We almost had a shot last year at having South Asian characters in a prominent role on network television…but it fell through. According to reports, Russell Peters has just inked a deal to have his own sitcom on a major American network. The Canoe Network reports:
For a guy who’s just inked a deal to star in his own sitcom for a major American network, comedian Russell Peters is remarkably calm.“I just signed the deal with Warner Bros. this week. They want to build a show around me,” Peters says over the phone from Los Angeles. “I’m working with the guys who produced The Cosby Show and In Living Colour, so it’s pretty cool. I guess I’ll be shopping for real estate in L.A.”
While it’s too early to say precisely what the series is about, the 35-year-old knows his East-Indian roots will play a big part of the comedy.
“My heritage is a big part of my comedy,” he says bluntly. “Frankly, I’m open to it. As long as they don’t make me the 7-11 guy or the taxi driver.”
Now I was hesitant to post this story. It seems that more people find our website by searching for “Russell Peters” than by any other means. That is very irksome. It will be interesting to see how the American network executives change his act. Peters often borders on racial insensitivity. Having seen his act, although I found him generally funny, I did cringe a few times.
unsurprisingly – he’s canadian – damn – I’m so chuffed – I’ll go run 20+ – whootwhoot
This looks good, but there is one thing I am afraid of, non Indians aren’t the only ones who stereotype us, we also stereotype ourselves without realizing it. For example in Russel’s act, he once talks about his father not knowing what Kunali(vagina) was. The way he described it makes his father seem like a loser and creates another stereotype that indians are not ”with-it” and do not follow other slang, and make a fool of themselves when they try to. Let’s see how it turns out. And for all you mutiny fans, check out my blog at http://www.raghavsuri.blogspot.com and you can call me at
He’s okay. Maybe a little too reliant on the whole e-indian thing, but I think he has improved somewhat from when I saw him on Just for Laughs a few years ago. At that point I was annoyed by him, and my opinion was that he pulled out an e-indian accent to be funny – the predominately white crowd will always laugh at that, even if you say something completely morbid…. aargh… As a closet comedian (I keep a notebook of jokes which makes me a closet nerd as well), I was not impressed. I mean there’s so much more out there to laugh about other than your parents.
But, like I said, he has improved, and I’ve found myself letting out a few chuckles as of late (re: Canadian w/ Indian heritage vacations in Italy, mistaken for Italian, continues to pretend to be Italian and understand Italian b/c “it’s cool”, Italians shocked he is really “Indian”).
Anyways, I hope his attire on his new show will consist of more than the usual track-suit he wears. Because he is NOT Russel Athletic. heh heh….
Ouch. Don’t worry, I’m keeping my day job!
He presented a desi show on the BBC a couple of years back and I thought he was hilarious.
the only consolation about peters is that he doesn’t solely depend on mocking indians for his act…he manages to slam pretty much every race as well. if you’re thick-skinned enough to laugh at jokes directed at your own race without being too sensitive about it i guess he’s alright…and he’s definitely funny, no doubt.