The topic must have given you a little bit of an idea about what beans am I going to spill today. Last Saturday, 14th of February I went to see Russell Peters live in concert. I am huge fan of Russell Peters and couldn’t hold my horses when I got to know he was coming to the city. The tickets were booked then and there. I had never seen him live this was the first time I was going to see him live in action, though I have seen all the videos of his performance available om YouTube.
I love his acts and comic timing. He is creative. He is spontaneous. He has this prodigy of taking out humor from everything. I absolutely adore him. If you haven’t seen any of his performances yet it is high time you hit YouTube.
We arrived at the venue Expocentre Noida well in time because I didn’t want to miss even a bit of the show. There was a lot of rush, people were pouring out from every possible directions. I didn’t expect this much of crowd but it was well in proportion with his popularity. There was an opening act of 30 minutes performed by some upcoming comedian which was funny but I was there for Russell Peters so I wanted it to end it real soon so that the real deal can start.
It was time and Russell Peters arrived on the stage. Right from that moment there wasn’t a single word from his mouth which didn’t leave people laughing their asses off. He made fun of absolutely everything that you can think of, starting with the location of the event he sprawled over every aspect of India and trust me it was downright hilarious. There were jokes cracked on the profession, color, races, relationships and everything that crosses your head. He has this unique ability to make you laugh with his witty statements and actions on stage. He would even do funny moves to support his incidents and that is the moment when you wish you hadn’t had a stomach because it would ache so much out of laughter.
After a great show we were heading back home and on the way back we discussed many of his punches and laughed again. Another thought that crossed my mind was how was this show any different than the AIB Roast which happened recently. If you compare, both the shows were based on the same concept. Make fun of people and make them laugh. If I now see I would say AIB Roast had still some level of sophistication whereas Russell Peters was just the same without any filters. There wasn’t a single line which didn’t involve abuses, just that it was all in English not in our mother tongue. It was organized in an open area just like AIB was, AIB was still decent enough to call up a panel and make fun of those selected people only however Russell Peters was brutal enough to pick random people from the crowd and shred them like never before.
It has been 5 days since the show, I don’t hear any controversy for the Russell Peters show. Such a level of hypocrisy makes me laugh and sad at the same time. Laugh because we embrace the west in every context but just cannot keep up with the fact that we can be equally good, sad because there are way more people to discourage you, slander you than to appreciate your efforts.
I am huge fan of Russell Peters as well as AIB. Being an Indian I would like to see AIB reaching the heights and popularity just like Russell. Promoting the same thing if it comes from the west and derogating it if it comes from us is not fair. Just because AIB involved some celebrities, the roast was blown out of propotion and made a huge hullaballo about it. I have written on this issue previously as well you can read my views here. I hope I have strengthen my point with this comparision. What do you think about the AIB controversy, was it really worth or just a publicity stunt ?
It’s just because things get complicated when Bollywood celebrities enter. Fan following. Russell Peter’s is not that famous like Ranveer Singh or Arjun Kapoor in India.
That said I used to watch Russell Peter’s a lot. He is funny.
That again brings down to the same thing, popularity and publicity. What makes me sad is that a bunch of creative Indian guys who are trying to make their marks are being targeted for nothing.
No matter what, Russell Peters is considered a foreigner though an NRI? And you should see the amount of BS that goes on outside India. No one cares what they do. That’s a whole different story.
I believe that AIB roast had an issue only cos of those stars attending it. If it was only those five of them roasting each other everything would have been OK.
It’s not about hypocrisy but about the celebrity culture in different countries. In India, we not only love our celebrities but respect them too. Therefore the issue aggravated because it involved some big names using a language that is not openly accepted. It’s not that AIB has never made an abusive video….I follow them and love their videos..and all their videos are filled with cuss words and abusive jokes. That has worked for them too. But we Indians expect some humility from people we consider as stars. There would have been no issue if the people on stage were KRK or Rakhi Sawant. People don’t consider them as icons. DO you think Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikant etc. would have reached to their current godly positions if they behaved irrationally or abused in public.
An extension to this argument would be: there wouldn’t have been such a huge furore if this was a private video. If Karan, Ranveer and Arjun would be at the AIB office, cracking these exact jokes and a video was taken and leaked online…it would have been a covert viral mms..but not such a huge issue. People accept that humans abuse privately. But in a public event where people have paid tickets….it was something new and struck really hard. If they do this in movies they have a reason that the script demanded that. But this was their true self.
The Indian comic scene is growing and their are many rising Indian comedians that crack hilarious jokes and use abusive words. They charge tickets and are having full houses. They have their liberty and people expect that from them. But coming from a movie director who is known for his ‘Indian values films’..it was a shocker. People always resist change.
When I said hypocrisy I was referring to a leading actor who has made a huge wave by his sophisticated response. He is the same actor who advocated the song “Bosdike” saying it is a youth’s movie and this is how today’s youth converse each other. So it was right when it was in your movie and about youth but it is wrong when it is about someone else.
Having said that I agree that the celebrity culture in India is different, we not only follow them but we worship them. They are not here just to entertain us but also we look up to them for certain moral and responsibility. But my only concern here is, did this even deserve so much of attention and media coverage as it has enjoyed ?
hmmmm I think you might have hit the nail by saying it was in english and AIB was in hindi which was felt more SLEAZY.. and now that i think i can see myself nod that in english it does not sound that filthy as it sounded in hindi.
But as i mentioned being a celebrity comes with responsibility and they need to respect that .. in india it is idol worship and people follow without thinking so they need to make sure of what they d o…