Russell Peters listens to the legends.
His comedy career was just wobbling to a newborn standstill when he encountered one of the all-time greats. George Carlin gave him some career advice, Peters heeded it, and in a matter of only a few years he had gone from reinvented suburban record deejay to international superstar of the stage.
Peters is indisputably one of the world's most successful standup comics, with sellouts from Air Canada Centre in hometown Toronto to Madison Square Garden in New York City to O2 Arena in London.
It makes a gig in Prince George seem a little off-course, but Peters told The Citizen that in Canada he likes to mix the markets, and it was Prince George's turn.
"What better place to be than Prince George, Alberta," he said, chuckling.
You laugh, I said, but I've been there to hear a star performer walk on our local stage and proclaim "Hello Medicine Hat" to the uncharmed audience.
Peters moved the phone a little from his mouth and barked to some fictitious helper in the background.
"Get me booked in Medicine Hat immediately. Me and Prince George have a score to settle," he said.
I asked him if this was turning into new material. He said he did not block of composition time to come up with new material.
"This is how I write," he said of the directionless banter. "It just falls off the trees. Jokes hit me on the head like falling coconuts - jokonuts, if you will."
It's a simplification for sure. His best-selling shows like Outsourced, Notorious, Almost Famous, The Green Card Tour and mega-seller Red White & Brown certainly take careful crafting and plenty of rehearsal.
It doesn't fall far from the aforementioned palm tree, though, in that it's all rooted in Peters' own life. Nothing seems sacred, behind his closed personal doors. He pokes fun at his family, he pokes fun at his own ethnicity as an Indo-Canadian, and then extrapolates out to pull the legs of every colour and creed on the planet.
I told him of Prince George comedian Jon White's personal rule about never making fun of traits that can't be changed, so no grinding on someone's nationality or sexual identity or physical traits. But haircuts? Clothes? Political views? Religion?
"Religion you sorta can, because you can always change that, if you wanted to," Peters jumped in. "And I have gay friends I make fun of, but in a loving way. Because you know what it is? It's about the intent. The thing is, if you read a transcript of my act you would say 'this man is a horrible human being' but it's about the tones and the inflections and the intent in the words. But if you just read the words you'd say 'this guy is a piece of human garbage.'"
That's the art of comic delivery. It's about where your personal power is placed when you pull the trigger on punchlines. Sometimes it comes out badly. Peters was lambasted for an off-the-cuff remark he made while hosting the Juno Awards broadcast one year. But he's been applauded for demonstrating how an ethnic or gender joke can actually be made, keeping in mind it doesn't minimize or degrade.
That's why he gets phone calls from the likes of Dan Akroyd to be his co-host in a vignette promoting the Bloody Caesar as Canada's official cocktail, or the audition he won to co-host the children's comedy show A Little Help With Carol Burnett that's running now on Netflix.
"You're conscious that you don't want to take away from (comedy legend Burnett), but you're also conscious that 'you really think you're going to take away from her?' It's an adjustment because you want to do your best but you don't want to look like you're trying to outshine anybody, and I want to be respectful, and then you find your ground, and it works," he said, practically babbling over the chance to work with such a performing arts icon. "She's really amazing, she encourages you to do well, she wants you to do well, she wants everyone to laugh. And that made it so much easier."
Calming the nerves of performing with Burnett was one challenge, but the show also stars a panel of children offering life advice to the adults on stage, all in front of a studio audience.
"I'm a father so it wasn't that difficult for me. I speak child, and I'm immature to begin with so I wasn't that far ahead of them from the jump," he said.
Some other legends he got to recently work with were Anupam Kher and William Shatner on the unique television creation The Indian Detective with Peters in the lead role. Broadcaster CTV did not renew the acclaimed show for a second season, but Peters said he harboured hopes that it could be revived. He and the cast were excited and proud about that project's future.
His various projects also include the docu-series Hip Hop Evolution. His role in that project was executive producer, as he mapped out the rise of his first stage love, music, and hiphop in specific. The show called together artists like Ice-T, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane but also spotlighted some Canadian talent in the mix. The entire series was hosted by popular Canuck MC and broadcaster Shad.
It all goes to show that Peters built an international career out of the Canadian suburbs by paying attention and paying respect to legends of the performing arts. He centred the creation and sustainability of his career on an affinity for people, and none more so than his audience.
Peters performs at CN Centre on Monday night. Get tickets at the box office or online anytime from the TicketsNorth website.
