Canadian NRI comedian superstar has shows that sell-out within days

Russell Peters, a naturally funny person with a multicultural outlook that allows him to be entertaining to people of all races and backgrounds. Nobody’s ever had an outlook like him before. Much of his comedy speaks to immigrant communities around the world - Indian, Arab, Caribbean, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, and other South and Southeast Asian communities that remain invisible to the mainstream media and sometimes to the broader white population.

• At London’s Shaw Theatre sold out in 48 hours and when his first shows in Sydney and Melbourne were announced in May 2006, 10,000 tickets were gone in less than two days with zero advertising.
• In April 2005, Russell was the first South Asian to headline and sell-out the Apollo Theatre in New York City.
• In June 2007, Russell became the first comedian to sell-out Toronto’s Air Canada Centre – performing for over 30,000 fans over two nights.
• In February 2008, Russell became one of only a handful of comedians to ever headline and sell-out the world famous Madison Square Garden.
• In 2007, Russell completed two USO tours for the troops. During these tours he performed on the USS Eisenhower and in Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti and Greenland and was part of a special Thanksgiving Tour for the troops with the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Cartwright.
• He’s performed sold-out tours of China, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Jamaica, St. Maartens, Trinidad, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates and in 2007, was be the first North American comic to tour India. During his recent tour of Dubai, his tickets sold at a rate of one ticket every two seconds, eventually crashing the computer systems and causing near riots at the ticketing outlets.

His US agents, Creative Artists Agency, calls this phenomenon ‘The Legend Of Russell Peters.’ For the past few years he’s been selling out theatres and arenas across the US and Canada, all without ever appearing on network television in the United States.

Russell said:

• He doesn’t really tell jokes. Rather, he uses his wry observations on the subjects of race, class and culture to illuminate our human shortcomings with the sizzling accuracy of a well-aimed laser.
• He does notput people down and he I want to elevate them, but in a funny way
• His quick wit and ability to mimic language and accents allows Russell to create characters of all races and cultures and forge an immediate bond with his audiences, regardless of their racial and cultural background.

His TV appearances include CBC’s Comics! and two one-hour Comedy Now! specials on The Comedy Network in Canada. His Comedy Now! performance of February 2004 is one of the network’s most popular shows of all time.

He said, "I live at home, my brother lives at home and my parents are both retired, all of us living under one roof. We're a working-class South-Asian family. That's where I come from and that's what I know."

Russell’s comedy is rooted in the reality of growing up brown in white Canadian society. “My family and I are Anglo-Indian,” Russell explains. “Anglo-Indians are a community of Indians from India who mixed with the British when they occupied India. Both of my parents are Anglo-Indian and their parents were Anglo-Indians and so on.”

• NRI Press on the red carpet at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards