Russell Peters is a mega-star stand-up comic in his home country Canada and nations across the world, from India to England to South Africa. Forbes estimated he made a whopping $21 million last year.
But he is only now building his U.S. audience, helped by his current role on NBC's "Last Comic Standing," where he comes across as a generous, supportive judge alongside acerbic legend Roseanne and cool veteran comic Keenan Ivory Wayans..
While Peters did sell 20,000 tickets for the Barclay Center in Brooklyn last fall (fueled by a strong following among Indian Americans), he is working smaller venues domestically, mostly theaters. In Atlanta over the weekend, he went even smaller, choosing to do several shows at the Punchline to work on new material. (He wasn't available for interviews and after the show did not hang at the entrance to meet and greet fans. Jamie Bendall, who co-owns the venue, said Peters has done the Punchline twice before.)
Based on the early sold-out Saturday show I attended, Peters handled the South with an ease reflective of his quarter century of experience on stages around the world. He didn't pander at all, making no jokes about Atlanta, presumably because he isn't familiar with the city And he didn't even bring up "Last Comic Standing."
The crowd was suitably diverse, with plenty of Indian-Americans in the house. For folks unfamiliar with his observational style of humor, he spends a lot of time interacting with attendees, gently mocking people's looks and ethnicity while commenting about relatable issues such as smart phones and his parents mocking his teenage aspirations. (He wanted to be a break dancer at one point. His father suggested he get a job at the airport. "You love break dancing. You can dance during your break!")
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
But what Peters did best was riff with the audience.
He asked a man in the front row who went by Ash what his full name was. "Asheesh," he replied.
"Do you have a brother named Arijuana?" he asked. "And a sister named Ocaine?"
He met an Indian-American woman who is married to a Puerto Rican. "So when did your parents start talking to you again?" he asked, deadpanned.
When she tried to out-joke him, he said, "There's a reason I do this and you do him!"
He asked for Indians who were doctors and found a few. One said he was a rheumatologist. "What is that?" he said, feigning ignorance. "Do you deal in rumors? I heard you were sick!"
Later, he talked to a Somalian and went straight to the pirate trope. Obvious? Yes. But he still made it funny, imitating the "Captain Phillips" actor Barkhad Abdi: "I am the captain now."
When Peters asked what the man did, he said, "banker."
"A banker?" Peters said. "Is that a corporate term for pirate?" He paused with a mischievous look on his face. Then he uttered: "I am the banker now!"
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
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