On February 6, 2010 approximately 2200 citizens of Los Angeles and surrounding areas, including but not limited to Middle Eastern, Armenians, Asian, Indians (from India), Europeans and a hand full of black people were missing from their normal activities from about 7pm to about 10:30pm. Where were they you ask? Why were they missing? Well let me tell you... they were inside of the Nokia Theater being laughed at. We were being entertained by Russell Peters and if you have not heard his stand-up, you are missing out. He delivers his observations about race, class and culture, which may or may not settle well with people, but as I see it, having things that make you stand out is a common ground that we all can relate to no matter where we come from. We all have crazy idiosyncrasies that can be really funny stuff. We were laughing hysterically at some of the things this man was saying! The lady next to me had me laughing extra long at his jokes because of her contagious laughter. It's always funny when someone's laughing at another race, but when it hits home, it's not so funny as one asian lady was explaining to her boyfriend... "He's sooo obnoxious... he makes us look bad"! LOL
Here's a little of what I found out about Russell. He is of Indian decent. (Again, I'm talking about Indians from India.) He's a brown man who looks as if he could pass for almost any ethnicity. He provides a comical montage in his opening video where he is portrayed quickly morphing into different ethnic characters to prove this point. It was also the perfect visual explanation of what his comedy is all about. People.
His parents who are native to India are referred to by Russelll as Anglo-Indians a community of Indians who mixed with the British when they occupied India. As a result, his parents Eric and Maureen, born and raised in India, named him Russell Dominic Peters. Go Figure!!!
Russell, a student of the world has been a comedian for about 20 years now. His CD "Outsourced" was my first exposure to his comedy. His youtube videos have been viewed by over 20 million individual viewers and his website gets over 1o,000 hits a day! I would say Russell Peters have arrived! His newly released CD "Red, White and Brown" released Jan 27, 2010 in the U.S. and his first show in the U.S. promoting "Red, White and Brown" was just last Saturday, January 6, 2010 and I was glad to have been there.
My hats off to you Russell Peters. We need something fresh, honest and broadening in our lives to make us laugh at... ourselves and the world around us.
-Lady J
