Blog

On January 27th, I'll be releasing my new DVD/CD, 'Red, White and Brown' on Comedy Central DVD across the United States. Red, White and Brown is a very personal project for me – I produced, financed it and made sure that we added as much stuff as we possibly could, including an extended version of the Showtime broadcast, plus some of the stuff we’ve left up on Youtube, like the Guyanese ‘Big Skin Girl’, New York Italians aka ‘Costco’ and the Support Our Troops material as well as commentaries and all kinds of extras.

Just so you know, when ‘Outsourced’ was released, they didn’t do a great job in getting it to the retailers in the US – I got complaints from fans that they couldn’t find it anywhere. Because there wasn’t a strong sales story, Comedy Central DVD really had to push the buyers to take Red, White and Brown and get it on their shelves. It’s not easy, especially considering the current economy… You’ll be able to find Red, White and Brown at Best Buy, FYE, Suncoast and Virgin.

I’m happy to tell you that we sold over 75,000 copies across Canada since it was released at the end of September.

I hope that you'll go out and buy Red, White and Brown when it comes out in the States, so that I can keep putting out new material and new programs for you.

In the UK, Red, White and Brown will be released on February 9^th, 2009 and will be available at HMV, Fopp and possibly Borders.

O2 Arena

We’re opening up new seats at the O2 this week, so if you didn’t get your tickets, now’s your chance. This will be my biggest show outside of North America, ever and I really need to thank everyone in England who bought tickets for this show. You know what’s funny about this show and selling out the O2, is that the mainstream media in the UK still hasn’t caught onto to what I’m doing.

This show – and everything else I do - is a success because of the fans and nobody else.

Gigs

This year I’m doing a lot of club dates across the US. The reason I’m doing clubs and not theatres or arenas, is because I’m working on all new material. This takes time. I hope you’ll come out and check it out while I’m working out on the road.

The 20^th Anniversary Tour

This year’s Canadian tour and the O2 date are part of my 20^th Anniversary Tour. This tour contains a lot of your favourites and mine that I’m ‘remixing’ in new ways. They say that no joke is ever complete and I agree. When I look back at my old material now, I see what I would have changed or done to make them better – that’s exactly what I’m working on right now.

Peace!
Russell

PS. This picture was taken at the Oberoi Grand in Bombay (Mumbai), on October 27th, 2008 - exactly one month to the day before the attacks on Mumbai.

Back from Sweden on Tuesday night… great audiences. Adrian Grenier (Vinny Chase from Entourage) came to the show in Stockholm. That was pretty cool. The audiences loved Ang (my friend Angelo Tsarouchas) too.

On Wednesday there was an autograph session for Red, White and Brown in B-Town (Brampton) at ‘the City Centre’. Almost 600 people showed up and I finished signing the last autograph at 11PM.

Went on-sale in London for my Valentine’s day show at the O2 Arena yesterday (Wednesday) and somehow we sold 9000 tickets in one day! I couldn’t believe it. We sold another 1200 tickets today… Never, ever expected to sell that many tickets so quickly in London! Thanks England!

My new DVD came out across Canada on Tuesday. I’ve heard that it’s moving really well. I’m pretty happy about that, especially since I paid for it this time…

The US release date is now… get this: January 27^th… way later than I was expecting. Anyway, look for it on Comedy Central DVD on January 27^th…

Back to LA this weekend after MIT and then San Diego, then India, The Philippines and Singapore…

Hope you’ll check out Russell Peters & Friends at The Comedy Festival in Vegas on November 21^st. I’ll have my good friends Tom Segura, Nick Thune and the legendary Dom Irrera.

Peace!

Got back from Australia on Friday night.  The Russell Peters & Friends Tour was fantastic.  Ahmed Ahmed and Jo Koy did a great job.  When we landed back in LA they told me that they were going to be suffering from 'post-tour' depression.  Over 22,500 Australian fans came out to see the shows.  The Australian fans have really been good to me over the past few years and they really enjoyed this tour.

I'm back in Vegas now.  This is where I go to chill-out.  I'm going to be jet-lagged for at least a week or so.  It usually hits you a few days after you get back.

