Russell Peters has the unique ability to go from a 200-people-a-night comedy club to filling up Madison Square Garden. It’s what prompted Chris Rock to call him “the most famous person nobody’s heard of”. So Peters did what he does best — turned the comment into a show about himself and called it Almost Famous. “It’s a snapshot of who I am today — a middle-aged, divorced father, who’s a bit crotchety about younger people, technology, music.” He still tackles race and culture but you won’t see him poke fun at religion. “People are prepared to die for their religion and I’m not religious at all, so why bother.”
He’ll riff on his personal life a lot more, like when he warns you that the “mixing of the races” (remember he married a Latina?) can only lead to a world full of beige. Or that time he accidentally taught his daughter to say “nigga” while singing along to Niggaz Wit Attitudes. But he’s most skilled when he’s able to mine the universal outsider’s perspective. “I was an outsider growing up as an Indian kid in Brampton in the ’70s, as an Indian guy doing stand-up in Canada in the ’90s, and now I’m an outsider in the States as a Canadian. Comedians are generally outsiders.” And yet they can’t all claim to have a fleet of Bentleys like Peters, can they?
Confessions from the comedian:
Craziest sex-shop find: “A full rubber arm, when a finger just isn’t enough.”
If he had to sext someone, it would look like: “What do you mean ‘If’? I’m sexting someone as I do this interview. *Fist, Eggplant, squirt, squirt, squirt*”
His wildest sexual encounter involved… “Myself, two ladies and lube. I’m not sure whether that’s four or three.”
Russell Peters performs in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru as part of the Stage42 festival. Details on Insider.in
