DAVE RUSSO Boston comedian, entertainer, and NESN Comedy All-Star Dave Russo has been captivating audiences for over 20 years. A former state champion wrestler and inaugural Boston Comedy Festival winner, Dave has appeared on Comedy Central, E!, NBC, NESN's Dirty Water TV, and national commercials. Discovered by Wayne Newton while performing in Las Vegas, he earned an exclusive Vegas contract and has since become a favorite headliner across the country. Today, Dave entertains audiences worldwide as a featured comedian with Royal Caribbean while continuing to headline shows throughout New England.
Boston comedian and entertainer Dave Russo has been in the entertainment industry since he was 13 years old, when he earned Stars of the Show Honors at his high school’s annual Junior Varieties show. A professional hip-hop breakdancer at 15, he was featured in national commercials for Nabisco, Sugar Babies candies, Dunkin’ Donuts, and modeled for Nike and Esprit, with his performances featured in the Boston Sunday Globe.
Eventually, Dave traded in his parachute pants for a wrestling singlet and became his high school's first ever state wrestling champion. Next came Wilkes University, where Dave was a Boston Globe, all-scholastic, and division one wrestler training under the tutelage of the number two winningest division one wrestling coach in the country, John G Reese.
While at Wilkes, Dave earned a Masters in business communications and won the gold medal in the 1997 Bay State games.
Dave’s stand-up career got off to a running start, when he won the inaugural Boston Comedy Festival, earning the Best New Comic Award with only three years of comedy under his belt.
He followed that up as 2nd runner-up in 25th Anniversary San Francisco International Comedy Festival, leading to featured performances on UPN and Comedy Central’s New Joke City with Robert Klein.
As fate would have it, Dave was performing on the strip in Las Vegas when he was discovered by Mr. Las Vegas himself: Wayne Newton.
Newton would feature Dave on his performance reality series The Entertainer on E! Entertainment TV, where Dave won an exclusive Las Vegas contract.
For the past 20 years, Dave's numerous fundraisers include Comics Come Home with Denis Leary, Alzheimer's awareness, the USO, and many more. Dave has since been featured in Tom Brady's Shields MRI commercial, the NHL and NBC's A Very Farrelly Thanksgiving commercial (directed by legendary filmmaker Bobby Farrelly), and locally Dave has been featured on Charlie Moore's The Mad Fisherman, The Phantom Gourmet, and NESN's Dirty Water TV, where Dave was a regular host! A 6 X Boston Comedy coed softball champion dave reports and explores the best of Boston nightlife and beyond! Dave presently is contracted with the Royal Caribbean as one of their headlining comedians.