Having to pay a hefty fee to park in Downtown Vancouver is not very appealing. However, I didn’t mind forking over those bucks on top of the ticket price to see a sold out Russell Peters show. We caught the performance last night (Thursday) at the Orpheum. Despite the fact that we got to the venue on time, the show did not start on time. There was about a 20 minute delay before things got underway.

The first opening act was Frasier Smith, and I must admit, his jokes on the Americans brought tears to my eyes as he went from mocking George Bush to imitating Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was followed by Danny Quinn and I think he was my least favorite act of the whole show. In my view anyways, he was trying too hard to be funny. What’s more, he was yelling into the microphone more than speaking into it. To round it off, Danny looked angry and just a little bit uptight. Eventually, the guy that I paid a whopping 70 dollars to see showed up…….. RUSSELL PETERS!!!!!!!!

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The audience erupted in a thunderous cheer as Peters strolled onto the stage and from that point on, there was never a dull moment as the stand-up comic did what does best…be racist. There were a few Asians sitting in the front row, and Russell just picked on them all night, using his limited Chinese and nicknaming one of the audience members as ” Fay Lo” (meaning “fat man”). On top of that, there were other ethnicities that he made fun of including Italians, East Indians, Jews, and Egyptians.

One thing that I will never forget — it made me laugh till my sides hurt — was the level of comfort that Russell had with his, er, body parts. He was making reference to his “manhood” left and right, openly talking about the male organ with ease. What is even funnier is the fact that he “animated” his words by throwing in some body motions. *ahem*

I hope there weren’t any handicapped people chasing after Russell after the show. He tried to make them feel included by cracking several “handicap” jokes! According to Russell, the sign language gesture for “Asian” is to pull at the outer corner of your eyelid horizontally so that your eye is super squinty. Similar gestures are used to represent other ethnic groups, like a large nose for Jews, a poncho for Mexicans, and a dot on the forehead for East Indians.

Russell Peters will make fun of literally anything that you can think of, and those issues that you think are not “meant to be made fun of”, he will actually turn it into a joke. To me, that doesn’t mean he’s an insensitive guy; he’s just trying to lighten up every one’s mood and viewpoint by cracking a few jokes. On top of that, he makes his living making fun of other people. Now, if people are mad at him and find his shows offensive, then why would he have 3 straight sold out shows? [Editors Note: He recently added a fourth show at 10pm on Saturday] Or why would he be so famous and well known around the world? The fellow is just light spirit and all he wants is to give everyone something to laugh about. Lighten up!

It definitely was worth my 70 bucks to see Russell Peters and I definitely would go see him again the next time he’s in town!

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More information on the Russell Peters Homecoming Tour can be found on the official Russell Peters website. There are two more shows in Vancouver, both of which will be on Saturday, June the 23rd. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.ca.

This post was guest blogged by Maggie Yau, an alumnus of the University of British Columbia. She is currently training to become a Medical Lab Assistant at Vancouver Community College.