‘Question Mark Guy’ gets 80th birthday surprise from Adams Morgan neighbors

Neal Augenstein | naugenstein@wtop.com

May 16, 2023, 11:28 AM

The man in the question mark suit, Matthew Lesko, is usually full of answers — but he was recently speechless when his neighbors in an Adams Morgan condominium building threw him a surprise 80th birthday party.

“Wow, 80! I never thought I’d make 80,” enthused Lesko, in a Zoom interview with WTOP. “I’m having the happiest time in my life.”

Since the mid-1980s, Lesko — perpetually dressed in colorful suits with large question marks — has authored books and appeared in infomercials on “getting free money from the U.S. government,” from federal grant programs.

Last Thursday, with the help of Lesko’s wife, Wendy, dozens of neighbors were waiting to surprise Lesko, to celebrate his first octogenarian birthday.

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Matthew Lesko’s neighbors in their Adams Morgan condo building threw him a surprise 80th birthday party. (Courtesy Ben Eisendrath)

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Matthew Lesko said he had to get another apartment for his question mark and heart wardrobe. (Courtesy Ben Eisendrath)

Lesko says he began wearing his trademark question mark suits early in his career, “when everything else failed. I have an MBA in computers, back in the 70s, I had a software company that failed. And I wasn’t having fun. So, I thought, maybe I should start with that, because success isn’t guaranteed anyway.”

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At 80, Matthew Lesko says, “I’m having the happiest time in my life.” (Courtesy Ben Eisendrath)

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Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein has been a reporter at WTOP since 1997. Through the years, Neal has covered many of the crimes and trials that have gripped the region. Neal's been pleased to receive awards over the years for hard news, feature reporting, use of sound and sports.

naugenstein@wtop.com
@AugensteinWTOP