February was a crazy month: February 2nd - Madison Square Garden, where I recorded my new live DVD / CD.  We're in post-production on it right now.  February 15th - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  Jay was way cool with me.  He talked to me quite a bit during sound-check.  Since Jay has always been a stand-up, he was really supportive.  That was my first time on the show, so it was a pretty big deal for me.  I think if I'd done it earlier in my career, I might have been way more nervous about it.  February 16th - Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles.  We had over 6,600 people come out to that show (the second highest attendance record at the venue - George Lopez was the highest with 6,800 for one of his New Year's Eve shows).  February 21st - Sydney Opera House, Sydney Australia.  This was the first show of the Australian tour and it was great.  The show was sold-out and we had a good time.  This was also the first time I played that venue.  Pretty cool.

Coming up this month, I'm hosting a new show for Showtime called 'The Comedy Slam'.  We're taping the first few episodes this Sunday, March 16th in Los Angeles.  Basically, it's me hosting and the show will feature two stand-up comics who will also perform.  Should be fun.

The next thing up for me is to head to Calgary for the Juno Awards that I'll be hosting on April 6th.  (The Junos are the Canadian Grammys).  I have to admit that I've never actually watched the Junos before, so this should be interesting.

On April 5th, I'm going to leave Calgary for one day and fly to Montreal to host 'Comedians for Climate Project-Canada'.  This is a fundraising event to help get the 'Climate Project-Canada' up and running.  The Climate Project-Canada is the Canadian arm of the The Climate Project, which was started by former Vice-President, Al Gore.  The show features a few friends of mine - Angelo Tsarouchas, who you would have seen on 'Outsourced' and a lot of different movies, Derek Seguin is a very funny French-Canadian comic.  My boy Jean Paul is also on the show, as is Mark Critch from 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes' and my boy George Strompoulopoulos is also going to be on the show as a special guest.  Frazer Smith from 'The George Lopez Show' will also be on the show.  Should be a great show.  As soon as the show's over I'm flying back to Calgary to get some sleep before I host the Junos.  Oh yeah, Al Gore will be the guest of honour at the Comedians For Climate Project-Canada as well.  Neat huh?

Well guys, I gotta' go get some sleep.  Last night I had breakfast at 7:30 PM.  Need to get back on a normal schedule...

RP

Hey everyone I just want to thank everybody that came
out and supported my little mini "Club Tour" for the
month of January! Thank you San Jose, Tempe, and Miami
for letting me come there and get myself ready for my
Madison Square Garden shows this upcoming weekend.
Generally I don't get the chance to play the smaller
venues like the Improv... not because they don't want
me but because I usually do theaters. I love getting
back in the Comedy Clubs though, as it takes me back
to my "Roots"!  Tickets are still available for Friday
Feb.1st @ Madison Square Garden I hope to see you
there... Let's make history together!!!

December 31^{st -} Back in Vegas!

I’ve been off the road for the past few weeks – probably the longest that I haven’t been on-tour in the last two years. Next weekend I’ll be in San Jose. I heard that the shows are all sold-out, so we just added another show to Sunday night (January 13^th) at 9:00PM.

Going to be on the road all of January getting ready for the MSG show. I’m recording that show for my next DVD/CD. This time we’re doing all of the work ourselves – producing, directing and production. I’m really hyped about the MSG show.

I’m working on a bunch of new material for MSG as well as 2008.

Right now I’m reading Steve Martin’s new book, “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life”. This book is great. It really articulates what I’ve been saying for a long time (but not quite as clearly as Steve Martin does) about what it’s like to be on-stage as a stand-up:

“I did stand-up comedy for eighteen years.”
(the exact same amount of time that I’ve been doing it)
“My most persistent memory of stand up is of my mouth being in the present and my mind being in the future: the mouth speaking the line, the boy delivering the gesture, while the mind looks back, observing, analyzing, judging, worrying, and then deciding when and what to say next. Enjoyment while performing was rare…”

This is the best description of what it’s like when I’m performing. Thank you to Steve Martin for putting it so clearly.

Happy New Year to everybody and thank you for all of your support this past year – here’s to seeing you somewhere in the world in 2008!

RP

Hey everyone welcome to my NEW and IMPROVED site!  It's taken a long time to get this thing running but it's finally here! I look forward to Blogging here as I may have neglected to do so in the past... So enjoy and please feel free to comment, question and inquire! 

RP