Biography
As a child, Russell was obsessed with comedy. He regularly listened to his collection of comedy records. His early favorites included Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton. Later, he shifted his interest to Cheech & Chong, George Carlin, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Steve Martin. Young Russell quickly crafted his own jokes and routines to entertain family and friends but never seriously considered a career in comedy.
Instead, in 1974, at fourteen and a half, he left school to work alongside his parents at the local abattoir, believing it would be his lifelong job. Nights and weekends found him working part-time at a nearby pizza shop. The customers there served as a ready audience for his bold sense of humor, and he credits this constant interaction with people as the foundation for his later success in stand-up comedy.
Russell performed his first stand-up routine in his early twenties at a party in a friend's backyard. Encouraged by the positive response, he entered a talent contest at his local football club and won. Even then, he didn’t seriously consider comedy as a career. When the abattoir closed, he took up roofing and later became a motorcycle courier. At 23, by chance, Russell moved close to the Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant in Collingwood. He attended stand-up shows there twice weekly, which proved to be a turning point.
He got to know and socialized with leading comedians such as Trevor Marmalade, Glenn Robbins, and Elliott Goblett, spending countless hours studying their routines. In 1984, Trevor Marmalade, performing at Melbourne's Kamikaze Cafe, invited Russell onstage for his first professional stand-up. He was an instant hit, quickly landing solo spots at the Back of Bourke Theatre and the Dick Whittington Tavern. Russell continued courier work by day and stand-up at night, memorizing his routines by taping them to his motorbike’s petrol tank during deliveries. His bookings steadily increased, and in 1986, after Daryl Somers saw him perform at Le Joke, Russell was invited for his first stand-up spot on Hey Hey It's Saturday.
Later that year, he appeared with Wendy Harmer and The Cabbage Brothers in the annual Christmas show at the Last Laugh, a prestigious event on the comedy circuit. He then teamed up with Trevor Marmalade and Glenn Robbins to form Bizarre Laugh Triangle. The trio performed at the Last Laugh and toured Australia. Russell's next major break came in 1988 when Glenn Robbins invited him to the taping of the very first episode of The Comedy Company. Called from the audience to do a warm-up routine, he impressed so much that he was immediately signed on as a writer for the show.
By the end of The Comedy Company's first year, Russell was writing numerous sketches and performing one of his memorable characters, the lovable yet irritating "Russell The Postie." When mainstays Mark Mitchell, Kym Gyngell, and Glenn Robbins left to pursue solo careers at the start of the third year, Russell appeared in even more sketches. He describes that year as a time when he produced some of his best work and truly developed as a performer.
At the start of 1991, Russell and friend Trevor Marmalade joined the creative team on Hey Hey It's Saturday. One of his early contributions was the popular Celebrity Head segment. Since then, his spontaneous audience interruptions, live crosses, and sketch comedy segments have become an essential part of the program. In 1996, he earned a Logie nomination for Best Comedy Performer. The following year, Daryl Somers encouraged Russell to create his own comedy special, leading to the premiere of The Russell Gilbert Show.
