic achievement. Now, with guitar and banjo in hand, you have the comic musical stylings of Russ Dembin. And that's the story.
Altri nomi (other names that people have actually called Russ): Demby, R.D., Raffaele, Dem-BIN, Ernest, Ramblin' Russ, Russ &, Devon, Russ Thespionage
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