Russell Peters September 6, the Pearl.
Let’s go back in time. It’s 2004, and Russell Peters’ performance on the Canadian television show Comedy Now! is uploaded to YouTube, you know, before everyone was doing that. Different segments caught on in different places with different groups of people, and the Indian-Canadian Peters became the first viral comedian, in the same way Dane Cook became the first social media comedian.
It was Peters’ written jokes that made him an international sensation in so many countries beyond America, standing in stark contrast to his more improvised set at the Pearl on September 6. Peters is as naturally comfortable onstage as any comic I’ve seen, and the bulk of his 80-minute performance was built around a humongous Q&A session with the audience. He asked the questions, they gave the answers and he riffed on whatever they said.
Peters did use the crowd work to segue into certain pre-planned material. After talking to a 13-year-old kid about the youngster’s dream, Peters mentioned that his parents didn’t have high hopes for him. His strict father tried to convince him of the merits of becoming an airport baggage handler, but Peters was set on being a professional breakdancer. His father responded, “You can dance on your breaks, 15 minutes at a time.”
In a way, Peters, now 44, is like a relaxed Don Rickles—a Mr. Warmth minus the ferocity. Rickles’ crowd work is performed with such zeal, it makes even the lulls feel like highs. In Peters’ case, with about an hour of crowd work, there are bound to be dips in the laugh meter. If we’re judging by audience response, even if the chuckles were consistent, they were rarely huge. In fact, the biggest response came from an act out of a written joke, in which Peters described the Russian language as sounding like people talking in reverse. This, no doubt, reminded many of his more insightful barbs about different ethnicities over the years.
As he continues to evolve, maybe Peters will head farther down this road. Or maybe it’s merely a detour as he searches out his next groove. Either way, it’s sure to wind up on YouTube.
