Who is Richard Cheese?

In 2000, Mark became a lounge singer with the stage name of Richard Cheese and with his Lounge Against the Machine swing band, they perform swanky Vegas-style versions of contemporary rock, alternative, rap, and other popular hits of the time.

Cheese performs live every now and then, sells hundreds of thousands of CDs, appears in movies and TV, and one time, was featured as the house band for a few episodes of "NBC's Last Call With Carson Daly."

Dressed in a tiger-striped tuxedo, and his huge microphone (and that's NOT what I was referring to), Cheese and his Lounge band have been turing the world of teenage pop music upside down into a genre best described as lounge music on steroids. He turns the hardest of the rap and alternative songs into the smoothest pop standards renditions like nobody else can do. It's Sinatra meets Nine Inch Nails.

His debut CD, "Lounge Against the Machine", was released in 2000, first featuring Cheese crooning swankified versions of Radio Head's "Creep" and Limp Bizkit's "Nookie." Unlike many lounge CDs, however, the Cheese library features uncensored versions of the covers, often not suitable for the elderly on life support or what's left of the nostalgia radio stations that are still in existance today.

Radio stations such as 91X, KROQ, Z100, helped Cheese find a new younger audience for that kind of music. He began to etch his way into the pop culture scene as he landed a gig as the co-host and bandleader on MTV's "Say What Karaoke" series, as well as being featured as an entire category devoted to him on VH1's "Rock 'N' Roll Jeopardy."

Dick also headlined frequent concerts at The House Of Blues in Los Angeles and Anaheim, The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, and radio station festivals like 91X X-Fest in San Diego, The WHFS HFSmas Nutcracker in Washington DC's Patriot Center, and the Y100 Feztival at Philadelphia's Tweeter Center.

In 2002, not content with one CD, Cheese came back in full force with a followup, "Tuxicity", another album of lounge covers of contemporary teen music, including loungey remakes of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" and Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher." A recent Carl's Jr. ad took the two songs together into a rap song "Flat Buns" in 2007. Wonder if Cheese would cover that song.

Cheese's concert tours were sellouts. He enjoyed a slot as the opening act for the Brian Setzer Orchestra at the world famous Universal Amphitheater. He and his band made visits to the Howard Stern show. He appeared as the Vegas house band on NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly."

In 2004, Cheese came back with a third CD "I'd Like a Virgin", with even more loungified covers of contemporary teen songs. That year, Cheese performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC. and one of the cuts was featured in the movie "Dawn of the Dead."

In 2005, Cheese released his fourth album, "Aperitif for Destruction", with more lounge covers of songs by artists such as Guns 'n Roses, U2, Black Eyed Peas, The Beastie Boys, Alanis Morissette, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Slipknot, and many more. Cheese also appearred that year on the TV Land Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Hollywood benefit for Hurricane Katrina.

In 2006, Cheese released not one, but two CDs. His CD, "The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese" featured ten new recordings as well as eight of his favorites. Several of his songs on the CD were re-recordings of his earlier tracks.

In late 2006, Cheese released his sixth CD, "Silent Nightclub", a collection of holiday hits the way Cheese sees fit. One of the tracks, "Christmas in Las Vegas", was featured on the TV series "Las Vegas" that year. Two of his songs, "Silent Night" and "Naughty Girl" were featured on the soap "Passions."

In 2007, Cheese will have a seventh CD released in the last quarter. He continues to tour around the country, exposing lounge to a yonger genreation of listeners that all but ignored the genre on the declining number of radio stations that play lounge music today.

His seventh CD, "Dick at Nite", is released in two versions: a 13-song CD, and a 16-song iTunes collection. His CD features loungified versions of your favorite TV Theme Songs such as South Park, Three's Company, Good Times, The Jefferson, The Brady Bunch, and even Spongebob Squarepants.

The hardest working Dick in show business continues to perform sellout shows all over the world, from Las Vegas to London, from New York to New Orleans, from Honolulu to Hollywood. Thanks to six CDs, a dozen tours, a hundred concerts, 40,000 MySpace fans, and a million martinis, Richard Cheese has earned a prominent place in that prestigious pantheon of lounge legends: Frank ... Sammy ... Dean .......... and Dick.

Other career highlights include umerous live on-air radio show performances (including WNEW/New York City) on the Opie & Anthony Show on XM Satellite Radio, MTV's "Say What Karaoke: Las Vegas" Show - Series Co-Host and House Band, Las Vegas - Regular Headlining Concerts at Sunset Station Hotel & Casino, The Venetian Hotel Venus Lounge, The Hard Rock Hotel, and The Double Down Saloon, Playboy Mansion - Headlining Entertainment for SPIKE-TV Premiere Party, Associated Press - national feature story, syndicated to all AP affiliates, Appearances on nationally syndicated Opie & Anthony, Bob & Sheri, Bob & Tom, Rod Ryan, Kid Kraddick, and Frank Radio Shows, and many more!