Russell Peters the Canadian stand up comedian of Indian origin was in India and Bangalore for his first time to perform. I recollect the mention of Russel's show in Bangalore brought a smile to my face. The numerous nights we spent laughing till were in tears over a video of is show that was floating around the internet!!! His piece "sum buddy is gonna get hurt rrreal baadd” still makes me laugh. I was damn sure I didn't want to miss this one!

Russell has been doing standup comedy for the last 17 years. He is based in LA and is of Angle-Indian roots. His parents hail from Bombay and Calcutta. Russel and his team have under unconvential marketing techniques to gain visibility. They have used a massive word of mouth campaign to gain visibility bypassing mainstream media channels to propagate the Russel brand. Tickets for his shows typically sell out in 48 hours around the world and Bangalore was no different. His recent comedy "Outsourced" is extremely popular worldwide.

Russel admitted on stage in Bangalore that he was quite nervous of his Indian tour. He said he wasnt sure if the audience would react to his style of comedy and how he would be received.

The hall was full and the event was well organised with ushers guiding visitors to their seats. A bouncer / body guard was present for Russel's safety. There was firm warning against use of recording devices. The audience was informed that any violators would be evicted from the show!!!
 
The show was started by a comedian of American origin who set the tone for the evening with his fast moving sometimes electrifying quick quips and takes on popular Hollywoord flicks. This guy was so full of energy that was infectious. He got the audience in their groove and they responded by responding from time to time. Some of his takes included Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible. He did a great job of doing a Tom Cruise in Mission Possible. It was surreal! Makes me wonder if all professional comedian send in someone first to set the stage and get a pulse of the audience before they come on....

Enter Russel! WIth all the applause!!!

The chap look so fresh for someone who had just travelled some distance to get here. He got down to the act of getting the audience engaged. His usual targets were a sampling of the audience with various racial backgrounds. He was smooth in reaching out to them and relating to them. He engaged some Swedes, locals and others in the audience. His quick one liners were quite humourous and they were able to relate to him quickly. He had a great start and the audience responsed really well for a large part of the show.

Somewhere past midway Russell seemed to run out of ideas and had to resort to some explicit humor, that I thought was brought it because sex has universal appeal and that a little over grossness does bring some applause in an audience that is large not used to discussing sex very openly except of course the younger generation. The audience had folks from varied age groups and this didnt seems to go down well with many of them albiet the youth. I could hear some frown around me and some perplexed middle aged folks who diddnt know whow to react escpecially during Russel's "dick-n-the-mike" antics. It is a different matter I was laughing like crazy!!!

A little of everything is always a good mix especially when it is in good humor. But I left with the  Vintage Russell was not on nshow that evening and that this being one of his first with a very different audience left him scrounging for some creative ideas. Guess Russell needs more tours to this part of the world to get him into the "act".