Entertainment

Photo: Contributed

The biggest name in stand-up comedy over the past decade will be right here in Kelowna tonight as part of his Canada wide tour from St. John’s to Victoria – Russell Peters.  A fan favourite, no matter the demographic, Russell Peters has done what many comedians couldn’t over the years;  make ALMOST EVERYONE like him and his jokes.  As a comedian myself I know how hard this is to do and I have accepted the fact that I will have fans and haters but as Russell Peters has proven on YouTube with over 60 million views, there are not a whole lot of people out there that don’t find him funny!  Peters has over half a million fans on Facebook and holds the record for the largest indoor show at the largest comedy festival in the world, Just For Laughs, where he sold over 11 000 tickets. 

I remember about ten years ago hearing about this Russell Peters comedian when I was just an amateur comic in the downtown Toronto comedy scene, struggling to get on stage even once a week.  From what I was hearing around the clubs from the comedians I looked up to was that it seemed inevitable he would be a star.  From what I can remember, it all started with his Comedy Now! special he filmed in Toronto for CTV which is the most viewed Comedy Now! ever.  To this day Canadian comedians strive to get their own Comedy Now! special in hopes they can have the same success Russell Peters did. 

Now, Peters is on top of the comedy world appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Comedy Central, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Lopez Tonight, Showtime, HBO, MTV and many more.  He is also a bestselling author with is book Call Me Russell released in October 2010 and is now taking to the big screen where he recently appeared in the film Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal. 

On top of all this he is still doing what made him famous in the first place, stand-up comedy, and doing it better than anyone (in my opinion).  Few comedians have as many sell-out shows as Russell Peters and none of them have as many in such large venues like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall (twice), The Nokia Theatre Los Angeles (twice), Sydney Opera House, The Hammersmith Apollo (four times) and London’s O2 Arena. 

Tonight Peters can add Prospera Place to his list of sell-outs as it will be another full house of adoring fans that will no doubt get their monies worth!  I am jealous of you all and would love to hear reviews of the show, just email them to Rob@castanet.net along with any pictures you may have!