Russell Prestol: Who Is This Guy and How Did He Come To Exist? Part 1

This is my blog.  I am now a blogger.  I have no idea what to blog about.
I don't want to get too personal, but I want write, as I like to do it and don't get to do it enough. 
So I don't know if this is the first of many or the only of one, but this is my first blog.  I thought I would write about my alter-ego, Russell Prestol, and give you some insights as to his origins, tastes, personality, and preferences.

That's him in the picture, in a B-Movie called "The Memoir of Melnovia,"  Which I would like to show if I didn't have copyrighted music in it. 

And so Russell, in a nut shell, is a character that was created back in 2007 or 2008.  He was originally created by me and a guy I used to work in the ministry in, Bob Buchanan.  We were going to do youth camp skits and we needed to come up with something, so he gave me a pair of buck teeth and told me basically that we were going to do a skit with "Billy the Bully," "Russell", and "Tilton." 

The skits were pretty fun for the most part and people laughed, and it was a good experience to get out of my box and entertain people.  I had been pretty stuffy in my Christianity for a while and needed to loosen up.   But Russell's first appearance was in a pair of waist high galoshes, an umbrella, and eye goggles.  He ended up fighting Billy the Bully in a boxing ring and we had fun.  The teeth kept coming out and and he was most memorably noted for the line, "Cause it's hot in here."  Bob would ask Russell repeatedly, "Why you sweating?"  Cuz I sweat.  Ask anyone who knows me.

Well from there, Russell disappeared for a while.  That is until I got a video camera with some tax money.  Then I made some pretty dumb little movies of Russell at night when I was working with the boys, acting ridiculous and making some pretty weird films, like this one here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xx-Jld_fSI

This is one of Russell's earliest films, which the boys at the boys home I was working at liked for the most part.  from there, Russell had a brief appearance at Vacation Bible School, with a Character named Sylvester, where they teamed up to catch the devil in some skits that involved exercising.  The kids enjoyed them, and the Youth Pastor, Bro. Marvin Smith the IV, asked me if I wanted to do the youth camp skits, and be in charge of them.  I accepted, much to my embarrassment.  Nothing to do with the Youth Pastor, but I BOMBED those skits so bad, that they decided not to do skits halfway through the camp.  I was very unprepared, self-conscious, and I really wanted to do them up at the same time, so we did an Olympic theme, and they were so dumb.  A guy named Joe helped me on them, and kinda started taking over, and they kinda went all over the place and that mixed in with people's high expectations and my lack of preparation along with people's expertise on what was funny and what was not, it was decided the last two nights not to do skits.  When I confronted a person about it, I was told straight out, "You are not funny.  OK?  I am going to get these other guys to do it, because they know how to do it, and they will do it like they do it at Hyles." (That's Hyles-Anderson College)

That guy was apologetic later, but it left a deep scar and I determined to never do a skit again.  I lost the buck teeth and decided to forget the whole Russell thing.  That is, until I got a lap top and could actually edit the footage I had.  From there, "The Chronicles" were birthed.  But that's a story for another time.

Before I do the whole, "to be continued thing,"  here's a fun fact:  Where did I get the name Russell?  From a neighbor that I grew up with named Russell.  The character doesn't resemble him at all, but I just liked the name, and it stuck from there.  His last name is close to the neighbor's last name, which I won't reveal out of respect for him. 

Let me say this too:  He's an acquired taste.  You either like him or you hate him.  I don't care which, but I hope you watch him regardless.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RussellPrestol?feature=mhee

OK now...to be continued.