E-Paper
Of moths, shifting and boxing!
Comedian Russell Peters’ recent show in the Capital was nothing but a ‘Hit’ — yeah that spray, both literally and metaphorically
Most things are just a joke for international stand-up comic Russell Peters, but mosquitoes can really drive him mad. The 43-year-old Indian-Canadian, who recently performed to a packed house of 4500 in Gurgaon, had a bit of a problem with the pests.
“I knew I will be bothered with them (bugs) so I got fans installed near the stage. Now I feel like Michael Jackson performing on stage (owwww),” he said, performing as part of Micromax presents Notorious Russell Peters. However, Russell was not allowed a moment’s relief and the mosquitoes looked unfazed with the fans installed.
“One of them has managed to get inside my ear! I wonder if this one took my jokes a tad too seriously,” he wise-cracked. Russell, as usual, made fun of the Indian English accent and said, “Only in India, people attribute ‘moving’ to ‘shifting’. I went to my uncle’s house and I asked him whether he moved. He replied, ‘Yes beta, we shifted recently’. I think makes sense, in this huge population, you can only shift, moving ain’t possible!” Russell, who has been doing stand up comedy shows for the last 24 years, feels a lot has changed in the period, which has made him more mature towards the audiences.
“It’s been brilliant. The crowd has been fantastic and the support has only grown. I think stand-up comedy and boxing are similar. There are times when you just take it all in, soak in the audiences’ mood and then you take on the crowd. Just like in boxing,” he said, when we caught up with him backstage, after the performance that had spectators in splits for an hour-and-a-half.
