Have you heard the one about

Canadian-born Indian comedian Russell Peters dropped into Bangkok on Thursday night, putting on a one-man show at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre that had the Bangkok crowd laughing their socks off. The audience left the venue with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, as Peters managed to nail them with his witty observatory comedic style and jokes about ethnic and cultural stereotypes.
Fans, most of them from Bangkok’s Indian community, flocked to the venue in the early evening. After much hassle at the gates, when everyone was trying push their way in, the show finally for underway at 8.30pm with a 30-minute opening act by Los Angeles comedian, Joey Medina. While we prayed for the comedian not to make the predictable mistakes with unimaginative, stereotypical gags about massage parlours and lady boys in Bangkok, Medina dove right in to it, resulting in a performance that was painfully uninteresting to sit through.
Peters emerged on stage, opening with a sharp “Wow, all the Indians are here. So, who’s running your shop now?”. The crowd broke into hysterical laughter as Peters continued on with witty remarks as he picked on those in the front row. The Canadian took full advantage of Bangkok’s multi-cultural and mixed ethnic demographic and stirred laughter simply by picking on the crowd. The fans got what they expected; Indian jokes, accent jokes, jokes on foreign names, and of course some dirty jokes. There was a bit of dead air when Peters made fun of women in labour, and joked about how traumatic it was to witness the delivery of his daughter, but he quickly switched back to his sure-fire Indian jokes.
While Peters started the show with a great deal hype and vitality, sadly the enthusiasm dropped a bit towards the end. We could see him fidgeting through ideas in lingering pauses, and testing the crowd with different gags. However, it was a funny act and the audience was greatly amused. And overall, Peters proved to be one of the wittier and sharper comedians ever to grace Bangkok.

 
Notoriously funny

We had a chat with Peters before the show.

How was your last trip to Bangkok?
I played here years ago for a small audience and I had a really good time. I’ve only been here a day and I love it.

How did you discover your talent?
I was 19 and didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I was lucky that my parents never pushed me to enter one of the usual Indian professions – medicine, engineering or accountancy. I was joking around at my cousin’s house and he suggested, “Hey, why don’t you try stand-up?” And that was that.  I did an open mic night at Yuk Yuk’s and played for about five people. I was terrible, but I got a few chuckles and that was it for me.

Do your jokes ever offend anyone?
I don’t set out to offend anyone. But I generally believe that if someone’s offended by something that I’ve said, it’s because they’re dealing with their own issues. It usually has nothing to do with me – it’s about the person who got offended and things that they’re dealing with.

How do the Indians take your jokes?
I’ve done a few tours of India and the fans seem to have enjoyed themselves. When I first performed there, I was worried that they wouldn’t get all my references – but they were great and got everything. The people who are my fans in India are generally ‘western thinking’ and tuned into what’s happening in western pop culture.

Where are you touring next?
We started the Notorious World Tour in Muscat, Oman back in the middle of March and then I played Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. This tour will be going well into 2013.